You Are Not Your Thoughts
A few years ago I read an article about an experiment that determined that most people would rather give themselves an electric shock than sit alone in a room with nothing but their thoughts for company.
That was hard to wrap my brain around - that we are THAT uncomfortable with sitting quietly with our own brains and no distractions, that we are so addicted to having distractions, that we will voluntarily choose physical pain.
The funny thing is that most of that madness that rolls through our minds isn’t actually US. It’s a product of our programming, our experiences, our habits, and our surroundings. And that it’s ONLY by sitting and looking at it all that we realize the difference. I am not my thoughts. You are not your thoughts. But we wouldn’t touch that shit with a 10 foot pole if it were up to us. We have no tolerance. It’s unbearable at first. (And it continues be be surprisingly uncomfortable the deeper you’re able to go, even after you build up a tolerance. Just yesterday I had a “Whaaaaaaat - THAT was in my head!?” thought come to the front of my mind long enough for me to notice it and get curious. It was definitely a groan moment.)
It’s why we fill every damn moment of our days with other stuff. With to-do lists, with other people, with our phones… (There’s a reason this is coming out on day 2 of my game fast. As it turns out day 2 is harder. I reeeeeeally want to just tune the eff out for an hour and crush some candy. Like a lot.)
Anyway - There are a lot of ways I’ve discovered to build your tolerance for this. Journaling, morning pages, meditation, just about any sustained spiritual practice, breathwork, coaching, and therapy are the ones I can list right off the top of my head. Of course there are more.
And right now I’m being asked by my cosmic team to practice even more presence. Even more being with what I am feeling, what I am thinking, the sensations in the present moment of my physical body. Because presence is the gateway to growth. You’ve got to be able to 'be with' stuff long enough to start learning from it. In order to be able to wipe the grime off of your metaphorical eyeglasses, first you’ve got to be able to notice that it’s there in the first place. The dirt creeps up on you so slowly that you never even notice that it’s there. When you finally clean it you can’t believe the difference and you wonder how in the hell it got this bad without you ever noticing. It’s kind of like that.
Wouldn’t it be worth it?
How are you keeping yourself distracted?
How can you spend as little as three minutes today turning it around?
We all deserve to be able to know ourselves as WHO WE REALLY ARE - which is Love. Light. Power. Creation. Possibility. Joy. Source.
Today I’m adding a little more journaling and meditation to my day.
How about you?