“The start of freedom is the conclusion that you’re not the thinker.”
– Eckhart Tolle
Many people undergo life believing that our ideas are who we’re. Pondering is so acquainted to us, a lot a part of our moment-to-moment actuality, that we will’t think about who or what we might be with out it.
In fact, we want considering as a way to navigate our lives. Reflective ideas allow us to be taught from our experiences and hopefully make wiser selections transferring forwards. Serious about the longer term means we will plan the lives we want to stay. As a species, our skill to suppose creatively has allowed us to extend our consolation, enhance our life expectancy and style every part from skyscrapers to silicon chips.
However what occurs once we are overtaken by ideas that appear to be working towards us? What occurs when the identical ideas loop spherical in our minds on repeat and we really feel powerless to cease them? What can we do when our ideas are telling us that we’re nugatory, unlovable, destined to fail, and even that the world could be a greater place with out us?
The Secret Self
I struggled with my very own considering patterns lots in my 20’s. I used to be my very own worst critic, believing I used to be not ok, not sensible sufficient, not attention-grabbing sufficient for the world round me. Inconsequential issues would lodge themselves in my head and refuse to go away me alone. I did what I may to flee them however even when I discovered a short lived reprieve they have been destined to bounce again extra aggressively sooner or later.
At occasions my ideas might be darkish, random and even disturbing. As a result of I believed I used to be my ideas, it adopted that I have to be a nasty particular person.
Not desirous to let anybody in on this secret self, I tried to include it and pretend normality. I attempted to be good on the surface and simply hoped that nobody would discover in any other case. Evidently this was a lonely and imprisoning expertise.
Awakening The Witness
I keep in mind the primary time I attempted meditation in my 20’s. It didn’t really feel in any respect useful. The truth is it felt like being in confinement with my worst ideas. The expertise solely added to my feeling that there was one thing unsuitable with me. How come meditation may work for different individuals however solely made issues worse for me? What was I lacking?
It wasn’t till I got here throughout The Energy of Now by Eckhart Tolle that I skilled the flexibility to step again from my ideas and observe them. Right here is an train from the e book that stays in my thoughts:
“Attempt a bit experiment. Shut your eyes and say to your self: “I ponder what my subsequent thought goes to be.” Then turn out to be very alert and watch for the subsequent thought. Be like a cat watching a mouse gap. What thought goes to come back out of the mouse gap? Attempt it now.”
In ready for the subsequent thought to come back, I discovered {that a} hole opened up in my thoughts. On this hole there have been no ideas and but there was one thing alive that felt like me. It was peaceable, spacious and clear. By working towards the workouts within the e book, I continued to entry this inconsiderate place. With time, I discovered I may shift into it extra readily, while not having to do something specifically.
What I had come throughout in The Energy of Now was ‘the witness’ – the a part of us that sits past the ideas, is ready to observe them and know it isn’t them. It was life-changing for me as a result of I now knew I used to be one thing greater than my considering thoughts.
The Energy To Select
As I practiced extra yoga, I found that the idea of the witness (Sakshi) is central to yoga. The witness permits us to look at not solely ideas however bodily sensations and feelings too. We uncover from this observing place that ideas, sensations and feelings come and go while the witness is all the time there, unchanging. The analogy that’s typically used for it is a clear open sky (the witness) with clouds passing by it (ideas and sensations).
There are a lot of ways in which yoga helps us to entry this witnessing capability. Whether or not we’re meditating or transferring by our asana follow, focusing our consideration on a specific object such because the breath makes it simpler to note when our thoughts wanders and ideas come up. The extra we get used to doing this on our mats, the extra it turns into pure in our on a regular basis lives.
Over time, we begin to discover our routine patterns of considering and discover now we have a selection as to how we have interaction with them. We’d, for instance, select to problem self-criticism by reminding ourselves of our constructive qualities. Different ideas we would observe however permit them to simply move on by. And once we discover the sort of ideas that help the imaginative and prescient now we have for lives, we will select to interact with them and act upon them.
This act of witnessing our ideas additionally helps us to vary our behaviour. So if I’ve determined I don’t wish to drink alcohol each evening, somewhat than simply going together with the voice that claims ‘it’s the tip of an extended day, you deserve it’, I can observe this as a thought that’s not serving my greatest pursuits. Then I’ve some area to weigh up my determination – do I really wish to have a drink tonight or may I make a unique selection?
The witness offers us the reward of the hole; the area wherein selection turns into doable.
Gateway To Freedom
The vital factor about witnessing is that we’re not making an attempt to push something away. Darkish ideas might come up and we discover them however we be taught to not react to them. We uncover that simply because the sky can accommodate a myriad of clouds, we will make area for a complete vary of ideas.
The truth is, tough ideas may even turn out to be a present.
It’s simple to be complacent with a steady stream of ideas when they’re principally peaceable and nice, however when our ideas begin to bother us, it might remind us to take a step again from them.
In stepping again, we launch ourselves from the constraints of the considering thoughts – the assumption we’re trapped, separate and alone. We discover a gateway to our true nature which is expansive, peaceable and free.
Within the phrases of the late non secular trainer Ram Dass:
“Ultimately, floating in that subjective consciousness, the objects of consciousness dissolve, and you’ll come into the non secular Self, the Atmān, which is pure consciousness, pleasure, compassion, the One.”
– Ram Dass
Placing It Into Follow
Listed below are just a few concepts for accessing the witness:
- Take your consciousness to your breath because it strikes out and in of your nostrils. Really feel the feeling and temperature of every breath. When a thought pops up, discover it and return to the feeling of the breath. Discover your skill to note the ideas
- Attempt free-flow writing. Write three A4 sides of no matter goes by your thoughts, with out judging, analyzing or stopping. When the ideas are on paper, it creates a way of separation from them and it’s simpler to see that they aren’t us. (This system is taken from Julia Cameron’s e book The Artist’s Means. She recommends doing it very first thing within the morning and it’s subsequently referred to as Morning Pages.)
- Follow witnessing sensations in your physique, each throughout your yoga follow and all through the day. Let go of the labels (‘my achey hip’, ‘my indigestion’) and produce a way of curiosity to the feeling. Discover the a part of you that’s doing the noticing and see if you happen to can relaxation in it for a time.
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