When you realize the magnitude of this, it's quite profound, isn't it?
We tend to believe our thoughts.
We might even carry out a heinous act based on our thoughts. In fact, we think WE ARE our thoughts and emotions.
By saying "I am angry", I am identifying with my emotion.
Although, we wouldn't say this, whether we know it to be true or not, because it would sound ridiculous, a more appropriate description would be "I feel anger arising in my body".
Believing our thoughts causes us to act on them and take them to be 'real'. But if I'm the one that knows the emotion, can I be that which I know?
If you investigate you will see, that You are the knower of the anger, the anger doesn't know you. You know your thoughts, your thoughts don't know you.
Every experience you have is you, the subject, witnessing an object (thoughts, experience, people, your body, a car, food, etc..) You are the sentient, conscious, observer of these objects. As the observer, YOU remain unchanged by your experience, it is the thoughts that change, not you the witness. You, as the witness, never change.
If you can embody this profound truth you will no longer feel limited by your fears and desires.
So this all sounds good but I don't experience this now, so what should I do?
Meditate.
If you can successfully experience yourself free of thought then you will see that the thoughts are objects known to you. You cannot be what you know. When meditating repeat the phrase "I am awareness” and it will be revealed to you. Just try it.
Meditation will reveal who you really are, the awareness that knows the objects. (I will write more on this in another post). You will see that there is nothing missing, and the happiness you’ve been seeking in objects and experience has been right there all along and is YOU.
When you meditate on this over and over you will soon see the benefits. You won’t be emotionally triggered by your thoughts as you were before. Your thoughts and belief patterns will become objects known to you like watching a movie on a screen. You can then begin to evaluate them, are they in harmony with moral laws of the universe (more on this in another post), and my values of peace and happiness? Or am I unwittingly choosing belief patterns that are causing me to suffer?
It makes room for creativity, allowing you to come up with optional ways of viewing any situation. Taking a view that doesn't cause suffering; forgiving, forbearance, tolerance, patience.
By observing my thoughts I realize that they are not me and that 'I" the conscious observer have the power to choose my response to my experience. For many years of my life I didn't know that I could choose what thoughts I should act on (repeating thoughts is also an act). Reflection, or self-inquiry helped me to see that I was making unconscious decisions to believe my thoughts and feel limited by them. Once I knew I could chose a different way of viewing my experience or just completely let go of beliefs, and choose beliefs that were in harmony with my value of leading a peaceful existence, the self-imposed limited thoughts began to disappear. This is what scientist refer to as neuroplasticity (more on this in another blog), the ability to re-shape the neuronal networks in the brain simply by what we do and what we think.
But like anything else this requires practice. Being able to objectify your thoughts won’t come right away unless you already have somewhat of a peaceful existence or have a prayer or meditation practice already.
In my functional medicine practice, I help people identify and fix the root cause to health issues. One of the biggest contributor to lack of health is our subconscious programming. The internal dialogue that we may or may not be aware of. Some of the sickest people are those who were abused, either verbally or physical, sexually molested, or repeatedly told they weren't good enough. When we have these fear based thoughts, we trigger a part of the brain that stimulates the body's stress response. A physical state that results in a catabolic, or breakdown mode, where digestion, the immune system, the reproductive system, etc… are suppressed.
Years and years in this situation results in us aging faster than we should be.
It's a silent killer, because we don't know it's happening and we take the signs like, digestive system problems, pain and inflammation in the body, weight gain, headaches, skin conditions, poor sleep, cognitive decline, and fatigue to be signs of getting old and therefore we don’t address the causes. As the years pass we have another new symptom: an increase in belly fat, insomnia, more fatigue, and eventually disease - cancer, alzheimer’s, dementia, MS, IBS, Crohn's, autoimmune, etc…
When you aren’t so triggered by your thoughts, the thought patterns lose their impact and they will soon dissolve. The stress response won’t be engaged and the body will spend less time in the breakdown mode, allowing room to heal and regenerate and will therefore have more resources for life stressors that are sure to come. This is called resiliency. Studies on people who meditate show that they are more resilient than those that do not.
Here is the link to one study: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12883106
Meditation practices balance and strengthen your nervous system, digestive system, glandular system, and the immune system in a positively glorious ways. Every cell in your body will sing and you will thrive. If you don’t believe me, just try it.
