Bringing awareness to your thoughts

Have you stopped throughout your day and really listened to the banter that is going on in your head?

Are you aware of what your mental mind is continuously talking about?

The mental mind loves to complain, why would they be doing that and I wonder why they said that and what did they mean when they said that and why aren’t they doing that this way, and why are they wearing that and why are they doing that?

Why do I have to do that and they don’t, it’s not fair, it’s too cold, it’s too hot.

I’m too tired, why won’t anybody listen to me, she’s this, he’s that, I don’t have enough money, I don’t have enough clothes, I don’t have enough things, why can’t I be more like them, the list literally is never ending.

I haven’t even mentioned judgement, criticism, negative self talk.

You get my drift right?

Stop now and focus your attention on your head and what it’s saying, I bet it has a running commentary on everything that you just read, there will be some form of labelling going on and opinion or judgement yes?

We have over 60,000 thoughts a day and we are only aware of 5% of them, and those 5% it is fair today are negative and self limiting in some way –

OMG what is going on with the other 95% of our thoughts and no wonder we are depressed, unhappy, exhausted and constantly seeking that hit of something that will give us a time out, like smart phones, food, alcohol, mindless tv, anything that will somehow chill the constant chatter.

Honesty it makes my head hurt at times my mind can get that busy.

The mind, oh how we love the mind, that two year old child that is constantly wanting our attention, that is constantly trying to distract us, that is always needing to create a story, comment, label, judgment movie novel about anything and everything that is going on around us.

Have you ever had a conversation with someone and you walked away not feeling overly great, you know a small ball of anxiety in the pit of your stomach that makes you think that maybe they weren’t happy with you or that you might have upset them in someway because you just didn’t get the response that you were expecting.

Did you walk away from that encounter and then forget about it?

OF COURSE YOU DIDN’T!!!

This exact situation is like letting your mind child loose in a candy store I bet you it went something like this.

You replayed the conversation over and over in your mind, you relived every word that you said and then every word that they said then you had a running commentary on how was their tone of voice, what were their facial expressions, then you move onto interpreting how they could have interpreted what you had said, and then you try every which way but loose in your head the words that they had said to see if they could fit a different way in your mind and this probably went on and on for days yes?

One of the greatest lessons that I have ever learned from the master of Ego mind duality Mr Echkart Tolle is to bring a conscious awareness to my thoughts.

Conscious meaning awake, aware of instead of being completely oblivious to what is going on inside my head.

So I started to actively pay attention and “listen” to what I was really saying, the judgements that I was making, the stories that I was telling myself and the complaining that I was doing without even realising it.

So each day whenever I would “catch” myself on a story about something I would “stop” and “listen” I would literally just kind of step back from myself and really pay attention to what was going on in my head.

Once I started to pay attention to my thoughts, NOW do not judge yourself for having the thoughts that you are having that is just playing right into the minds hands lol

The idea is to be the observer of what’s going on, and when you notice the story you acknowledge, I say, Oh wow that’s a pretty cool story what else would you like to say about that.

It really did not take long for my mental mind activity to really slow down.

Where once I would have written an Epic novel or have scripted a full movie, I now may only get as far as the first chapter or the first few pages before I catch it, I then acknowledge it sometimes – I might even say “Oh nice work that was a good story” and then it drops away.

It’s impossible to complain about something if you are saying how good it is or how ok you are with it.

EG: Roster comes out for work and Joanne gets three more shifts than you.
Mental mind goes into rampage:
As soon as you catch yourself start saying, you know what I really like Joanne she is such a lovely person and how lucky am I to have work that pays my bills and puts food in my mouth and a roof over my head.

NO room here for mental mind complaining and negativity.

Taking the time to train myself to become more consciously aware of what is going on inside of my head has in all honesty saved my sanity I am sure.

This is not to say that my mind is not still active, it is, but I am aware of it and it does not rule me, I am able to rein it in.

Try this for the next 21 days and just notice how you go, be gentle and kind with yourself, remember story telling is exactly what the mind wants to do and it loves a good drama.

Blessings
Kerryn
xxx,