You Are Not Your Thoughts

You are not your thoughts

If you've never heard that idea before it can seem a bit ridiculous.

The churn of ideas in your head. The chatter. The impulses and emotional waves. It's natural to identify with them. After all, we experience them in a relatively constant stream ~ most of us for as long as we can remember. We're taught along the way that we "are" them by our caregivers, who also experience their thoughts in the same way.

But you're not them.
You're not your emotions either.

Accepting this idea and learning to harness it's power can be the key to making lasting change in yourself, your habits, and your life.
(Which is normally why people follow my stuff so I'm making an assumption about you.)

If you don't believe it yet, consider this:
When you argue with yourself who's listening to the argument?

Why is this such a big deal?

When you accept fully that you are not your thoughts & emotions you can learn to separate yourself from them. Ever had something happen in your life that you can stop thinking about? It feels like torture ~ that your mind goes back over and over to "that thing?" like a broken record?

(My divorce comes to mind. The agonizing months ruminating on the "right" decision.)

If those thoughts and emotions aren't me I can watch them go by like a clown car, detached from any meaning I have given them over the years.

The same is true for our emotional reactions. I grew up in a "passionate" family where riding the wave of your emotions was just "how we are". Breaking that cycle of emotional reactivity allowed me to choose my responses professionally & personally.

It's not always easy

But for the most part it's worth it. This is why mindfulness meditation is such a big deal. It teaches us to observe those thoughts, emotions, and reactions and over time we learn which of these we can control.

Don't take my word for it...

Philosophers, researchers, and thinkers of all kinds have been making this argument for much longer than I've walked the earth.

Buddhist philosophy and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy are both built on it. Fortunately, that means there are a lot of tools to help grow both awareness and control.