You are not your thoughts.
Inertia — Nº154
Unbidden thoughts, they won’t go away. A never-ending stream of commentary, judgements, scenarios, and reminders that rush around our heads.
We tend to be consumed by currents of our own mental chatter. It can feel incessant. Demanding. Sometimes deafening. But the real problem is we end up identifying with it so completely that we lose sight of our true nature as the awareness, not the owner, behind those thoughts.
Think of it this way: it’s not hard to think that the nature of how our mind establishes some sort of permanent selfhood that tells us who we are. But we are not our thoughts, no more than we are the clouds drifting across the sky above us. Rather, we are the vast open space where they appear and disappear. Thoughts may captivate you for a time, but they never define your being. They arise in consciousness, but consciousness itself is something greater and more fundamental than the fleeting turbulence happening in it.
When we’re unaware of this distinction, we’re under what can feel like self-inflicted suffering. It grants our thoughts the authority they were never meant to have, treating their narratives as inviolable truths. Too much belief in the solidarity of our thinking can plunge us into the dark, weighed down by the psychic pressure we put on ourselves and unintentionally keeping us stuck in our heads.
However, the path out of this trance of psychological identification is as ancient as the human contemplation of consciousness itself. With practice, either by meditation, introspection, or deep breathing, you can observe the thoughts from a place of stillness. You disentangle the sense of self from habitual thought patterns, far away from the noise, and realise that you are not behind, and you learn how to try — which is the key to most things. You also recognise your thoughts as transient patterns of energy rather than the ultimate truth or pithy statements that trip you up for no good reason. This is why it’s easier for thoughts to lose their weight when you view them from a vantage point. The step back gets you out of your mind and helps you not to worry.
From there, you have more choice about where to place your attention. Rather than compulsively following every thought stream, you can let thoughts go without attachment or aversion. You cultivate spatial awareness that allows thoughts to arise and pass away without clinging to them.
This isn’t about forcing your mind to be blank or suppressing thoughts entirely. It’s about shifting your relationship to the thought patterns so you’re no longer blindly mistaking them for something biblical or as a testament to who you are.
It’s hard to show up and try and get out of your head. But in doing so, you realise your essential nature is beyond the endless churning our mind likes to do from time to time. And you on rootedness, peace, and freedom through anything you do. The mind is funny; it’s challenging and humbling. It fluctuates and stands still. It depends on many things, but most importantly, the quality of what it is fed.