Observation vs. Condemnation - Grasshopper

If you’re anything like me, you think a lot. But when we’re thinking, we’re not observing and we miss a lot.

Observing and sensing are skills we’ve had since birth; thinking came along much later.

Thinking things over and weighing our options is a productive use of our thinking apparatus. But our thinking runs amok when we use it to cover ourselves with muck with berating thoughts, resulting in feeling like we’ve been run over by a truck.

There is a remedy that provides relief. It’s observation.

We haven’t been trained to observe our thoughts. But we have been conditioned to debate with the thoughts in our head up until the time we’re dead. That’s a lot of angst for one lifetime.

Observation is the act of noticing your mind at work. Just take a moment out of your day and watch your mind at play. As I’ve said many times before, your mind has a mind of its own. That means it’s separate and apart from you. It’s basically a recording device that plays back its greatest hits, and wants to engage you to sing along.

Have you ever won a debate with your mind? No, no you haven’t, but that doesn’t keep you from trying. You keep parrying and fighting and often end up crying.

The remedy is to observe without verve. That means to dispassionately watch your mind at play. Let’s pretend your mind offers you up something like this: “You’re a lazy slob.”

If you choose to counter that attack, you’ll wind up flat on your back because your mind is world-class in pelting you with never ending flack.

But when you choose to observe that thought and not engage you’ll enjoy more peace of mind. You can say  something like this to yourself: “My mind is calling me a lazy slob.” Say it without any emotion and watch the friction drain from your brain.

Observe your mind’s condemnation without participation and your attacker will take a mini vacation. Oh, they’ll be back again taunting you to come back into the fray, but with a little practice with observing, peace of mind will win the day.

All the best,
John