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We left you last week with the question: Why is it so hard to objectively observe your own thoughts? 

Here’s the answer: Because most of us believe that our thinking is reality.  We fall into the trap of believing that if we think it, it’s true.  Imagine that we gave you virtual reality goggles and threw a ball at your head. You would likely duck.  But, the ball never had any mass or ability to inflict damage to your face.  It wasn’t reality!  Yet you still duck!  

We do the same thing with our thoughts.  We treat our predictions of the future, what might happen, as reality and then "jump out of the way" i.e.  as we play out the situation in our thoughts, we experience stress, fear, or upset.  Think of the moments when you imagine someone has a negative judgment about you, it not only changes your internal experience but also how you might behave with that person, all based on what we imagine.

When you think a ball is coming at your head, it is very hard to be objective!!  That "ball" is your thoughts.  The ability to observe our thoughts, as simply thoughts, no more and no less, reduces our daily level of stress dramatically.  

This is the "trick."  Consistently raising your awareness that your thoughts are just that…thoughts.  No more and no less.  Thinking you might get fired should evoke a different emotional response than actually being fired.  For most people, the thought to emotion connection is very strong.  Gradually, we need to loosen those reins.  A bit paradoxically, that is done by letting the thoughts be. Don’t try to not think them or aggressively push them away.  That will only make them louder.

Don’t hear this as advice to discount your thinking.  We need our thinking to make decisions and navigate life, but we also need to know the limitations of it.  Your thinking is not infallible.  Our thoughts are filled with projections and misinterpretations.  Yet, we still rely on our thinking like it is reality.  

The best way we have found to train and raise our awareness to the power thoughts have over our emotional well-being is through meditation.  Most of us need to train in order to not react to our thoughts and simply let them be (different from letting them go, but more on that another time).  

We have been playing with the idea of creating a meditation program that incorporates both meditation and Workability technology. Would you be interested in a program like this?  Please reply and let us know if you would be interested in participating and we can start to create something. 

To loosening the reins!