We grow up thinking that the thoughts that we have about ourselves are who we actually are. These thoughts are shaped by many things – our parents, family, friendships, school, the communities we are a part of etc. But this ‘me’ who we think is ‘me’ is not ‘me’ at all. Infact, this ‘imposter me’ couldn’t be further from the true nature of ‘me’!
Who we REALLY are is so much bigger and more powerful than the chitter-chatter of thoughts that run through our minds. We are the pure potential of the universe. Sounds woo-woo, I know, but that’s only because we’re never taught to think of ourselves in that way. But consider this – something spins the earth, changes the seasons, turns embryos into babies, beats our hearts, mends broken bones and breaths our lungs! We are not involved in any of that – it just happens by some intelligent force. If this powerful intelligence is working throughout all of nature, surely that includes us too?
We are not our thinking
If we believe that the thoughts we have about ourselves are who we really are, and given most of those thoughts are negative, then we are living a massively limited life. We are basing our ability to create and get on in the world, on thoughts that have no substance whatsoever. No thought has any power, other than the power we give it. And since our thoughts are always shifting and changing, along with the extent to which we believe that thinking, our experience of who we are is doing the same. The person we call ‘me’ is a moving target! There’s no baseline to compare to because ‘me’ is always on the move. One day we might think we’re worthless, don’t know our life’s purpose and struggle to get out of bed. The next, we believe we are frickin’ awesome, we’re full of inspiration and nothing can stop us. Making decisions from either of those levels of consciousness, will lead to very different results.
It’s only when we realise that our thoughts are simply bursts of energy coming and going and that there is nothing intrinsically true about them, that we can take them less seriously and start turning our attention to somewhere more solid: our innate wellbeing.
We’re born with perfect mental health
If you’re hearing this for the first time, then I can understand how it might seem ‘out there’ as it’s the complete opposite to what we’ve always been taught, BUT, we are born with perfect psychological wellbeing. That’s our default state and where we return to when we have less on our minds. It’s not something we have to go and find through hours of meditating, yoga, solo treks across the world to ‘find ourselves’or by managing our thoughts. As per my previous blog post….All we are is love, peace and wisdom and when we are not in our heads, we’re in our hearts and that space is our true nature. There’s something comforting about knowing that, don’t you think? It takes so much weight off.
It means that we can be ok with the constant narration in our heads that feels so personal because it’s all ‘me,’ ‘my’ and ‘I.’ We can let it chitter chatter all day long, saying things like ‘I’m no good at this’ or ‘Who am I to be doing that?’ and not get caught up in any of it. We can just watch from the side-lines. Of course, we’ll forget at times, and we’ll believe those insulting and demeaning comments – that’s part of the human experience – and for as long as we believe that thinking to be true, we’ll suffer. But the second we snap out of it and remember that our wellbeing is untouchable and that all we’re doing is identifying with our meaningless thinking, we’re back into wellbeing again and experiencing life in a whole different way.
It really is that simple!