Imagine if you walked into a room and the door locked behind you.
You can't get out and this is a space you will be in until further notice.
As soon as you enter the room,
A voice sounds through the walls.
It is incessant.
It doesn't really pause and it flits from one subject to another.
Everything said is related to you in one form or another.
Not much of it is complementary.
In fact,
Much of it is related to your deepest shames and fears.
You feel overwhelmed so you go to open a window and allow the breeze to enter the room for some relief.
The voice continues speaking.
You spot a mirror in the far corner of the room so you go towards it and as you go towards it and when you look at the reflection,
The voice begins to dictate all the perceived flaws it sees in you.
The way your laughter lines are becoming more visible.
How they have embedded into your face.
The frequent white hairs at your temples that are sneaking in.
You go to the door and turn the handle in the hope you can leave but it remains locked.
Disheartened and exhausted,
You go over to the bed that is by the window and lie down,
Closing your eyes,
Hoping the voice will quieten down.
There are gaps.
The tone changes.
It whispers and then it becomes louder again.
This oscillation continues and you savour the moments when the slivers of silence appear.
This is your mind.
It may vary in differing degrees with the amount of positive or negative feedback it offers you but it does not stop speaking much of the time.
It is not you because you can hear it but you hear it so often it feels so intimate because it is within you and only you know what it's saying that you mistake it for being you.
The problems arise when we take that voice seriously and worse still,
Use it as a directive.
You may be thinking that all that's required is for that voice to be more positive.
That is helpful but that isn't a complete solution.
Imagine if that voice did nothing but tell you how amazing you were all day long but it didn't encourage any changes that would benefit you.
If you were only doused with positivity then it would not forewarn you that a particular habit might not be in your best interests.
Needless to say,
The negative voice,
If listened to,
Can lead to a litany of anxieties and downward spirals with no reprieve.
There is another way,
One where the voice can be there and it can be positive or negative.
The flavour of its contents doesn't matter.
You aren't paying attention to it.
Instead,
You are remaining open to this very moment with all your senses and you are attuning to something else.
That space that hears that voice,
That receives information,
That knows what velvet feels like and what coffee tastes like.
You don't become the velvet or the coffee but you are aware of its textures and flavours.
You don't become the window you are looking out of.
You are the observer of the view.
This can all sound trite and as though you've heard it all before but the reason you may feel that upon hearing it is because that voice,
The urgent one,
The incessant one,
Doesn't want you to be in this moment.
It wants you to remain transfixed in the world that is being created by that voice and it is easily done because that voice that appears within you as thoughts are felt in the body.
If you are thinking about that argument that you had last night with your partner,
No matter where you are or what you are doing,
The feelings will reflect the anger,
Upset and turmoil that those thoughts bring with it.
Your feelings will reflect your thoughts.
And because it's a whole body experience,
You will believe it because you trust your thoughts and the feelings that accompany them.
But what if they're not the truth?
What if those thoughts aren't being generated by you as an individual but is energy arising and disappearing on a continual basis?
One thought appears and then it disappears.
Just like the thoughts about the argument you had can appear at any time and sweep you out of this moment and back into the past where it occurred,
Watch your thoughts for any amount of time and you will come to see they do nothing but appear and disappear.
Each time one appears and you pay attention to it,
A whole world will be created.
There will be imagery,
Feelings,
Sensations,
Thinking around the thought and you will believe it wholeheartedly until you become distracted by something else.
And in that instant,
The world that was fully there a minute ago will recede into the background and whatever new thought that's appeared that has caught your attention will create another world for you to become lost in.
World after world,
Coming and going,
Leading you through all manner of emotions and you remain the space that this is all taking place in.
So what can you do?
Knowing this allows you to become curious more about the space than about what fills it.
You come to see that whatever thought is appearing is always going to disappear no matter what.
And once you are more curious about the space than the content,
You become more open to a wisdom that lives beyond the everyday thinking.
You can move from a place that allows in the moment insight and wisdom to move you.
You will still get up and do your usual routine but you will not be so swayed by passing thoughts and feelings.
You will be able to remain more rooted in the present moment and in that moment is a place where fresh ideas can form and you can be open to noticing them,
Able to act on them because you're not so stuck on all the old iterations of that voice that was previously incessantly chattering to you,
Telling you all your flaws or singing all your praises or something in between.
You are more vast than you can imagine and you cannot be contained in any label.
And new ideas and insights can appear any time you're willing to move your attention away from the usual soundtrack that is playing.
But for that to happen,
You have to be more interested that this space exists and begin to see how it shapes your world and how it changes shape and form frequently.
The only reason our lives can feel so familiar and so repetitive is because we keep placing our attention on the same thoughts that keep appearing and that we keep alive with our attention.
We are free to look away,
Be present and notice what shows up in the moment.
We are not destined to be powerless to thoughts believed and identified with.
We are freer than we imagine.
If you enjoyed this talk,
Then please do take a look at my course that accompanies it,
Titled Alchemising Worry,
A Thought Experiment.
Wishing you well.
