This is Jennifer Kogut of Wisdom Voyage,
And here's the deal.
We feel all our thoughts.
Yep,
We feel all our thoughts.
Every single one.
We don't just think them,
We feel them.
Even the quiet ones that hum in the background,
Our thoughts shape how our body feels,
How our breath moves,
How safe we feel inside our own skin.
Sometimes we forget that thought is a flicker of energy passing through the mind,
And the subconscious mind takes it all in.
We believe it on a certain level.
We take it as truth.
So when a thought says,
I'm not doing enough,
Or I'm not enough,
Or something bad might happen,
The jaw might tighten,
The whole system goes,
Oh no,
Danger.
And you know what,
That's not a mistake,
That's just what the body does.
We're wired to feel our thoughts as a way of protection.
But here's where things get interesting,
Because while your body is feeling the thought,
There's another part of you,
The one who notices it all.
The one who says,
Oh wow,
Look at that,
My brain's spinning up again.
Or,
Oh,
There's that old worry loop showing up.
Or as I like to say,
Oh,
There's my old friend,
Worry.
So that noticing part,
That's not just another thought.
That's a greater awareness.
And I'd say that's you,
With a capital Y,
Y-O-U.
The witness,
The watcher,
The quiet space behind the noise,
That awareness is steady and unmoving.
It doesn't rise and fall with our mood.
It's just there,
Like the sky behind the clouds,
Always present.
And that awareness,
That wider self,
Is where our true wisdom lives.
That sees clearly,
That knows when to speak,
And when to stay quiet,
When to act,
And when to rest.
It's not the frantic mind trying to fix or figure things out.
Instead,
It's the gentle presence,
The part of us that simply knows.
We forget about that,
And we lose track of it sometimes.
But when we learn to rest here,
Even for a few breaths,
The thoughts don't have to go away.
They just lose their grip.
They lose their size.
We can remember,
I am wider than my thoughts.
I am the one who notices.
I am the sky,
Not the storm.
So let's practice a little.
Let arise in your awareness now a thought that you've been hearing repeated a lot in your mind.
Just something that you know is a sticky thought.
Perhaps it's a worry or a regret,
Or perhaps it's your to-do list.
So just letting one thought rise up.
No need to change it,
Fix it,
Or make it go away.
Just becoming aware of it in this moment.
As you take a nice deep breath in.
And as you let that breath go,
You start to see,
Sense,
Or imagine yourself floating up out of the body.
Floating up out of the house or apartment where you are.
Floating up beyond the electrical wires and the tops of the trees.
Looking down on your neighborhood as you continue floating up above your town or city.
Above your country.
Above your continent.
Floating up above your city.
Up beyond the atmosphere.
Until you're floating near the moon.
And from the moon,
You look down.
You see the small blue-green planet turning slowly beneath you in the vastness of space.
And see yourself down there.
Can you?
You're probably just a speck on the planet.
And notice,
How big is that thought now?
How small is that thought now?
Is it important?
Is it sticky?
Maybe a bit still.
But in the vastness of the earth,
How big is that thought or worry really?
Just noticing.
So now let yourself float gently,
Slowly,
Slowly back down towards the body,
Towards your body,
Through the layers of sky and cloud,
Through the atmosphere.
Back down past the tops of the trees.
Back down into your body again.
And as you return to your body,
Just noticing how small is that thought now?
How light or heavy does it feel to hold it now?
And now let yourself imagine,
See,
Sense,
Or feel yourself at the end of your life.
You're very old,
Ancient even,
And wise from your whole lifetime having been lived.
And from this old self,
Yourself at the end of your life,
You drop down into that body and look back at your current self.
As you look back at your current self,
Notice how big is that thought or worry now?
How small is that thought now?
Is it important?
Is it sticky?
Maybe a bit still,
But perhaps it's more to scale.
In the story of your entire life,
How big is that thought really?
Taking a nice,
Slow,
Deep breath.
As you allow yourself to float back into today,
Back into your current body,
Back into this moment in time and space,
And let the awareness that's been watching this process,
The quiet,
Steady witness within,
Gently fill the space of your mind.
From within this witness space,
Just notice if there's any wisdom for you here in this moment.
Just allowing any wisdom or messages to float up into your awareness from the subconscious mind,
Knowing you'll remember exactly what you need to remember from this process.
Taking another nice,
Deep breath in,
As you start to wiggle your fingers and toes,
Perhaps take a nice,
Big stretch as you remember that you are bigger than your thoughts.
You are the sky wide and aware,
And your thoughts are just the passing weather.
As you come back fully into the body,
Bringing back all the pieces and parts of you,
Take this awareness into the rest of your day.
You are bigger than your thoughts.
