Hello and welcome.
Today's practice is about discovering something you've always had but may have forgotten.
The part of you that can watch your own mind think.
Not to empty your mind,
Not to stop thinking,
But just to notice that there's a you who is aware of thinking happening.
This changes everything.
Find a position that feels alert but relaxed.
Sitting upright tends to work well for this one.
Let your eyes close.
Take one long slow deep breath in and then gently let it go.
Exhaling out through the mouth and just once more breathing in through the nose and then gently out through the mouth.
May your body just slowly settle into stillness.
Begin by noticing that you are here.
Not thinking about being here,
Actually being here.
Aware of these words.
Aware of the sensation of breathing.
Aware of sounds perhaps in the background.
Now notice this.
There is something in you right now that is noticing.
Not a thought about noticing,
But the actual capacity to be aware.
This is what is referred to as the observing self.
It's not a thing,
It's not located in a particular place,
It's just the simple fact that awareness is happening.
See if you can rest there for a moment.
Just resting with the quiet sense of being aware.
Now without trying to control or stop anything just notice that thoughts are happening.
Maybe the thought about this practice.
Maybe a thought about your day.
Maybe a thought about whether you're doing this right.
Whatever's there,
Just notice it.
You are not the thought.
You're perhaps more accurately the space in which the thought appears.
Thoughts arrive.
They perhaps linger for a moment.
And then they pass.
Much like clouds moving gently across the sky.
The sky doesn't grab onto clouds,
It doesn't push them away,
It simply allows them to move through.
For the next few minutes just watch.
Notice when a thought appears.
Notice when it fades.
Notice the brief gaps between the thoughts.
You don't need to label them or to analyze them.
Just observe.
Ah,
Thinking is happening.
And when you notice you've gotten lost in a thought,
Which will happen,
That noticing itself is the practice.
Simply return to watching.
Notice that even as thoughts came and went,
Something else remains steady.
The awareness itself.
The watcher.
You.
I'm going to practice with something a little bit stickier.
Bring to mind a thought that's been recurring lately.
Not the most intense one,
But something that keeps showing up.
It could be a thought something like,
I'm behind in life.
Or they don't really like me.
I really really should have replied to that email two weeks ago.
I should be further along by now.
Something's wrong with me specifically.
Whatever kind of recurrent thought that you might become aware of whatever it is,
Just let it come into awareness.
Rather than believing it or arguing with it,
See if you can observe it in the same way you'd observe a car passing on the street.
Oh look,
There it is.
That thought again.
There it goes.
Notice that it's not a fact.
It's just a sentence your mind is producing.
And you,
The awareness,
Are simply watching it unfold.
Now see if you can add just a tiny bit of space by naming what's happening.
Oh look,
There's the I'm behind thought.
Or there's the something's wrong story.
Oh look,
I've spotted again the not good enough loop passing by.
Not to dismiss it,
Just to see it clearly.
And notice the moment you see it as a thought rather than the inherent truth,
Something shifts.
There's a little more room and a little less grit.
Now notice if your mind has started commenting on the thought you just observed.
Maybe it's saying I shouldn't still be thinking this.
Why can't I just get over this?
This meditation isn't working.
I'm bored,
What's for dinner?
If any of that is happening,
Perfect.
You're seeing the second arrow,
The mind's commentary on the experience.
And the liberating part is that you can also simply watch that as well.
The thought about the thought.
The judgment about the judgment.
All of it is just more weather passing through awareness,
Just more clouds in the sky.
You don't have to fix this process,
You don't have to stop it.
You just have to stop believing that you are it.
Now allow your attention to widen.
Stop focusing on any particular thought,
Just rest as the space in which all thoughts appear and disappear.
The awareness itself,
The sky,
Not the clouds.
Thoughts will still come,
That's fine,
Let them.
Sounds will arise,
Sensations will shift.
All of it is allowed.
You're not trying to make anything happen,
You're just resting as the part that notices.
This is what it feels like to live from the observing self.
Not detached,
Not cold,
Just less entangled,
Less believing every story,
Less abandoning yourself the moment thinking gets loud.
So now just gently taking one long slow deep breath in and then just letting it out,
Perhaps with a soft sigh.
When you're ready,
Gently bring small movements back.
Wiggle your fingers,
Roll your shoulders and in your own time slowly opening your eyes.
The observing self doesn't go away when you open your eyes,
It's always here and the more you practice resting as it,
The less your mind gets to run the whole show.
You've just practiced one of the most important skills in healing your relationship with yourself.
Learning to watch your thoughts without being bullied by them.
The mind will still produce weather,
That's its job in a way,
But you don't have to live inside every storm.
This practice comes from the course Healing the Self Relationship where we explore this theme more deeply.
May this support you in strengthening the relationship you have with yourself.
