Shift from Thinking to Being Aware

This is an audio of Scott Kiloby, mindfulness teacher and author and co-owner of the Kiloby Center for Recovery. In this audio, Scott Kiloby trains the listener to shift from constantly being in the train of thought to actually being aware of the voice, pictures and sensations. He encourages them to note what is the experience like when you shift.

Transcript

So today I was going to talk about,

We're going to work with shifting from thinking to looking.

Just kind of exercising that a little bit more.

Because I think that's like one of the basic things that kind of,

Like the crux of this work is like shifting people from constantly being in the train of thought to being aware of the voice or of the pictures or the sensations.

And I think a lot of it has to do with the repetition of shifting.

Like you just shift more often.

You find out what does it mean to shift from thinking to being aware of thought.

What does it feel like?

What's the experience like?

And then once you get a sense of it,

Almost like kind of recreating the experience of shifting for yourself.

And you're sort of just shifting to being present.

So it's not like work actually.

It's bringing,

Presence itself is not work.

It's just the nature of our experience here.

At first it can seem like work because you think I have to shift.

But if you notice just the subtle quality of shifting,

Like how it happens,

You'll realize it's not,

There's not a lot of effort in it actually.

The efforting comes from constantly thinking,

Constantly being identified with thought.

So let's start with something,

Listening to the voice in your own head.

Say something innocuous like,

How about this?

The next thought that you have,

Or one of the next thoughts that you have,

Where you're just thinking the thought.

At some point in the middle of the thought,

Can you just shift to hearing the thought?

That's all.

Just hearing it.

So you go from thinking it to hearing it.

It's like you're aware of the sound of it.

See if that's possible.

Raise your hand if it is possible.

Kind of,

But I'm still getting,

I get it like as if I'm speaking.

Sometimes I get the other one.

But when I'm doing speaking,

It's like I'm,

It's not quite the same as hearing it like hearing you.

Yeah,

So I don't want it to,

It's not like I'm asking you to make it sound like it's somebody else's voice.

All I'm saying is,

Can you hear it?

That's all.

Yeah.

It's simpler.

Don't try to make it sound like,

Don't try to distance yourself from it.

Just hear it.

Start by just hearing it.

Just kind of let it run.

Let it say what it's going to say,

But just notice what it's saying.

Right there,

As soon as you notice what it's saying,

You're already shifting to being aware.

So that's it.

That's it.

If you,

If you,

At the beginning,

I think if you try to make it more than that,

It becomes like effort or frustrating.

So first just- Yeah,

I'm trying to hear the pitch and the tone.

Yeah.

But I'm hearing it.

Just hear it.

Keep it simple.

So,

So there's the shift.

There's something that happens in the middle of where you're thinking a thought till you hear it.

You hear it.

That's all.

It's a simple little shift.

So just practice it again.

In fact,

Practice it over and over,

Noticing that you're thinking and then becoming aware of the sound of the thought.

Meaning the words just say what they want,

But you're aware of them.

Raise your hand if you're generally aware of the voice.

Okay.

Now,

As the voice,

As you hear the voice,

And it's almost like what's listening is just a silent,

Still awareness.

It's like nothing is listening to it.

Don't even try to personalize what's listening to it.

Just hear it.

But when the voice,

When the next sentence ends in your mind,

I just want you to open your eyes.

Close your eyes and when the next sentence ends,

I just want you to open your eyes.

Okay.

Now,

Take a moment now to explore just the present moment without words.

Like what does it,

What does it look like?

You don't have to describe it to yourself,

But look and be interested and curious about what does life actually look like in the reality of the moment.

Look around.

Just being really,

Really present and open and curious about the experience of presence.

Even if thoughts come through,

You just hear them still,

But you're more interested in the vivid experience of the moment.

The colors,

Shapes,

Sounds,

Sensations,

Space.

This is like taking a short moment of thought free presence.

It's just sort of like,

What's it like to be here?

And then just noticing how the mind has a momentum in it wants to comment.

But you're now aware of the voice.

Can you be aware of the voice while being present here in the room?

Being aware of everything still to space.

Can you hear the voice?

Just let the voice say what it has to say.

But in between the sound of the voice,

Like the sentence comes up,

There's a space.

Just kind of in that space,

Become aware again of what it's like to be here without the voice.

You're not even trying to keep the voice from coming back.

If it comes back,

You just hear it again.

And then just notice you're shifting from thinking to hearing the voice again.

And then as it disappears,

You just come back to the curiosity of being present without the voice.

I'm finding it stopping though.

As soon as I become aware of it and then I kind of come back to it.

Being present kind of stops it.

Yeah.

Being present stops it.

Being present in the sense of thought free presence.

That kind of presence.

Pure presence.

It stops it automatically when you're aware.

Being really,

Really aware,

It's hard to think.

It's almost like I'm trying to get it to go again.

And then it'll go again,

Then I can look at it and then it stops.

These are the brief moments of presence.

This is part of skill training,

So to speak.

If you can just start to discover this more and more throughout the day,

Just what I'm talking about,

It's what shifts you more.

Shifts your perception.

I think these are some results builds 지옥중omedмат피아 Laughs To chat And then just also notice that sometimes pictures come up,

They're little ghost images.

But shift from like,

Somehow it's like the picture's not completely seen,

It's like you're kind of thinking again,

But you're thinking in picture,

Until the point at which you just look right at the picture.

It's like looking at a painting on a wall,

And you look right at it,

And notice that you're aware of it,

Do nothing with it,

Just like the voice.

Let it be,

And as it disappears naturally,

Then you kind of come back to being aware presently,

Without the picture,

Without words again.

Just for a brief time.

Okay?

Okay.

It's like being really curious that the fact that this is where life happens,

Like right here.

This is it.

This is where life happens.

And everything else is a construct.

Everything that we're thinking is like things that are not happening in a way.

A lot of our thoughts are about things that aren't happening,

The past,

Future.

They're just little constructs.

And they can be allowed,

Like we're not saying you don't have those,

But just notice when you're thinking,

In the construct,

Thinking,

Or in the picture,

And shifting then to hearing the words,

Seeing the picture,

Doing nothing with it,

And just watching it fade on its own and then being aware presently again to the reality of where life is happening here.

And what you just brought up is an important point.

Notice that you don't have to make yourself stop thinking.

Just noticing being aware is enough.

Just shifting to being aware and then doing nothing with what you're hearing and it kind of just fades on its own.

It's like a radio station or a song at the end of a song where it's playing and then it just sort of drifts out to nothing and then just automatically there's no force to it.

Just noticing that you're aware and watching something disappear and then being present to what is,

To the moment,

To the colors,

The sounds,

Space,

Quietness,

Sensations.

And just notice again if you're thinking,

It's fine just noticing it shifting to being aware of the words,

The sound of the words,

Or the picture,

Doing nothing but being with it,

Seeing it,

Watching as you're aware,

You start to become aware then of the present space again without the thought.

Just aware.

Just notice it on your own without my guidance.

Just notice it on your own without my guidance.

Just notice it.

Notice that sometimes when you're with that presence that you can hear the voice happening within the awareness.

Sometimes it just says something,

It's like you hear it,

It's like one of the things going on,

Like there's the colors,

The shape,

The sounds,

Space,

Sensation,

And then sometimes just this little voice but it's like you're aware of it now.

And so you've already shifted to being aware of that because you hear it even with your eyes open being present,

You hear it.

You can do nothing with it,

Just hear it.

It's like what you are is whatever is aware more than the voice,

The voice coming and going.

You as the watching presence,

You remain here watching,

Listening,

Regardless of what's coming and going in the voice.

Just notice that you were thinking.

Just notice that you were thinking,

If you were,

And if not,

Not.

Just notice how that sort of brings you back to noticing being aware.

Remember we're not trying to make an enemy out of thought,

We're just being aware of it.

And then being aware of it shifts our perception to being aware of the present moment,

The entirety of it.

Not just the voice but everything here.

The warmth or coolness of the room,

Shapes and colors everywhere,

The presence,

The feeling of presence.

The interest makes it a lot more interesting.

It's like there's enough.

You don't need more,

It's pretty entertaining.

Right because the voice is always saying not enough.

It's a lot going on.

Yeah that's one thing about it,

It's complete as it is.

If being complete as it is.

Following the thinking tells you otherwise.

If you're just thinking all the time it tells you almost the opposite.

Something is wrong,

I'm broken,

I've got to fix it,

Mom did this,

Later today I've got a lot of things to do.

So that's why just becoming aware of the voice,

Just aware of it and doing nothing with it,

Shifts you back into well,

Being aware.

Completely.

Even if the voice continues you let that be as it is.

It's like one thing happening in the presence,

Just one.

There are other things happening.

The sound of my voice,

Colors,

Wide open space,

Sensation,

Many things happening.

Movement,

Breathing.

If you begin to daydream,

Just notice it.

You know what daydreaming means?

You kind of go back into elaborate sort of thing,

Just noticing that it's happening is the shifting.

That's the shifting to being aware of the pictures,

Being aware of the voice.

And then something in that,

Noticing that being aware,

It's like you can just let that be for a second and watch it.

And notice the end of the current thought.

And then at the end of the current thought,

Come back to being curious about the present color,

Shapes,

Sounds,

Space,

Feeling of presence,

The way,

The quality of it,

Of being here presently.

In some sense,

You let the thinking happen.

Don't fight the thinking.

Just become aware in the middle of it.

That's it.

Somewhere in the middle of the thought stream.

Become aware you hear the voice,

You see the pictures.

Notice being aware and return to that thought free presence.

And then another aspect of it is you become aware you're in the inner space or you're Just when you notice being aware again and you're sort of curious more about the,

You're here in the moment,

Just notice how open it is.

Like when there aren't any thoughts,

Like it seems like the space never ends.

It's like it just goes on forever.

It's just open experience here because thoughts not limiting it and narrowing it down to an idea.

So without the idea it just can feel open,

Almost like vast space,

Infinite,

Just sort of resting,

Almost like that space is your own nature.

You're just resting in that quiet,

Present space,

Seeing everything and allowing everything to be as it is within that space.

Just notice again,

Just the tapping is just to remind you to notice,

That's all.

Just notice pictures or words,

Notice being aware,

Hearing the voice,

Seeing pictures and doing nothing with any of that,

Just letting it be as it is.

Again and then when it fades,

Becoming curious of what thought free presence is,

What does it mean to be present without thinking just being?

So if you're listening to the audio,

Just continue the expiration for 20 minutes even if you walk around the center or walk outside,

Continue just shifting from thinking to being aware of the words,

The sound,

The voice,

Being aware of pictures and then in that awareness becoming aware of thought free presence and resting there.

Reviews

I’ve listened to both recordings from this contributor and it’s unfortunate that the audio quality on both is poor. However, the content is very valuable and well presented. Based on content rather than audio quality both meditations are five star. Thank you, and I hope you put more content on insight timer.

I found the technique very useful even though difficult and requiring practice. The sound quality isn’t great and the interruptions by one student are annoying on repeat listening. Would the teacher consider re-recording this meditation technique without the audience participation? Many thanks.

Excellent, rich leading, refreshing, thank you.
A life skill. Beautiful.

It was less like a “normal“ meditation, but more like 30 minutes of continually reminding me to notice when I’m thinking, and bring myself back to the present moment. It was different than what I am used to doing, but once I got over that, I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Yes.,good explanation . Thoughts compartmentalize gods world

So intimate so understated so engaging

Very cool. I was able to stop my racing thoughts.