Hello and welcome to five minutes in nature with me Liz Scott.
I'm sitting on a seawall here at North Berwick overlooking the beautiful golden sandy beach and watching the tide which is out,
The sea,
The rock pools.
I can smell the waft of damp seaweed in the air.
It's very gentle and cool out there.
There's a little bit of a misty haze around so I can't see.
We're on the 4th of Firth,
So I can't see across the water to the other side,
But I can see the islands that are right in front of me,
And there's a fishing boat gone out on this very calm,
Grey waters this morning.
It's very peaceful here.
And I just wanted to reflect with you about thought,
Because we've been talking about thought,
The principle of thought,
For the past couple of days,
And do listen back if you're interested to learn more.
Hmm.
What I've realized in my life is learning the nature of how thought works is so helpful.
And today I am going through with you real time what that's like,
Because there's a little niggle in my life,
A bit like the coffee cup story I told you,
The dirty coffee cup.
There's a niggle in my life that feels insistent and wants attention.
It's small.
It's a little bit like a stone in your shoe.
It gets your attention and it's uncomfortable.
And I want you to realise that I don't see thought as the baddie and I'm not trying to get rid of it or change people or get the circumstances different.
So here I am when I bring my awareness back to who I am.
It's like I can breathe gently and I can hear and see the soothing rhythm of the waves just coming up on the beach.
And then when I put my awareness back into what I feel is an injustice and is wrong,
My heart rate speeds up and my mind gets more busy.
Well,
I know when I'm lost in an ego thought storm because I usually feel as though I am a victim or that somebody else is doing something that's completely unfair.
And that's what we were talking about over the past couple of days,
Is just recognising the nature of thought.
And so here I am in this beautiful circumstance where I couldn't be in a more peaceful location.
And I have the ability to bring my awareness back to myself,
To who I am,
And be present to the waves.
And I have the ability to take that awareness and put it on that niggly thought storm that has me feel like I'm being put upon and things are unjust in the world.
And when I put my attention on the thought storm.
.
.
What happens is my ego,
That thought storm,
Those habitual thoughts tell me urgently I need to sort something out.
I need to have a conversation.
I need to get this sorted out.
I need to not be put upon.
And then when I bring my awareness back within.
.
.
I just feel that soothing and peace of mind.
So I don't have a silver bullet by understanding the nature of thought.
It doesn't mean that uncomfortable thoughts just disappear.
It just means I understand now the nature of thought.
If I fight it,
Or if I try and change other people from a place of unsettled ground,
Frustration,
Annoyance,
Injustice,
Martyrdom,
If I'm in that space and I try and make things happen,
I'm on unstable ground.
I don't want that.
What I want is to be operating from a place of stillness,
Of calm,
Of love.
And so as I breathe in this air and I look at the view and I bring my awareness back to that place of love,
I feel myself grounding once again.
I don't know the outcome to this irritation that I'm feeling.
But I do know that the resolution won't come from a place of conflict and who's right and wrong.
I know that it will,
The resolution will come from listening in to this place of love.
So that's where I'm going to leave it with you today.
I'm going to continue to bring my awareness back to love.
And I thought you just might find it interesting to see real time how thought plays out in my life.
Knowing that something is thought doesn't really help at all.
Knowing who you truly are,
Well that is the game changer.
Let me know your reflections and don't forget to join me again tomorrow for another 5 minutes in nature.
