Living With Your Thoughts
4 Tools To Help You
Living With Your Thoughts - Background
"Living With Your Thoughts" is the second in a two part series, which commenced with You Are Not Your Thoughts in which we discussed how to deal with your negative thoughts, such as thoughts of anger, accusation and despair.In summary:
- These thoughts arise automatically and are largely unconscious in their origination.
- These thoughts originate from the “hardware” and “software” in our brains.
- The best way of becoming more aware of the repetitive nature of these thoughts, and the triggers that give rise to them is by the practice of mindfulness.
- Because these repetitive negative thoughts are a short-cut key to the
underlying associated negative energetic states and, because we live in
an energetic universe , they are repetitively creating negative results in our lives.
This is what Buddhists refer to as Samsara and what I call 'the ferris wheel of suffering'.
The first key factor in living with your thoughts is to understand and develop a good working relationship with all areas of your mind.
Developing A Good Working Relationship With Your Mind A simple way to picture the mind is to imagine a ship on the ocean. Think of your higher self as your
conscious mind's portal to the universe – or as I call it The Energy Of Life. Understanding Your Selves The second key factor in living with your thoughts is to understand your many selves and learn how to deal with them. Contrary to the conventional view there is no singular "self". Which means that when you refer to "myself" you are not referring to one singular entity but a very complex
amalgam of many different aspects of your self sometimes referred to as the 'internal family of selves' -also known as 'sub-personalities'. The ego The higher self As we
experience this we realise that we have a spiritual or energetic self
and also that we have many unconscious aspects or selves that fall
outside of the control of "Windows 11". The unconscious mind The whole self Where it all goes horribly wrong Because we exist in a realm of duality, for every self that exists or is created there is an opposite.
Living With Your Thoughts - Your Mind
The
ship floats on the surface of the ocean and its purpose is to navigate
and transport you from one location to another. Think of the ship as
your conscious mind with access to many of the tools at its disposal,
for example: reasoning, calculation, speech and memory.
The
ocean is your subconscious mind, it is deep, dark and mysterious and
generates powerful currents which move the ship in the direction of their travel.
The
sky is your higher consciousness often referred to as your higher self
or higher power. The sky contains the clouds, the wind, the weather, the
planets, the stars... the universe.
For
the ship to navigate and transport you properly it needs access to the
ocean and the sky. The better that access the better your journey!
The key to developing a good working relationship with your mind is to have tools, techniques and resources that work with all levels of your mind.
The objective is to have them all working together, moving you in the same direction, and at the same time!
Living With Your Thoughts - Your Selves
When we talk of "myself" this is the conventional way of referring to our self image which is in fact the ego's construction of its sense of self.
I
find it helpful to imagine the ego as our operating system and
absolutely essential, in the same way "Windows 11" is essential for
successful functioning of our laptops. It thinks it controls everything.
But
as with "Windows 11", however clever it is, it is just a piece of
software. So when we say me, myself or I, metaphorically, think of
“Windows 11" with self awareness!
One of the benefits of practicing mindfulness, is that we
find that in the spaces between our thoughts, we begin to experience
that we are far more than this limited and conventional sense of self.
We are not “Windows 11”!
To
extend the computer analogy think of our unconscious aspects or selves
as the BIOS [the programme embedded on a chip on a computer's
motherboard that recognizes and controls various devices that make up
the computer.
So to pull this
together, when we talk of myself or I, what we are really referring to
is the totality of all of it - of all of our unconscious aspects or
selves, our conscious self (plus all its resources) and our spiritual
self or higher self.
Given
that we are fundamentally energetic beings existing in an energetic
universe we need to understand, relate to and work with our higher self.
It is the portal to, in the conventional sense, everything "out there".
However, ”Windows 11” is not an energetic being but it thinks it is!
Its
sphere of operation is defined by our sensory perceptions. For "Windows
11" seeing is believing. Because its role is to control it thinks it
does (or should) control everything. This is, of course, a major
delusion. This is where the whole teaching in mainstream belief systems
of dying to the self or 'dropping the self' comes into play.
The
BIOS is just the BIOS. It comprises large numbers of programmes or
selves that we can associate with an activity or an attitude. For
example "smoking self" or "happy self".
In the
realm of the BIOS there is no right or wrong, no better or worse, no
value judgements, there are just programmes running automatically on
repeat mode.
So, the opposite of smoking self is non-smoking self and the opposite of happy self is unhappy self.
This
is why we said earlier, that when we deny, suppress or repress our
negative thoughts it is a root cause of our suffering because we are
denying a part of our whole self.
So, for example, to stop smoking we have to accept 'smoking self' and consciously choose 'non smoking self'.
However the choice alone is not enough, it needs to be empowered and this power comes from our higher self - when we ask it.
Introducing The Tools Here are 4 sets of tools to help you that each work with one or more areas of our whole self:
Living With Your Thoughts - The Tools
(1) Energy Tools - that work with and through our higher self
(2) Cognitive Tools - that work through our conscious self
(3) Programming Tools - that work with our unconscious selves
(4) Big Mind Tools - that work with the whole self
These tools will help you achieve in
Energy Tools
Cognitive Tools
Programming Tools
'Big Mind' Tools
Recommended Further Reading:
- Why You Need To Be Intimate With Your Own Thinking
- Rewiring Your Autopilot – How To Harness Your Subconscious Mind
- Universal Awareness and the Machinery of Thought
- How to See Your Thoughts Without Becoming the Story
Return from "Living With Your Thoughts" to: Renewing Your Mind Or Return to: Techniques For Stress Management
LATEST ARTICLES
Belief and Thought: What Zen Tools Works With - What It Leaves Alone
A Clarification Of Scope Within Zen Tools - Not A Position On Belief As soon as people begin to notice their own thinking more clearly, questions about belief and thought naturally follow: - If though…How Thought Becomes Identity - The Hidden Mechanism Behind Overthinking, Self-Worth, and Inner Conflict
Thought Is an Event, Not a Self Most people believe identity is something they have - a stable sense of who they are. In reality, identity is something the mind is continuously producing. It is not fo…When the Brain Is Hijacked - Where Does Choice Sit?"
Pressure, the Hijacked Brain, and the Question of Authority
When the brain is hijacked, people are often told they have “lost control”.That language is understandable - and misleading. In reality, man…Reduce Digital Overthinking To Lower Your Constant Inner Noise
Why Constant Micro-Stimulation Increases Your Internal Noise. Modern digital life generates a level of mental activity that previous generations never had to deal with, and this is fundamentally why w…Pausing Before You Act - Make It a Meta-Habit
How A Tiny Moment Unlocks Clarity, Choice, And Self-Leadership. There is a moment in life so subtle you barely register it. A colleague questions your idea. A notification flashes. A moment of uncerta…How to Interrupt Emotional Spirals Using Thought-Awareness
The spiral is fueled by your mind believing the story your thoughts tell. No one sets out to be swept away by a surge of emotion. One second you’re handling life, and the next, your mind has broken in…Universal Awareness and the Machinery of Thought
You Can’t Control Thoughts - But You Can Learn To See Them. Why do our thoughts have so much power over us - and how do we reclaim clarity? The foundation of thought-awareness is the ability to see yo…Rewiring Your Autopilot – How To Harness Your Subconscious Mind
How to harness your subconscious mind and move from passenger to pilot. The case for rewiring your autopilot is that most of what drives your thoughts, reactions, and decisions happens below your cons…Why You Need To Be Intimate With Your Own Thinking
How self-awareness and insight transforms delusion into wisdom. We live inside an invisible weather system - one made not of clouds and wind, but of thoughts - and this invisibilty is why you need to…The Illusion of Closeness in Always-On Relationships
Closeness that cannot survive absence was never intimacy - only constant stimulation mistaken for connection. We live inside an unprecedented experiment in human connection. For the first time in hist…Why Approval Feels Like Safety And Distance Feels Like Danger
Safety is not found in being approved - it appears when approval is no longer required. When approval feels like safety, connection stops being something we enjoy and quietly becomes something we rely…You Do Not Need Better Boundaries - You Need Clearer Thought
What no longer feels like your responsibility no longer crosses your boundaries. This article explains why you don’t need better boundaries - you need clearer thought - how modern life systematically…