The Real You

You have a mind don’t you?  You have thoughts.  You function in the real world. (Not before my morning coffee, Jeff) Still, every single day we have to make decisions about what we are going to do, what we are going to believe, how to use the time we have been given, how to respond to what someone said to us or what we even think of ourself.

That last one is what I’d like to focus on.  What do you really think about in respect to your own thoughts?  That may seem like an odd question so here’s some examples;

You oversleep (again) and you think to yourself, I am such a lazy person.  You intended to exercise this morning but that didn’t happen because you overslept again or didn’t get enough sleep or it was a long weekend or whatever excuse works for today.  I am such a fat slob.  That friend on social media just took their 15th selfie today with their perfect spouse on their perfect vacation.  When will I ever have fun? I am so jealous. Where are my car keys for God’s sake? I am so stupid!

You get the idea.

It’s so easy to think I am angry, jealous, or I am such a failure or stupid for thinking that. But did you notice something?  YOU are thinking about your thoughts. YOU are observing your feelings.  All this can happen inside you in the quiet of your mind in just seconds.  Sometimes its a fleeting thought, a quick condemnation or a temporary frustration. But when you step outside of yourself you will notice, “Oh look. There’s grief. There’s anger. There’s jealousy”.

That’s the power of non-judgmental observance. I, the real me, am not my thoughts. Yes, those things are present now. Why are they here? Where do they come from? So, if you can observe your thoughts then that means one thing. Your thoughts are not YOU. Because YOU, the real you, is observing your thoughts. The real you is infinite(we hope). Let’s just say the real you goes on.

My thoughts are not truth. They are just thoughts. So don’t believe everything you think. The good news is you can free yourself of your mind. I know that sounds like hippie dippy stuff and I am certainly no spiritual guru or shaman or expert.  I don’t even have a lot of success with it. But it has happened.

It seems to me that that is true freedom; to not be controlled by our thoughts, to not be controlled by what we think. To not be controlled by what we think God thinks. To not be controlled by what we believe God says. Too many times Satan or unbelief in the bible are blamed for circumstances in our life when it is really just us not taking the time to just see. To just be. Being. Not doing. Not believing. Not even thinking. Just listening. Listening for that voice that observes our thoughts.

Someone said, “We either make ourselves miserable or we we make ourselves happy. The amount of work is the same”. So to be happy is to let go. Not letting go and letting God. Because God in the traditional sense is loaded down with so much tradition and work and study and what your parents said and what this pastor said. It can be exhausting. Because what happens there is God, or our thoughts disguised as God, sneak in the back door of our mind. We believe we are obeying God but really we are just doing what we’ve always wanted and using our lazy thinking as an excuse.

That’s because the voice belongs to our conditioned mind. Breaking free from repeated patterns of the past is the hardest thing to do. My response to a ‘tone’ in my wife’s voice. My reaction to a perceived slight from a friend or family member. My judgement that life is not fair because of some rule that was put in place. All these come from the past. None of them are true in the right sense of the word. They just are. They don’t have to control me.

When you become aware that you really are not your thoughts then the jig is up. You can observe your own thoughts from somewhere else. Almost like watching a video of yourself in the present. Your deeper self observes your thoughts and there is a separation. And, most importantly, there is a freedom because the thought has lost its power over you. I remember thinking about a thought I had and realizing in that moment that that thought was not the real me. It was like catching one of my boys getting into the cupboard to sneak some cookies. I could observe them and my present observance stopped their behavior. My thought was caught and powerless to do anything but leave.

I hope this helps you. It has helped me and it is where I am today.  Tomorrow or an hour from now I may fall back into old though patterns but I’ve seen it now.  I’ve felt it now.  I know it now.  It’s the difference between pictures of the Grand Canyon and seeing it in person.  They are not the same.

It is a struggle.  It always will be.  That’s the deal.  You won’t always have the answers.  You won’t always respond in the “right” way.  You will make mistakes but that’s okay.  If I am going to fall then let me fall.  The one I am becoming will catch me.