Are you addicted to thinking?
(You might have to think about that one.)
Being addicted to some substance or behavior means you have a compulsive, uncontrollable dependence on it. How many times have you seen smokers outside an office building while it's snowy and windy? If they could truly stop using nicotine whenever they felt like it, smoking would be a three-season activity.
Can you stop thinking? Try it. Sit with your eyes closed and watch for the next thought. Wait for it...it won't take long...maybe it's "I want Taco Bell" or "This is stupid" or "I wonder if these tights make my cankles look fat." Where did that thought come from?! Did you invite it in? Did you willingly compose the thought? Did you control whether it crossed your mind or not?
The thought didn't come from you, did it? It came out of nowhere; it came from the blankness of your awareness; it floated in and floated out. The true observant you was watching for the thoughts to come, but was separate from those thoughts. This contradicts our common belief that we are thinking our thoughts.
If you can't stop thinking any time you want, and you are compelled to have thoughts without willing them, that seems like an addiction, right? Even worse, if the stronger character in this bizarre scenario is that thought-machine, then you are not in control. You are being overpowered.
The mind can be a useful tool, one you control and utilize in a way that serves you. I have found that instead of using my mind as a tool, my mind is controlling me and using me as a subservient thought-trafficking addict. It's a little creepy, right? Take back control! Try "watching the thinker" more often, as Eckart Tolle describes in The Power of Now:
"So when you listen to a thought, you are aware not only of the thought but also of yourself as the witness of the thought [...] As you listen to the thought, you feel a conscious presence - your deeper self - behind or underneath the thought, as it were. The thought then loses its power over you and quickly subsides, because you are no longer energizing the mind through identification with it. This is the beginning of the end of involuntary and compulsive thinking. When a thought subsides, you experience a discontinuity in the mental stream - a gap of "no-mind." At first, the gaps will be short, a few seconds perhaps, but gradually they will become longer. When these gaps occur, you feel a certain stillness and peace inside you. "
Those tiny gaps of "no-mind" are pretty hip places to hang out in. They're calm, peaceful, and free of thought provoked issues. I've been lounging around the gap more often as I recognize that the conga line of thoughts in my mind is separate from my awareness or my true self. You're invited, too.
I accept your invitation! I think it's fascinating to realize the whole "you can control your thoughts" not the other way around sort of thing. It seems like it would be intuitive but I believe it's probably the opposite. Though perhaps when intentionally making sure you are in control of your thoughts, it does become your intuitive way of thinking.
Posted by: Marissa | 02/02/2011 at 02:47 PM