Your thoughts aren’t yours

You don’t think your thoughts.

Your thoughts appear in consciousness in exactly the same way that you hear sounds. Thoughts appear without any conscious choice on your part. Try not to think a thought. Try not to hear a sound.

You don’t think that you are in any way responsible for the sounds that you hear. Likewise, don’t take responsibility for the thoughts that appear in consciousness. They aren’t yours, they just appeared to you.

There’s a long discussion to be had on what we mean by ‘you’ or ‘I’ but that’s not what I want to address here. The main point I would like to make is that you shouldn’t put so much stock in your thoughts.

First of all, they aren’t yours. Second, they are often shit thoughts! They suck.

People think the most horrible things about themselves. Why would any sane being be so unkind to herself? Only two possible answers… we aren’t sane or we are not the ones doing the thinking.
(both are true)

If you were to imagine some person saying all the things that you say to yourself on a bad day, how would you feel towards that person? And how seriously would you take all the things this person has to say? I recommend a stance towards your own thoughts that is exactly as skeptical.

Do not believe your thoughts. Unless they make sense and are kind and wise and compassionate. In fact, I recommend some self-imposed form of schizophrenia. Give the different voices in your head names and persona. That unkind heckling voice? Give her a suitable name and learn to recognize the cunt. Don’t believe her and ignore her like you would an actual person being that unpleasant.

Your wise, kind and compassionate inner voice? Nurture that voice, listen to it, critically but attentively. Any other voices that can be distinguished? Name them, give them character, tone and colour. Learn to recognize them and treat them appropriately.

You are not the voice(s) in your head!

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *