Our Mental Noise

Being unable to stop thinking is a terrible thing.  This mental noise that constantly accompanies us prevents us from finding our inner stillness and, to a greater extent, the connection with ourselves.

you are not your mind

We live in an age of speed and indeterminacy, surrounded by thousands of tasks to do that we sometimes postpone, because now time is short.  As we make that decision, another idea finds itself landing on the lane of our mind, which contributes to our overload. So, we ended the day with the feeling of not having accomplished everything we had set out to do, and if I did, with a terrible feeling of tiredness and irritability, because we still have so many other things to do… Well, we live going back and forth, surrounded by a lot of noise, from the street and our intern.

We have become addicted to our thinking, and as a result, we have disconnected from ourselves.
This mental noise that accompanies us, thought, in addition to preventing us from having moments of calm, also has the ability to create a false self manufactured by the mind, which throws a layer of suffering and fear over us.

But why does this happen?

We often identify with our thinking, with our mind creating an opaque screen of a multitude of labels, concepts, words, judgments, images that block the true relationship with ourselves.

And so we believe that we are our mind, the instrument taking over us.

“It’s quite common for our own inner voice to be our worst enemy, and we live with a torturer in our head who attacks and punishes us, depleting our vital energy.” Eckhart Tolle.

We have to learn to observe and take distance from ourselves with respect to the thoughts and emotions we arouse, so that we know how to distinguish between the act of having a thought, the content of what was thought and the person (us) who is perceiving it.

For this I propose the “chessboard metaphor” (Wilson and Luciano, 2002) to demonstrate the importance of an observer who recognizes and accepts.

the chessboard

Imagine a chessboard. On it, the pieces are in a fight with each other, while the board has only the role of observer. The board never loses, but the pieces are fighting each other, sometimes being eliminated. Now let’s apply this to our case.

If we are fighting our fears and worries, with the black or white pieces, the game will never end, as when one game is over, another will begin, putting us in a vicious circle. The issue is in playing the game serving as a board, that is, observing the fight without participating. In this way, we can consider the pieces as our thoughts or even feelings, remembering and being witnesses that this does not make our identity. We are not thought, but the board capable of containing all cognitive contents.

As I explained earlier, verbalizations, words and thoughts, however truthful they may seem, are not facts.

Note:  The mind is a superb instrument if used correctly. However, if used incorrectly, it is very destructive  (Eckhart Tolle)

Image courtesy of Lee Kyeong Hwan