June 2011
I want peace of mind and peace in the world, and I am guessing if you are reading this so do you. The question is, why don’t we have peace? I believe what is in the way of peace for you, for me, and for everyone on the planet is what we are thinking. It isn’t the thoughts themselves, it is that we actually believe them. And it doesn’t stop there, we have feelings about the thoughts and we live from what we are thinking as if it is true. Much of the time we are dreaming, living in the virtual world of our minds and we believe they are true.
In our culture it is common for us to label, to judge, and to compare in our thoughts and conversations. ”He is such a jerk,” “She is always like that,” “I know I am better than they are.” Then we mix what actually happened with what we think about what happened and we believe it all the same. ”She didn’t call me last week (observation), and I know it is because she is still mad at me because of xyz (evaluation).” Marshall Rosenberg calls these “life-alienating” communications, and in my experience they are “life-alienating” in that I find that they easily disconnect me from connection. Think about how you feel when someone tells you things like “I know you are thinking that I am wrong,” or “You always do that”. These types of statements tend to disconnect us from other people, and when I do speak this way I find that the other person is usually so busy trying to defend themselves that they are unable to listen to anything I want them to hear.
If we can recognize that a thought is just that – a thought – we have almost won our freedom to peace. Once we become aware that we are observing a thought, we become the witness. As the witness we are not trapped into living from the thought, we are free to choose. To notice the thought, “He was wrong for doing that”, and then we can say to ourselves “oh, look at the thought I am having, I think he is wrong.” Then I can wonder what did “he” actually do that I did not enjoy? The answer to this question can bring us closer to what we want instead of living with the powerless thought that “He is wrong.”
Be the watcher, catch a thought and free yourself and someone else at the same time.
Until next time,
Blessings, Love, and Peace Matters
Lori
