I am frequently asked by people for advice regarding their personal and professional lives and I usually start with questions such as, “What happens in your mind? What do you see, hear, feel, and think?” It is shocking how few people are able to answer these relatively straightforward questions, yet the answers are crucial to overcoming the challenges. The good news is that it is fairly easy to develop this self awareness.
A simple, yet powerful, meditation technique is to create a silent watcher over our own mind. Its a simple practice that you can begin to develop into a daily habit. Take a small part of your attention and assign this part the task of watching everything that flutters through your mind. Imagine this part as a video camera that records everything, to be stored and analyzed almost immediately after it occurs. Stop reading for a few brief moments, and try this RIGHT NOW! As you begin to develop this ability, you can notice thoughts, stories, narratives, emotions, reactions, and many other processes going on in your mind. By watching and then analyzing yourself at all times, in all situations, you can discover what kinds of thoughts are going through your mind, which will quickly bring realizations and epiphanies about your own beliefs, motivations, actions, and reactions.
The only way a fish can understand water is by getting onto the shore, and looking back down into the water. You are the fish and the water represents your thoughts. In order to understand, analyze, and ultimately steer your mind, you first need to watch yourself from the outside, as a passive observer. At first, this may seem to be strange, or daunting as the self now how has to pay attention to the self, but it quickly becomes second nature. I want to make it very clear that the watcher or observer must not participate or be in any way involved in what is going on in the mind. This means that it should not make comments or judgments on what is seen, but simply observe passively and report, similar to a surveillance camera.
Be patient and do not become discouraged if you forget or become distracted, this is completely natural. Keep with it, and in time you will develop the ability to keep mental track of the chaotic landscape of the mind without becoming distracted from daily activities. If I could recommend any one meditation technique in the world, this would be it. It is crucial key to opening the door to self awareness, personal growth, stress management, mental clarity, and peace of mind.
I am frequently asked by people for advice regarding their personal and professional lives and I usually start with questions such as, “What happens in your mind? What do you see, hear, feel, and think?” It is shocking how few people are able to answer these relatively straightforward questions, yet the answers are the key to overcoming many people’s challenges. The good news is that it is fairly easy to develop this self awareness.
A simple, yet powerful, meditation technique is to create a silent watcher over your own mind. Its a simple practice that you can begin to develop into a daily habit. Take a small part of your attention and assign this part the task of watching everything that flutters through your mind. Imagine this part as a video camera that records everything, to be stored and analyzed almost immediately after it occurs. Stop reading for a few brief moments, and try this RIGHT NOW! As you begin to develop this ability, you can notice thoughts, stories, narratives, emotions, reactions, and many other processes going on in your mind. By watching and then analyzing yourself at all times, in all situations, you can discover what kinds of thoughts are going through your mind, which will quickly bring realizations and epiphanies about your own beliefs, motivations, actions, and reactions.
The only way a fish can understand water is by getting onto the shore, and looking back down into the water. You are the fish and the water represents your thoughts. In order to understand, analyze, and ultimately steer your mind, you first need to watch yourself from the outside, as a passive observer. At first, this may seem to be strange, or daunting as the self now how has to pay attention to the self, but it quickly becomes second nature. I want to make it very clear that the watcher or observer must not participate or be in any way involved in what is going on in the mind. This means that it should not make comments or judgments on what is seen, but simply observe passively and report, similar to a surveillance camera.
Be patient and do not become discouraged if you forget or become distracted, this is completely natural. Keep with it, and in time you will develop the ability to keep mental track of the chaotic landscape of the mind without becoming distracted from daily activities. If I could recommend any one meditation technique in the world, this would be it. It is crucial key to opening the door to self awareness, personal growth, stress management, mental clarity, and peace of mind.
Related posts:
- Meditation Techniques – Becoming a Passive Observer
- Meditation Techniques For Beginners – Watching The Breath
- Mind Altering & Meditation Technology – The Psyleron Mind Lamp
- Meditation Techniques: Practicing Forgiveness
- Meditation Techniques: Mindfulness Joy of Being Present
Tags: meditation guide, mindfulness, Techniques
This entry was posted
on Friday, June 26th, 2009 at 7:49 pm and is filed under Techniques.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Hey may I quote some of the information from this blog if I provide a link back to your site?
Hi Chasidy, sorry I just caught this now. Yes, please quote whatever you like from this site.
Mindfully yours,
Vlad