Thoughts precede emotions, even if you are not aware of them. You are living in the feeling of your thinking, not the feeling of your circumstances. The world is a veil of illusion. Therefore don’t allow your feelings to control your thoughts. Your mood creates your day: Your day does not create your mood. Even if it feels that way. How is it that you can go from being happy to being sad and vice versa without anything changing in the outside world? It is because your thinking has changed.
As Mark Twain wrote "Life does not consist mainly, or even largely, of facts or happenings. It consist mainly of the storm of thoughts that is forever flowing through one's head." Your emotions are inside you.
The easy solution would seem to be to replace all negative thoughts with positive ones. This means a shift in perception from fear (negative thinking and negative emotions) to love (positive thinking and positive emotions.) This can be easier said than done.
So, is there another solution? Well yes there is! It’s easier to drop out of thought by letting your Self off the 'hook' of that thought. Let me explain…
Let your Self off the hook
Where do thoughts come from?
The thoughts that enter your mind do not come from you, they arise spontaneously. In recovery this is referred to as ‘stinking thinking’. The Buddhists call it the ‘monkey mind’. The mind is phenomenally powerful. But you are not your mind and you have power over whether you give power to the thoughts that arise.
Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj wrote "Your true nature is beyond description. It cannot be known with the mind, yet exists. It is the Source of everything."
Let your Self off the hook
You don’t have to substitute negative thoughts with positive ones or chase pleasant feelings or try to escape unpleasant ones. You don’t have a reality problem or an emotional problem: You have a thinking problem. Don’t worry: It’s the human experience and is very common, but it doesn't need to be that way. Everyone does this until we awaken to the Truth. So you can stop making mountains out of molehills and monsters out of thin air.
All thoughts are transient: This too shall pass. You will wake up when you realise that you can only suffer from your own thinking; not from your circumstances. Our thoughts then change by themselves, weeding out negative thoughts through conscious awareness. Your thinking is the only cause of your suffering. Let it go. Surrender the thought. ‘Unhook’ the thought. This does take a little practice, but it’s the easiest way to drop out of negative thinking and the inevitable negative feeling that follows.
Emotions are simply shadows of our thoughts. Stop charging up negative thoughts. Don’t board the 'train of thought' to a destination that you don’t want to go to. Your thinking is only a variable guide to reality. Feelings, however, are a foolproof guide to our thinking. Feelings tell us about the quality of our thinking.
Don’t analyse or give power to your thoughts. You are the thinker, not the thoughts. Feel your feelings and then let them go. Jump off the 'train of negative thought' and let the feelings go once you have felt them. Just stop thinking about your thoughts. Let them pass through like water through sand. Remain seated at your ‘seat of ease’: The seat of your soul. There is no need to get up and join the fight that is going on outside.
What I think doesn’t matter. What other people think doesn’t matter. Surrender all judgement and you dissolve all negative thinking. Visualise the thought caught on a little hook and visualise you taking the thought off the hook and letting it go. What remains is no thought. This is the state of pure consciousness, spiritual bliss, and it is your natural state. It’s the state you were born in. By unhooking your Self from negative thoughts you return to your natural state. The negative emotions stop coming. If visualising doesn’t work for you, then meditating about unhooking your Self, breathwork, yoga, and walks in Nature will assist you in returning to spiritual bliss. This is why these practices need to become part of your regular daily routine.
You are not your thoughts
Your thoughts are not you. You are simply the observer of your thoughts. Feelings aren't facts. Fears are not facts. We have 60,000 thoughts per day. Most of them are repetitive and negative. Your mind is not you. Your soul is you. Your soul resides in the heart. You latch on to some of your repetitive thoughts, which become your ‘thinking’. These negative thoughts cause negative emotions. Simply note the thought and the feeling, then unhook your Self from the thought. Then you will feel bliss, which is the formless energy that you feel when you are aligned to your purpose or when you are in Nature. You have access to it any time and anywhere. You will eventually feel this all the time: This is called Enlightenment. Don't seek oblivion. Seek bliss.
Non-attachment is the process of letting go of the thoughts and emotions that create suffering. Once you can stop being so attached to your thoughts, you will experience tremendous relief, inner peace and a pervasive 'BEingness' The thoughts are sneaky as they come from the ego, which is a fear-based illusion. They try to catch you like a fish. Just unhook your Self from the thought and you will fall into bliss. Don’t worry that your mind will be empty. An empty mind allows Universal consciousness to fill your cup. With this inner knowing you will know the mind of God.
Marianne Williamson wrote that “The Universe is not the author of fear. You are.”
Mastery over forces within you, the various energies that flow through you can give you the strength and confidence to gain control of the phenomenal power of your mind. Every thought is a force that generates an action. If the force is negative, a negative action will follow, just as a positive thought leads towards positive action. When you start to understand and comprehend this, you come to realise that you have the power to change, to influence, to direct your thoughts, and subsequently, your thoughts can be a force for good. The way you behave is governed by the way you think. Put your mind to serving others and the deepest peace, serenity, and contentment will be yours.
Jesse Owens saids that "The battles that count aren't the ones for gold medals. The struggles within your Self, the invisible, inevitable battles inside all of us. That's where it's at."
Jesse Owens was an American track and field athlete who won four gold medals at the 1936 Olympic Games. Owens specialised in the sprints and the long jump and was recognised in his lifetime as "Perhaps the greatest and most famous athlete in track and field history". He set three world records and tied another, all in less than an hour, at the 1935 Big Ten track meet in Ann Arbor, Michigan, a feat that has never been equalled and has been called "the greatest 45 minutes ever in sport".
Conclusion
Thoughts precede emotions, even if you are not aware of them. You are living in the feeling of your thinking, not the feeling of your circumstances. Simply unhook your Self from negative thoughts, let them float by, and you will find bliss. You don't need to replace the negative thought with a positive one or try to suppress the emotion. Emotions are the barometer of the soul. The emotion will pass when you unhook your Self from the negative thought, feel the emotion and let it go. This is all good news. We just need to stop empowering our thoughts. Our guidance system lies not in analysing our thoughts, but in feeling our feelings. When we are feeling good, we are on the right track. Our feelings then are not something to be afraid of - they are an early warning system that you need to disconnect from the thought that caused them and stop taking our thinking so seriously. It is important to remain present, knowing that when your thinking changes, your feeling will change with it. As your mood lifts, so will the quality of your thinking. This can take you a long way to living a life of your dreams. Stay 'before the because' - so don't look for reasons why you are feeling as you are. When you see through the dream of your thought-created realities, you wake up to the deepest part of your Self - your soul: Your pure, unconditioned nature.
Control your Self; Alter your thinking; Delete negativity by unhooking from it
H. L. Mencken wrote that "We are here and it is now. Further than that, all knowledge is moonshine."
Jack Pransky wrote "All we are is peace, love, and wisdom, and the power to create the illusion that we are not."
Michael A. Singer, who authored one of my favourite books 'Living Untethered', wrote "There is nothing more important to true growth than realising that you are not the voice in the mind - you are the one who hears it." You are the witness.
Lao Tzu, who wrote the 'Tao Te Ching', wrote very simply "Stop thinking, and end your problems... To a mind that is still the whole Universe surrenders." Such incredible wisdom!
You don’t perceive and feel reality. You perceive and feel your thinking. It is a thought-created world. Every feeling that you feel is a reflection of a thought, not of the world around you. The more clearly you see this, the more easily you will be able to unhook the thought. Simply feel your feelings, without adding in a fear-based story about why you feel that way. The gift of this insight is that you stop needing to change the world or stop trying to feel the way you feel. While you don't control your thoughts, they don't control you either: You can release the attachment, by letting go of the hook to the thought. There are no exceptions to the inside-out nature of experience. It's time to wake up to the world of possibility that surrounds you...
Namaste.
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Olly Alexander Branford MBBS, MA(Cantab), PhD
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I have a Bachelor's degree in Natural Sciences from Trinity College, Cambridge; a Master's Degree in Philosophy from Trinity College, Cambridge; a PhD Doctorate in Scientific Research from University College London (UCL); a Medical Degree (MD/MBBS) from The Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine, London and have been a doctor and reconstructive trauma and cancer surgeon in London for 20 years. I have published over 50 peer reviewed scientific journal articles, have been an associate editor and frequent scientific faculty member, and am the author of several scientific books. I have been awarded my Diploma in Transformative Life Coaching in London, which has International Coaching Federation (ICF) Accreditation, as well as the UK Association for Coaching (AC), and the European Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC). I have been on my own transformative journey full time for four years and I am ready to be your guide to you finding out who you really are and how the world works.