You are not your mind. You are infinitely more than that.
Everyday do you recall any of the following – silently talking to yourself, being in a meeting but thinking of something else, reading an email and then getting lost in some thought, reading news and then imagining something related to it, seeing an attractive stranger and then watching fantasies emerge or most commonly experiencing anxiety regarding a future event or regret regarding the past..
You have just seen your mind at work ☺
Question is – when you are talking to yourself, who is talking to whom ? clearly one person or actor in the conversation is coming from the mind who is asking questions and creating thoughts. Then what is also clear is that the other person or actor in the conversation is someone else apart from the mind – the real you. You are not your mind.
Take another situation. When you read an email and then went into thought, can you notice your thoughts emerge and follow them. Can you see how one thought leads to another thought ? Again if your mind is creating these thoughts and you are noticing them, then the mind is the perceived and you are the perceiver. You are not your mind.
Why is this important ? The mind is a fickle animal. It creates endless thoughts when given the chance, often incoherent, random and usually trying to go into the past creating regret or into the future, creating anxiety. It prevents you from living in the present, from focusing on the task at hand by creating these fantasies that take you away.
Once you realise you are not your mind and that your mind is actual a tool at your service when you need it, you can watch and observe it. everytime you see it creating thoughts, ideas and fantasies, you can choose to follow them or choose to notice and stop them.
This is the purpose of all meditation. To quieten the mind and use It only when it is really needed. However for most people this is hard to absorb as they think they and their mind are one. I encourage you to spend a week noticing your mind’s creations and realizing that you are the silent watcher behind the scenes. Once you truly realise this you are free from the tyranny of endless random thoughts and fantasies.
You are not your mind. You are infinitely more than that.