Cultivating observing ego

 Do you ever have days where it feels like your mind is working against you?

Maybe your thoughts swirl about like the currents in a vicious storm, and you find it difficult to know which ones to listen to.

Maybe your thoughts seem clear, but are filled with righteous indignation and compel you to take action you know to be unwise.

Maybe your thoughts seem to be poisoning your mind with fear, holding you back from that which you know you must do.

Or maybe your thoughts are simply trying to nudge you away from what you really want to do and towards something unhelpful:

•    Hitting the snooze button one more time

•    Having one more snack

•    Scrolling Instagram for just a few more minutes

What power do you have in the face of your own thoughts?

Fortunately, you have more than you realize.

With a little effort, you can develop the ability to slice through the fog of your own mind and bring regular clarity and precision to your thoughts.

To catch any unhelpful thoughts sneaking into the sanctum of your mind and toss them out before they can do any damage.

And all you need to do is start regularly observing your own thoughts, building some separation between “you” and the thoughts that run through your head.

Psychologists call this “observing ego.” Eastern philosophers & spiritual practitioners refer to it as stepping into “the witness.”  But it’s more or less the same practice: you step back from your thoughts and watch them without judgement.

Instead of getting angry with yourself, trying to suppress your thoughts, trying to distract yourself, or taking your thoughts as truth and jumping into action, you instead observe them all.

Like the King or Queen of your own court, you can seek to recognize which thoughts are coming from the wise sage, which from the passionate warrior, which from the irresponsible jester, and which from the lazy trickster.

Those characters who you listen to more often will develop greater influence in your own mind.

The more you get into the habit of observing your own thoughts, the more you will cultivate “observing ego” and the better you will become at recognizing the thought patterns in your own head, giving you the power to choose the more helpful ones.

Meditation is so powerful because it is a practice of continually recognizing where your thoughts are going and bringing them back to a focal point such as your breath, a mantra, an object in front of you, etc.

Then when your thoughts are getting away from you in the middle of a heated conversation, or an internal struggle, you recognize where they are going and bring them back to that which you would prefer to focus on. Just like you practiced.

But you don’t have to meditate in order to cultivate observing ego. You can simply start noticing your thoughts throughout the day, occasionally "stepping back" and observing them as they come to the surface of your mind.

With time, this practice will become second nature.

And soon you will come to realize that you need not stay in any storm occurring with your own mind. 

Instead, you can consciously choose to rise up into the clear skies above the clouds...far beyond the reaches of the storm below.