Imagine yourself sitting at a cafe in the corner of a bustling marketplace. As you sip on your tea or coffee, you’re taking in the sounds of vendors hawking their wares, vibrant colors assaulting your eyes, and the intoxicating scent of exotic spices fill the air. You’re bombarded with a cacophony of information, yet you remain a detached observer. This, my friends, is the essence of what it means to be the observer of yourself.
“We are what our thoughts have made us; So take care about what you think. Words are secondary. Thoughts live; They travel far.” – Swami Vivekananda
“Believing others is easy but believing in yourself that’s the real challenge” – Swami Vivekananda
“Conquer yourself and the whole universe is yours.” – Swami Vivekananda
“The highest manifestation of strength is to keep ourselves calm and on our own feet.” – Swami Vivekananda
All of this is good advice, but HOW…?
HOW… to take care of what we think?
HOW… to believe in ourselves?
HOW… to conquer ourselves?
HOW… to keep ourselves calm?
At least partly, the answer is to be able to do what you did in the marketplace. Take a step outside of yourself, and take a good look at all of the business that you can see.
Can you take a step back, look at YOU and really see?
OBSERVE… what you are busy thinking…
OBSERVE… how you doubt yourself…
OBSERVE… how you are acting from old patterns…
OBSERVE… yourself struggling to stay calm…
It might not at first be clear what being the observer does in a practical sense because there is one crucial ingredient still missing… OBSERVE without judgement.
When you try to take such a deep look at yourself in the presence of self-judgement, then you are likely to react in fear by punishing yourself, attacking yourself or the opposite – trying to hide or numb the parts of you that you don’t really want to see.
When you’re able to take a look at you and just OBSERVE, you’ll start to learn about yourself. You’ll learn to understand why you do what you do. You’ll get to see how old programming plays a role in dictating your actions before you even get the chance to think. And without self-judgement you won’t be in fight-or-flight, and you’ll be able to see more clearly what the best course of action will be.
Today’s meditation is the very simple practice of taking a real good look at ourselves without judgement, by being able to allow our 5 physical senses to show us what experience they are having while we just observe.
As you embark on this journey of self-observation, consider these guiding mantras:
- “I am the observer of my thoughts, not their prisoner.”
- “I witness my patterns without judgment, and I choose conscious action.”
- “With curiosity, I explore the landscape of my inner world.”
- “Amidst the storm, I observe my breath and find my center.”
Becoming the observer is a practice, not a destination. There will be days when the storm rages, obscuring your view. But with consistent effort and gentle self-compassion, you’ll cultivate the unwavering presence of the observer within you, and become the co-author of your own story, one mindful moment at a time.
– pierre –
Today’s LIVE meditation is: Come to your senses.