Everyday Practices
Looking At, Not From
For Watching the Mind Without Being Pulled In
US$6 3 practices · 7 tracks · listen or download
Get the pack · US$6The mind rarely stops. Thoughts keep arriving, one after another, and some of them grab hold. We end up looking at the world from a thought, as if it were the truth, without even noticing it’s there.
There’s another way to be with them. We can look at our thoughts instead of from them. They’ll keep coming, because that’s what minds do. But from a seat a little further back, we can see them for what they are, and choose which ones get our energy.
Two of these practices give you a picture to help with that: your hands held up in front of your eyes, and a theatre where your thoughts are the actors. Each is followed by a short letter to your mind and a rhyming affirmation. The third is a short talk on looking at thoughts instead of from them.
Every track also comes in a shorter version. Hands as Thoughts lets you choose the letter or the exercise on its own. The Theatre of My Mind comes without the letter, and I Am Not My Thoughts has a shorter talk.
What’s inside
Hands as Thoughts
3 versions
Full version · 11 minLetter and affirmation · 8 minExercise and affirmation · 6 min
For when your thoughts are blocking your view. You hold your hands open like a book, then raise them slowly until they cover your eyes, and look at the world through the gaps. This is how it is when we’re caught up in our thoughts. Then you lower them, very slowly, and notice how much more you can see. A letter to your mind follows, and the affirmation ‘when I observe them, I set myself free.’ The shorter versions give you the letter or the exercise, each with the affirmation.
The Theatre of My Mind
2 versions
Full version · 10 minWithout the letter · 7 min
For when you’re lost in the drama in your head. Your mind is a grand old theatre and your thoughts are the actors, like the critic pointing out your flaws, or the worrier pacing the stage, forecasting disaster. You step off the stage and take a seat in the audience, far enough back to see they’re playing roles. A few questions follow, then a letter to your mind and the affirmation ‘I sit in the audience, granting them space.’ The shorter version leaves out the letter.
I Am Not My Thoughts
2 versions
Full version · 7 minShorter version · 3 min
For when a thought feels like who you are. It starts with the words ‘I am not my thoughts unless I choose them.’ I talk you through the difference between looking from a thought, where it becomes your whole view, and looking at it, where it’s something passing through. Thoughts grow stronger when we feed them, whether we dwell on them or fight them. It ends with you as the one who sees them, and gets to choose. The shorter version covers looking from and looking at, then finishes.