Observing mind
"An unexamined life is not worth living."
- Socrates
We have all the information and knowledge available now at the click of a button and it is growing at breakneck speed and coping with all these things become a challenge but at the psychological level, we are still at the same level. Those primordial emotions and our belief system still rule and program us and there is a disconnect between what is happening outside and our own psychological response to it. We are still a prisoner of the same old belief system which has outlived their life and no way helping us to prepare us for facing new challenges. It has implication not only for your professional life but the quality of your personal life also gets affected by it. One reason we find that there is no education or training is available and everything is left to the individual to fend with and mostly they follow and conform to what majority is doing and it creates a kind of vicious loops.
One does anything out of need and here apparently one does not find any and that explains a general aloofness towards such things, and even if someone wants also but then lack of practical tools hampers his efforts. For outside activities, you get all kind of knowledge and help but to work inside your skin at the psychological realm where you alone can go, no help is possible and not needed also. The only tool available is a mindfulness which is the capacity of the mind to observe its own actions in a non-judgmental way.
Let us begin with what you are and where you are and look at it and stay there and gradually layer by layer you will start uncovering things. Mindfulness Observation which is free from any judgment, condemnation or comparison will introduce you to ‘what it is ‘and there you will see the real you, not what you want to be or like to be. This is an inward journey where you will find that it is not easy for the mind to do so because there are so many things out there which are vying for your attention and doing this at the cost of them, it seems, does not make any sense.
Belief is important because it sits in your subconscious mind and shape and dictates all your action done through thinking mind. Look at all those impressions and self-talks which you have made starting from your childhood which helped in forming self-image and belief system in you. It is not a matter of being right or wrong but seeing what it is and how it has come to this level. If you are aware of it then you can make sense of actions of your thinking mind and that will open the door of possibilities for you.
Taking stock of all these things which is not a just one-day activity but a part of your living being, will make you look inwards but as it appears all actions are happening outside and if I am caught inside then who will take care of all those things which are happening outside? This will be the immediate question which one will face in this journey. Soon you will realize that what you are seeing inside is happening outside too. It is the same movement as the tide, coming in and going out. We fail to recognize this because it is covered with many things and if we can see through it and unmask it then we will find that it is arising out of the same movement which is happening inside you. That requires exploration which again starts with the need to understand and make sense of what is happening in our daily life.
Understanding this will make you free from those pathological actions which breed nothing but a vicious loop. You will be able to understand linkage which ties your belief, thinking mind and action and see how it is shaping all things in and around you. Through mindfulness you learn to observe your own mind and your own action and reaction and underlying belief system and there you discover the same movement which is happening inside you are happening outside too but covered in all sorts of activities, customs, traditions, nationalities, ideologies and deciphering all those things become an interesting and empowering adventure because then you will be aware of all those things and with awareness anything you do, you will bring different quality.