You can argue against it and assert yourself.
If you have a thought that doesn’t align with your values, you can choose to reject that thought. We are the entity noticing that those thoughts don’t fit with who we want to be. But the very fact that we don’t like those thoughts means we’re not those thoughts.
And we often feel ashamed of ourselves for having those thoughts because we mistakenly believe they are a reflection of our true selves. But you are a complicated, dynamic person with long-term goals. Your thoughts are often simple, short-sighted reactions to events and situations. Your thoughts tend to reflect your current feelings, and your feelings change pretty often. Your automatic thoughts are a product of human nature interacting with your current environment along with all your past experiences, your upbringing, your culture, and your beliefs. For now, you can rest assured that you are not your thoughts. Maybe one day we’ll have a better answer to this question. Maybe one day psychologists and neuroscientists will solve the riddle of consciousness. And you are not your actions, so making a mistake doesn’t mean you’re an idiot, and doing something selfish doesn’t mean you’re immoral. You are also not your feelings, so emotions like jealousy and rage don’t make you a bad person. But again, you are more than the sum of your parts. You are also the observer of your emotions and the director of your actions. Sometimes you get to be the director, but often you are just the observer. However, your thoughts frequently arise automatically without any direction from you at all. This feels better because it puts you in the driver’s seat. Another answer is that you are the director of your thoughts. You are the entity that listens to your thoughts. One answer is that you are the observer of your thoughts. So, if you’re not your thoughts, who are you? But the self is surely something greater than the sum of its parts. Perhaps our thoughts are part of who we are, along with our feelings, our inclinations, and our personality. It’s easy to get wrapped up in all that thinking and mistakenly believe it’s who we really are. We create and listen to a running narrative of our life. Our inner experience is largely composed of thoughts. The message here is simple: You are not your thoughts. Today, I’m offering a quick corollary to my previous post, Don’t Believe Everything You Think. Are you consistently doing what's best for you? Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
0 kommentar(er)
