Image by Ralf Ruppert

We all need to turn off intrusive thoughts. We all have a constant barrage of mental chatter. It’s incessant. Even when we sleep, the brain produces thoughts relevant to our current concerns. They may seem out of control. They may seem like they’re bombarding us resulting from every external influence around us. But the truth is, we are the ones who are external to our thoughts. We have the ability to step away from them while they chatter on in the background.

You Are Not Your Thoughts

You are not your thoughts. And science has shown us that behaviors and brain waves can be altered by stepping back from our thoughts, through meditation, suggesting that something beyond the brain comes into play. An ultimate awareness. A silent observer. Forever there, always in the background, calmly and unobjectively watching and listening to the thoughts.

Imagine a tiny but effervescent ball of light, sitting quietly inside an internal room in the center of the self. It was there before anything else, reflecting the ideas and suggestions and barrage of words and information hitting the exterior, like a mountain being pelted by a storm.

The mountain is immovable, it sits strong and powerful, protecting the inner light while its outer slopes get slowly worn down, year after year, by the storms outside. But the storms aren’t able to penetrate the mountain. Some of the rain and winds may filter through, through cracks and crevices that appear over time on the mountainside. Some of the information that the storms carry will most definitely seep through the cracks and reach the ball of light.

But by the time the information reaches the light, it is harmless. The quiet little light that has always sat inside, simply reflects the storms going on outside. It observes and reflects like a mirror, observes and reflects. Un-judging. All knowing. It reflects the storms back out through the top of the mountain, and into the sky to blend with the universe.

The little light was placed in the mountain long ago, a messenger, a receptor with a direct link to the external consciousness of The All That Is. And the two blend together, and the two work quietly in the background to produce what the little ball of light observes the mountain letting in.

Meditation Exercise: The Mountain and The Mirror

This beginner level meditation we are about to do is the perfect starting point to take our understanding of ourselves beyond our constant flow of thoughts. We will ground ourselves in the present moment and detach ourselves from our thoughts. By grounding ourselves first, we very firmly establish our presence and our personal, physical space.

We are used to seeing our thoughts coming from external influences, but we can learn to flip this idea and see that our Higher Self is also external to our thoughts. Universal Consciousness is above and beyond our thoughts, and completely in tune with our Higher Selves. The light within. Untouched, unhurried, unaffected, and connected to The All That Is.

So now I would like you to find a quiet place to sit for five or ten minutes, silence any digital distractions, and take this moment for yourself. Record this and play it back if it is convenient.

Sit comfortably, and close your eyes. Picture in your mind’s eye, a mountain, at the dawn of time. There are valleys and trees, and some neighboring mountains have snow-covered peaks. The universe sent down a little ball of light, a glowing Orb, in through the top of the mountain with a direct link back to Home, with a mission to simply observe what happens there so the light and the universe can learn.

In time, a small village grows nestled among the beautiful landscape of mountains. Now I want you to imagine that you are the light inside the mountain, overlooking the small village below. You sat here quietly before the village sprang up, and you have watched it grow before you.

Your mountain is solid, strong, unmovable and powerful. Everyone in the village knows the mountain’s name, and everyone in the village respects the mountain’s presence there. They see the mountain as wise and humble, the protector of their homes. They have grown up hearing legends about the mountain, truths and fables.

Over time you begin to know yourself as the mountain, because the mountain is your connection to the outside world. Those villagers have made up stories about the mountain, and you can relate to them as your stories, and the villagers know their personal history relating to you.

But what they don’t know is that you aren’t actually the mountainside that they all see. You are still the little light, quietly sitting inside, undisturbed, unshakeable, and all-knowing.

Your inner core, your true self, simply sits and reflects on what happens outside your walls. You hear the commotion, you hear the laughter, you hear the children play, and you also hear all of the stories about you. You find these stories entertaining and nothing more. You are not offended or affected. You feel no malice towards those who speak of you because why would you? They don’t know your truth.

Some of the stories are flattering, some are not. Either way, it makes no difference to you because you know who you really are at your core. You are the light, observing and reflecting, like a mirror.

Sooner or later the villagers disagree on some trivial matter. They fight with one another, they cause mayhem among themselves, they use you as an example to back up their claims of being right, to justify their cause. But you don’t participate, because you are inside your external walls that the villagers all see, you are the light, observing and reflecting, like a mirror.

As time goes on the villagers and their wars move away, others take their place, and your mountain is still there, standing strong, and you are safe inside, observing and reflecting. The weather brings storms, constant rains that flow incessantly down on your mountainside. Sometimes the rain just won’t let up. It goes on and on and over time it begins to erode your outer appearance.

To anyone on the outside you begin to appear haggard and worn. But you still glow inside, unaffected. You just sit and reflect. You sit and reflect. The rains continue, but you are quiet inside. You observe the constant rain flow as you observe all those villagers with their opinions about you. You may take an interest in them from time to time, but you know your own truth better than the rain or the commotion. You reflect all that you have learned back to the universe, and like you, the universe simply observes and learns, until it is time for you to go Home.

Take your time with this meditation. Feel yourself sitting strong and powerful, and begin to take note of your inner observer. The one who listens to the meditation itself, the light inside that observes and reflects, glowing, not judging, just watching.

When you feel the time is right, bring yourself back to your present space by wiggling your fingers and toes, take a few deep breaths, and open your eyes.

It’s Not You!

So here we go. It’s as simple as this. Are you ready?

You are not your thoughts.

That’s it.

Do you know how you can know this? Because you are the one listening to them. You are listening to your thoughts, and buying into everything that they tell you. So if you are listening to your thoughts, then who is producing them? It’s you, right? You’re making the thoughts, you are producing the mental chatter at a biochemical level and you’re listening to it. You might talk to yourself on occasion, you might word these thoughts vocally to reinforce them as you go about your day-to-day business.

You hear yourself turn these thoughts into words as you berate yourself for spilling the cat’s food on the kitchen floor or clicking send before you’ve finished writing the message. Surely it’s you? Who knows you better than you know yourself and what’s happened to you and all the judgements that you place upon yourself or that others place upon you because of what you think and desire and say and have done? It must be you, right?

The answer is no. It’s not you.

Your Brain Produces Thoughts

Your brain produces your thoughts, and you observe them. Most of us get caught up in those thoughts. And most of us let our thoughts run rampant through our brains, putting us down, worrying about this, fixating on that, keeping us awake, stressing over outcomes that are yet to come. When one thought goes another arrives, instantly. In fact, they come so thick and fast that they overtake the other and it can become overwhelming; it can all become too much.

So if your brain produces your thoughts and you are the one listening to your brain, then who is the you that observes the thoughts? Consciousness.

Consciousness makes itself known as separate from the thought. A knowing about a thought. An awareness of the knowing about the thought produced by the brain. Something beyond the mind, a universal insight blending with our own intuition. The very fact that a child can contemplate that he is separate from his thoughts reminds us that this was who we were before we became who we are.

Copyright 2023. All Rights Reserved.
Adapted with permission of the publisher, OBooks.

Article Source:

BOOK: Letting Glow

Letting Glow: A Guide to Intuition, Spirituality, and Living Consciously
by Phill Webster.

What if mystical experiences are real? What if inspiration, instinct, and ingenuity are the same as intuition, divination, and clairvoyance? Letting Glow is an adventure into mediumship and takes a deeper look at how we experience time, consciousness, and our relationship with our higher self. A profoundly personal account of grief during the global COVID-19 pandemic, Letting Glow aims at finding solace and hope by connecting with our intuition. Simple changes in thinking, meditation exercises, and shifting our perspectives on everyday reality can transform our lives into ones of intent, purpose, and a deeper connection with the all that is.

For more info and/or to order this book, click here.  Also available as a Kindle edition.

About the Author

Phill Webster is an author, actor, and spiritual seeker. After living abroad and travelling the world for twenty years, he returned to his native England in 2017 and embarked on an acting career. At the tail end of the COVID-19 pandemic, an unexplained event, coupled with a devastating loss, sent him down a completely different path forever. His debut best selling book 'Letting Glow' documents his journey into the mystical, and helps us connect with our highest states of intuition, realigning the connection between our thoughts, consciousness, and our authentic selves, and ultimately, searches for proof that we survive physical death. 

Visit his website at: PhillWebster.com.