Excess Thinking - Am I my thoughts?

Our thoughts are always on guard for any possible attack..
It may go like this..
They said something, was it about me? Should I defend myself? Should I tell them they are wrong? Why did they react the way they did to what I said? How will I save face? ~On and on the dramas continue..

Eckhart Tolle wrote several books and the theme is how our (unobserved) automatic thoughts are responsible for human suffering.. This includes our fears, hopes, desires, worries, ambitions, anger, etc..

If we are going over some ''If Onlys' in our life each day.. If things happen and we are constantly being reminded of an abusive situation that we survived.. If we are often reminded about a past mistake.. If we can't forgive others (or ourselves) and carry that angst with us.. Then we are unhappy because we have too much 'past' in our thinking.

If we desire to be well respected or perhaps to have more money. Maybe we are waiting for some evaluation. Or we may be thinking of the reasons we need designer clothes, a bigger car or house.. All these thoughts also keep us in drama.. We are unhappy or suffering because we have too much 'future' in our thinking..

If we can silence our thoughts, we will experience a 'NOW' moment. The 'now' is only 'time' that truly exists, but we are not 'aware' of this because of the dramas we are always creating..

A good movie to watch that suggests being in the now is "A Peaceful Warrior". I have also heard about a movie 'The Legend of Baggar Vance' but I have not seen it.

I am not saying we shouldn't have these thoughts.. The key is that we shouldn't let these thoughts work 'constantly' in automation and 'always' be unobserved .. If they are in automation then we are at the mercy of our thoughts.. We become a judging human being that mostly reacts in automation.. ~Unconscious of our True Self and conscious of only our nature and/or nurturing created personalities that our thinking creates.. (sometimes referred to as our 'false self')

Wisdom tells us that if our life conditions are intollerable we should...  "Change it or Move away from it. If we can't change it or remove ourselves from it, we should accept it..TOTALLY along with the consequences." This same wisdom is expressed in the 'Serenity Prayer'.

IF we can observe our thoughts and how they mostly work automatically -we can become 'aware'..
Aware of what? Aware of who the 'observer' is.. This is what is meant when someone has, 'Awareness'..

To be continued..

If my spouse should read this.. Happy Birthday, Jim

Conversation quotes this week..

"I need to focus on other things" She wrote..

My reply, "Yes, distractions help.. But sometimes we just defer the stress into something else.. We unconsciously make ourselves unhappy with other things because we can't change what is really making us unhappy.."

"Yes, if we observe our thoughts and reactions then we can change them." Another friend said via phone.
My afterthought..
"I don't think we need to try to change our reaction. I think we should first just try to decide if we want to have that reaction or not to have that reaction.. (free will returning).. It is not to bury or supress the emotion but to see it for what it really is -ENERGY.. Anger or hate can build up a lot of energy.. Don't think of it as "I am angry" but rather, "I feel anger." Deal with the anger as energy.. If we deal with it by letting it create more thoughts and we believe we are our thoughts, we are dealing with anger in an unconscious way."