Thinking Our Way Free
Our life, for the most part, is the story we tell about it. That story is built off of a collection of thoughts that flows out of us on purpose (chosen) or on its own (automatic). We are what we think, the mantra goes. The brain doesn’t know the difference between what it experiences and what it imagines; which thoughts are unconscious and which are conscious.
But most people cannot recognize that a thought that visits us uninvited isn’t actually our responsibility or our story.
How do I make the story in my mind a story of less clinging? A story of service, gratitude, and kindness? If thoughts are programs that run in the background - what conscious thought habits do I need to rewrite the program to one of deep love versus deep hustle?
If I say “don’t cling” enough will I eventually rewrite the clinging in me? I think so.
My friend was hit by a car and she almost died. She didn’t. After that, she told me that she loved even her bad days. They were annoying and not ideal but she got to have them and that she loved.
At the end of the day - it comes down to practice. This is A Practice. It takes conscious intentional choices to be aware of a thought and not identify with it, and more conscious effort to see a thought and replace it with another. Research suggests that the average person may have between 6,000 and 70,000 thoughts per day - can we catch even a handful and turn them into our liberation, make them the driving force of our freedom.
P.S. I know this is a small freedom inside a world where genocide and daily unfreedoms persist. It isn’t the finish line; it’s the warm-up. The point of loosening our grip is to free our hands for each other. So we can show up, organize, protect, and move what’s heavy together.
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