We Are Not Our Thoughts

WE, as human beings, are responsible for our own lives. We are responsible for what we think and what we choose not to think. Though it might seem like a common statement to make, let’s stop for a moment and evaluate its importance.

How many times have we thought about ourselves in terms of what other people think of us? Probably, much more than we realise! Give it a moment of consideration. Do we label ourselves lazy, when our mother calls us lazy because we have delayed taking a bath? Do we consider ourselves judgemental after our spouse has accused us of being judgemental since we criticised themduring an argument? If you answer yes, then it is likely that you are identifying with whatever you are thinking. This also means that you might be thinking ‘whatever I think, I am so.’ If I think I am lazy, then probably I am. If someone close to me thinks I am judgemental, then I must be so.

If we try to evaluate if this is true, perhaps we might find ourselves mistaken. Do we become synonymous with the ‘adjectivelazy’ if we acted lazy on one or more occasions? Then what about the times, when we got up and did our job right away because it was important to do so. Why is it necessary to call ourselves judgemental just because we might have acted judgementally during an argument with spouse? The thing to consider here, is, that we are notsolely what we call ourselves or what others call us. We might be much more than that. Despite labelling ourselves ‘negatively’ and calling ourselves lazy, judgmental, or other names, we might act quite differently under different circumstances. Labelling ourselvesmakes us focus on only one aspect of ourselves and closes our eyes to the whole range of behaviours and thoughts that we are capable of performing. It may even make us less thoughtful leading to a tendency to act in an automatic and robot-like fashion.

Isn’t it better to focus on what we are capable of, rather than what we have done or been in the past? That’s a question we need to ask ourselves!

We are not our thoughts – Ushnaa Ghatak