Most of what we call “thinking” is actually internal “chatter”. Chatter is that little voice that is critical, judgmental and always on loud speaker inside.
True “thinking” is only occurring when we are consciously developing a new structure of thought outside of the everyday common chatter. True “thinking” is a creative act.
From Webster’s Dictionary: “Incantation (in kan TAY shun) n. - a chant; the repetition of statements or phrases in a way reminiscent of a chant.” Most of what we call “thinking” is a repetition of the same phrases and feelings and “thoughts” over and over again in a manner that “invokes” their physical reality. Most of our feelings and thoughts are not real other than to the extent that we chant them and “invoke” them to become real.
(I continue to work on distinguishing for myself “feeling” like a true observation of the Now versus those same “feelings” I have over and over again like endless chatter stuck in a loop.)
There is an automatic, already program running inside of you. Maybe part of it is the anscestral, genetic code you got through your parents. Part of the programming you learned from the shared patterns of the community.
Most of us, most of the time are trapped inside the world of our “thinking”. The chatter inside of our head – the conversation that we are – is creating a world. From the perspective of our view, we see the world in a certain way. The way that the world is, is a function of our individual world view.
Every day we wake up and repeat our incantation to ourselves. “Arghhh, I hate work.” “I am so sick of mother calling me about that same issue.” “I am going to stay busy all day long so I don’t have time to socialize.” “I know that I should not eat/drink/smoke that but I’m going to do it anyways.” "I can't do it."
The very first thing to do is to become aware of the already, always conversations running in your mind. Become aware and allow those conversations to be. You can’t change the old conversations by will power or by more thinking. But you can breathe into them, consciously. You can observe the already, automatic reactions that you are, breathe into them and then choose whether to act that way, or not.
What if we could break the pattern and mentally rehearse something new each and every day? “What is the greatest ideal of myself that I can be today?”
Before you get out of bed, picture how you will interact with your spouse. What kind of communication do you want to have at work? Rehearse it until you feel solid in it. Then get up. Then go demonstrate the new version of you that you have created.
Your “default” mode – your normal way of being – is merely the way that you have practiced being over and over again. It is ok to start practicing something new.
