Here's a tip for self-observation. For those of you who don’t know what I mean, it’s the ability to observe yourself, to see how you think, feel, and react. By seeing this, there is the opportunity to change inside - from undesirable states such as fear, to desirable ones such as peace. This changes the whole way we live our life.

Many people who try this have a lot of trouble in seeing and changing thoughts: as scientists estimate there are about 80,000 a day, this is to be expected. Not only that, but we have to think to live, and how do we sort out the harmful thoughts from the useful ones?

Well there are two main things to do: firstly learn to be aware of the present moment, of the outside world. This gets rid of a lot of the chain of thoughts - then observe. Thoughts that are generated by undesirable subconscious states have their root in emotions and feelings. These generate thoughts, then in turn the thoughts which later appear, themselves become triggers for these same emotions and feelings. So you think about what your neighbour said to you when he was angry and you get an emotion corresponding to that event, even though it’s just in your mind.

To get into this, look at the emotions and feelings; they usually work beneath the process of thinking and trigger off thoughts. If a thought itself is a trigger, then it’s after its ‘feed’, which is taken from the corresponding emotion. Look at the underlying emotions that usually pass unnoticed and change them. By doing so, you’ll get rid of the trigger for innumerable harmful thoughts.

Some who try this tip say that it’s more difficult to see underlying emotions than it is to see thoughts. Consider that instead of observing, you may just be thinking about the thought you just had, rather than observing an underlying emotion as it actually happens. This indicates an intellectual approach to self-observation, which in turn indicates a need to re-learn self-observation.

Belzebuub