Are your thoughts wagging you?

“Your thoughts are not God!”

I heard this great line last week by podcaster and bestselling author Mel Robbins.

And how true it is.

It's a reminder of the main pillar of mindfulness too: to become the observer (or awareness) of your thoughts.

Because, without the practice of awareness, we tend to believe our thoughts as gospel. And this does make sense - our brains are still prehistoric in their wiring, after all. They haven't caught up with modern day - our hunter gatherer brains can still get the saber-toothed tiger adrenaline-dump when all we've hunted is an unexpected item in the bagging area.

We are prehistorically programmed to focus our thoughts on the negative, on what might go wrong, and that's ok.

Until it's not ok.

Until it becomes the tail wagging the dog.

And we're ruminating, and worrying, and procrastinating, and judging and storytelling.

And our thoughts dictate everything we feel and everything we do. And it's a habit. A habit that whittles us down and down to something husk-like.

But we are not our thoughts and we don't have to believe everything we think.

Mindful practice teaches that when we stop identifying with our thoughts, we access the peace and bliss and health that resides beyond our thinking minds.

And the litmus test is simple. If we're feeling good, at peace, then great - enjoy! But if we're feeling grouchy, sad, stressed, worried, chances are we're in tail-wagging-dog mode. Our thoughts are dictating our feelings and actions and we're not questioning, we're just blindly being controlled.

If you want to catch a "wagger", look out for thoughts that start with:

“I should...”
“I shouldn't...”
“They should / shouldn't...”
“What if...”
“If only...”
“I can't...”

If you spot one, try taking a deep breath, come into the moment and notice what you can see, hear and feel. Then ask yourself “Is this thought 100% true?”

If not, do yourself a favour and take it off its omnipotent pedestal 😉

Can you notice any wagging thoughts today?

Happy Monday,

Love, Jo