Conduct your brain.
If you don’t conduct your brain - it will conduct you,
For most of your life, your orchestra has been playing without you.
Imagine this. Think of an orchestra, trying to play a complex piece together for the first time, without a conductor. There is a chance we would be able to recognize the composer or the piece, but it would probably be a disappointing, and maybe even terrible experience.
Now think about your brain this way. It has all the prerequisites to function perfectly, but when there is no conductor, the outcome will be uncertain at best, and self-sabotaging at worst.
This conductor is you.
When we direct conscious attention towards our brain and our thinking, we step onto the podium.
The brain responds to self observation and we start living consciously.
So the next step is to practice separating yourself from your thoughts. And from your emotions. They are not you. But they run you.
Once we learn to observe our thinking, instead of obeying it, we can discern what is happening within us, from what is happening to us.
I would like to offer a way of start practicing this by pausing to ask questions whenever we feel a reaction coming. The key is to activate our curiosity at the very same moment where we used to go on auto-pilot.
We can’t intercept our first reaction. But we can interrupt what comes next. We can choose to pause in order to examine:
Is this what is really taking place?
What is reality and what is me on auto-pilot?
What else is in this moment I am not taking notice of?
How am I using my thinking capacity right now?
That’s it. No model, no process. Just using your brainpower.
Try it once today. Just once. Then notice what shifts.
All the best
Mirjam
