Unwinding 'The Untethered soul' 02

Did you remind yourself to filter through your thoughts?

Did you keep reminding yourself that you are not the voice inside your head?

Find a quick recap of the first chapter of the book , here.

Second chapter titled 'your inner roommate'

He talks about the voice inside the head at length. The voice inside the head is similar to having a roommate in your head.

When we are disturbed by a problem, instead of asking, " What should I do about it?" , we should ask,

"What part of me is being disturbed by this?" This causes you to look inside and see that there's a part of you having problem with this and separates you  from the disturbance. This act of maintaining objective awareness of the inner problem is better than losing ourselves in the outer situation.

Nobody has ever truly become okay by changing things outside. There's always the next problem. The only real solution is to take the seat of consciousness and we do this by separating ourselves from the problems, the inner disturbance that the problem causes, our thoughts and our emotions.

It says that the real problem is that there this something inside of you can have a problem with almost anything.It's your roommate!

There are two distinct aspects of your inner being. The first is you, the awareness, the witness and the other is that which you watch.First you need to meet your roommate. Experiment this while taking a shower. Take the seat of consciousness and just watch. Watch what the voice has to say. Don't try to stop the voice. You will realize that it talks non-stop. The incessant chatter seems so neurotic. It is like you're watching a human being's personality with all its strengths and weaknesses. That is your roommate.

 Try to personify it externally. Make believe that your roommate has a body of its own and imagine that this person outside is now saying everything that your inner voice says. Spend a day with that person.

I did this experiment for a week! I was tired in an hour. I couldn't hear this person's incessant chatter and to realize that I live with it everyday. I did not have a moment's peace. I couldn't stare at the sky without listening to comment on the shapes of the clouds and anxiety of people looking at me at the window. And it was easy to notice the roommate while I was chopping vegetables and showering. I know that I don't want to live with an actual person who talks like my inner voice. Also I noticed the inconsistency of these thoughts. This person could go from talking about shape of clouds to the agony of missing her loved one in an instant. And she would have contradictory opinions on everything! She would dislike red hair on a guy for 10 minutes before saying that it doesn't look very bad and now she likes it. I called this person fickle and realized that she can't be trusted for advice.

To think of it, I live with this everyday and I take advice from this voice. 

You have to watch it to be free from it.When you've sincerely tried these self-awareness practices, you'll see that you are in trouble. Do you want to free yourself from this mental melodrama?

There are techniques of self awareness and consciousness, yoga and meditation being few among them.

He says, yoga isn't really about getting your body healthy(sure, it does that too). Yoga is about the knowledge that will help you out of your predicament, the knowledge that can free you.

The step we need to take right now is observing our inner roommate and deciding whether you want to live with it. It is to understand that you are the one watching your roommate. We have to learn to be aware. Whenever you are doing an activity, be conscious to observe the voice , the emotions and maintain the awareness that you are different from them.

Stay tuned for the third lesson in self-awareness!

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