I tried to look up some interesting data about how many thoughts we have on average each day. The most common answer I could find was between 12,000 and 60,000. Which to me means two things:

1. That’s a very wide range, which makes sense as we are all unique individuals.
2. That’s a fuck-ton of thoughts, regardless.

So how often do YOU fight with this tremendous amount of thought? When you have a negative thought do you argue with your mind about it? Or when your mind brings up a thought about something that has no real basis in reality, do you tell your mind that it’s stupid for that? Perhaps you just believe whatever thoughts your brain generates unconsciously.

Lately my mind has been spitting out some thoughts to me that I’m not too fond of. They were causing me anxiety and overall just not making me feel great. And each time those thoughts would enter my mind, I would argue back inside my head about why they’re stupid and how I don’t want to hear about all that nonsense. But then it occurred to me that by me fighting with these thoughts, I was telling my mind that they were worth interacting with. The very act of telling the mind why the thought is stupid is giving that thought attention, and the way the mind works (in my experience) is that the thoughts you give attention to are the ones it will generate more of. It doesn’t seem to matter if it’s positive or negative attention that you give to it, it simply takes into account if you engage with the thought whatsoever.

So, I started doing something different. When a thought enters my head, I give it one fair interaction of seeing whether it is significant or insignificant/negative or positive. If it is something that will negatively impact me or simply isn’t important, I just do not engage with it. If it’s something positive that makes me feel good, or something useful, I interact with the thought at least a little bit more. By doing this, I am teaching the mind that I don’t find those anxiety-ridden, negative thoughts to be of any importance and therefore I would prefer less of them in my mental activity, or even better, none. And, on the flip-side, I’m encouraging it to give me more useful thoughts/thoughts that lead me to feel emotions that I enjoy.

You see, the mind (and the body) are tools for us, the human being, to use. We aren’t the tool itself, but rather the wielder. It just so happens that the mind is a very advanced tool that has a lot of amazing capabilities; therefore we need to practice and get better at using such an instrument. Every other tool we use in life, we’ve gotten better by practicing with it, isn’t it so? And the mind seems to be so data driven, almost like an artificial intelligence or software, that we have to teach it what data we like and want more of and what data we dislike and want less of. Imagine if you were to simply start believing every single unconscious thought that pops into your head. You’d go absolutely insane/do insane things. And I believe that being too associated with the mind (and sometimes the body) is what leads people to do terrible things. This tool can be truly amazing, but it can also be a deadly weapon that can self-inflict the user and others. Thus, it is all the more important to stop identifying yourself so much with your thoughts, and instead begin utilizing the mind as a tool that takes instruction from you.

This, as I’ve begun to see, doesn’t just immediately make everything perfect. But think about it- it’s going to take time to rewire the way your brain feeds you information because if you’re anything like me, for years you were taking instructions from something that you were meant to instruct. You will start to notice progress however, the more you IGNORE the thoughts that you don’t want and ENGAGE with the thoughts that you do want. This is certainly something that takes a lot of effort, time, and energy- but it’s also something that is totally worth doing. I mean the alternative is going your whole life believing and listening to everything a tool says. That’s like living your life the way a shovel tells you too.

Something that has been so, so, SO helpful in becoming less identified with my mind (and body) is practicing Kriya Yoga. Specifically, there is a beginner practice that anyone can do, completely FREE, that focuses precisely on distancing yourself from your body and mind. It’s called the Isha Kriya and I will put the video of the guided meditation in this article. The Isha Kriya is a very simple process, you don’t have to be super flexible or bend the body a whole bunch, or anything like that. It’s also not associated with any religion, philosophies, etc. It is simply another tool that you can make use of. The Isha Kriya has done tremendous things for me in my life, and though I practice a slightly more advanced Kriya now, I still enjoy doing the Isha Kriya every now and then. Plus, it is basically the first step I took on my journey into yoga.

Anyone 12 years of age and above can practice this Kriya. it is beneficial to do it at least once a day, and twice a day is great, but regardless- just trying it out is awesome. Oh yeah, and it only takes like 15 minutes to do! In the video I include, it might take 20 minutes the first time, just so you can learn how to do it. For all the details/answers to questions about Isha Kriya please visit the official website by clicking here.

If you really examine your life, I think you’ll come to see that most of your suffering has been caused by either your body or your mind, and perhaps even more so by the way you react to what your body and mind tell you. Even when other people do harmful things to us, isn’t it our reaction to their actions that is actually causing the suffering? I know some people have experienced horrendous things that others have done to them, mentally and physically, and I am not at all trying to take away from that or invalidate their experiences; but after the initial harm has been done, I believe it is up to us to determine whether we will continue to suffer mentally what others did.

Everything could be going absolutely brilliantly in the Universe, the sun came up, those that are dear to you woke up this morning, the birds are chirping, there’s opportunity everywhere you’re willing to look, and yet someone calls you ugly and you let it not only ruin the day, but the whole next week or even longer. Because you’re giving attention to that. Don’t pay attention to it! Focus only on the mental activity that you enjoy and stop giving attention to the stuff that makes you feel bad. Try the Isha Kriya!

Though all of this article was written in my own words and based on my own experiences, the concepts about the body and mind being tools is something I learned from my Guru, Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, and thus I give credit to him where it is due.