Food for Thought from Eckhart Tolle

When I first read this quote by Eckhart Tolle, I paused. And then I said “Yes.”

“What a liberation to realize that the ‘voice in my head’ is not who I am. Who am I then? The one who sees that.”

– Eckhart Tolle

We can be so bound by our thoughts. Because they can also be very automatic and instant, we believe them. When exploring automatic thoughts in therapy, it is important to go back – most of the time, our thoughts are linked to core beliefs formed in childhood. Because we internalize everything as children, those messages, with time and reinforcement, will become tied to our self-identity. Forging a well used pathway in our brain, the thoughts now have a ‘mind of their own,’ and we must ask ourselves at one point, “Is this really my own voice?”

I can tell you that if the automatic thought is a critical one, it is not your voice. We are meant to be light in spirit and our instinct is to love – that includes ourselves. If we have negative, automatic, critical thoughts about ourselves, those are planted seeds. And it is our responsibility to say “Does it have to be this way?”

When we give ourselves permission to challenge those thoughts and replace them with a more realistic portrait of ourselves, we become liberated. Lighter. Grounded. At peace with ourselves. Thank you Eckhart Tolle for the reminder. 🙂

Photo credit: https://unsplash.com/@thomasrey96