You Are Not Your Thoughts

Your thoughts are just your stories... fictional tales you tell yourself amidst the 80,000-100,000 thoughts you have per day. They have nothing to do with who you are and everything to do with your brain's capacity to churn. It's deceiving because we live in a culture that rewards the churn, and so we can over-identify with the idea that the capacity of our brains to churn 80,000-100,000 thoughts per day equals our smarts, greatness, finesse, depth, character - and doing, acting, talking, pontificating. But actually, smarts, greatness, finesse, depth, and character derive from the anti-churn. It's when you create space for insight and awareness, empty the mind, and get out of your head that your best thinking and best self arrives. And ironically, they both derive from not thinking at all. Our best ideas come from elsewhere and our best selves usually show up when our narrative is far from involved. They show up at the stangest times and in extraordinary ways. Very few of us would say "oh yea, that stroke of genius happened in the middle of my workday, in a conference room, talking with the team about how to solve x, y, and z." Nope, it so rarely if ever happens that way. You are far more and far greater than your thoughts. Loosen the attachment to them to make room for you, your best thinking, and greatest insights.