Are we our thoughts?

In a conversation the other day, in my yoga class, someone said ‘We are our thoughts’ and it got me thinking…are we?

I mean from the point of view that if we think we are going to fail, we definitely have less chance of success. If we are sick, we can get into ‘ill’ mode where we stay unwell for longer. At a point we have to think ‘OK enough being in bed, I need to get washed and sit downstairs.’ I remember a neighbour who had a long stay in hospital, and one of the things the nurses did was to make sure all the patients were washed and dressed before they sat down for meals. This encourages a well mentality. Sitting around in your pyjamas day after day does not (sorry).

So from this perspective. Yes, our thoughts do define us a little, they do dictate our state of mind and perhaps influence the journey we are on and how long we may take to get where we want to.

But overall, do our thoughts define us? Are they us?

I have many thoughts and not all of them are worth paying attention to. Some of them could be considered a little intrusive, or inappropriate. Does this mean that I am this person?

We’ve all had thoughts of (and I am in no way advocating this, but let’s be honest) punching someone, or stealing something from a shop, or an equivalent. Does this make me a violent criminal? A thief?

No!

Because I don’t act on them. I know they are wrong, I know they would get me in trouble, I know that I am not a violent person…or a thief. So I am not my thoughts, at least not all of them.

This is something we often come across in the counselling room. People feel guilty and ashamed because they are not thinking wonderful, magnanimous thoughts all the time. There is this idea that because you think badly of someone, or because you are cross when asked to do a favour that is inconvenient to you, it makes you somehow a bad person.

I can tell you it doesn’t. It makes you human.

Our thoughts are personal, they are ours and it is up to us if we chose to share them. We all have thoughts (inside thoughts) that we don’t share. We all get cross and swear in our heads, use bad names for people we love.

In meditation we put thoughts on a cloud and let them float away.

Not all thoughts need to be listened to, paid attention to, given airtime in our heads. They bring us nothing and if we let them be, they pass, we move on and their power over us diminishes.

So I do not think we are only our thoughts.

I think we are our thought, we are our actions, we are our dreams, our wishes and our frustrations.