The Self Observer

If you have read more than one of my posts, or ever attended one of my yoga classes, then you've heard me mention the concept of observing your mind's reaction, stepping outside of it, and becoming an observer at least a gazillion times.  (You can consider this gazillion and one.) 
I don't know about you, but I often find my mind (and more specifically, my ego mind) taking over the conversation in my head.  Its kind of like that guy who just won't stop talking.

And, sometimes, I honestly think my mind might even "stir the pot" just for a little entertainment value.  It can be quite immature.

My mind will say all sorts of things -- like a mean girl in junior high school (no offense if you are a pre-adolescent.  You have hormones as an excuse).  And, just like the mean girl in junior high, it all comes from insecurity.  The mind wants to be superior -- LARGE and IN CHARGE.  And understandably so -- it is the "point person" for much of our daily activity.  

But, guess what happens when the mind is allowed to run wild and rampant without discipline?  Well, let's just say it will act similarly to your neighbor's untrained dog -- you know, the one that drives you nuts barking all day, jumping up on you, doing its doggy business in your yard....

I don't want my mind to act this way and I'm pretty sure you don't either.  So, what's a girl to do?  Well, yoga, of course.  But I hope you realize by now that there a million ways to get into a "yoga frame of mind" -- yours might be gardening or meditating or knitting -- whatever works to slow down your ego mind's frenzied activity and allow you to connect to the self-observer mind.

Speaking of the self-observer, here's one of my favorite passages about using the self-observer.  I found this excerpt in a book called Spiritual Literacy:  Reading the Sacred in Everyday Life (a real gem of a book, by the way). 

This particular passage is by Anne Scott and taken from Serving Fire.

"For me, learning to use the self-observer has been a lesson in composting.  I have always been fascinated by the compost pile just outside our garden.  It contains bits of old food, thick and gnarled weed roots, rotting flowers, egg shells.  It seethes with life.  Over time, with moisture and heat, this decaying pile of unwanted organic matter becomes sweet-smelling, fertile, crumbly compost.  And so it is with the discarded parts of ourselves that we have swept under the carpet.  Under the watchful eye of the self-observer, all that we have rejected, denied, and hidden, is exactly what can nurture our growth."



P.S.

My ego mind was just telling me to not admit to anyone that it acted like a mean girl and it had me contemplating not sharing this post.  


But then I typed and read that passage.  


And I thought a new thought.


Viva La Self-Observer!

Namaste~
Tammie