Yoga guides us to look beyond the thoughts in our mind

Most of us tend to have thoughts like these in our minds: “I must do this perfectly.” “I am a failure.” “What will they think of me if I do this?” “What if something happens and I am not able to handle it?”

Such thoughts, to an extent, are normal and a part of our rational and planning mind. But the mind often goes on with such thoughts ceaselessly and automatically. Mostly, such thoughts are just a part of our inner rumination, contributing to the stress in our mind and body.

Our thoughts are often accepted by our mind without question, even if untrue. If someone were to come over to you and tell you, “You are a fool,” your instinctive reaction might be to deny it. However, if you say to yourself, “I am a fool,” who is there to dispute the validity of that statement?

Because we are saying these statements to our own self, repeatedly in our mind, we begin to accept it as part of our identity. They become part of our subconscious thinking process. This is damaging, as negative thoughts then arise repeatedly from our subconscious or latent storehouse and influence our perceptions, behavior, body language, and even our health.

It is important that we should not allow such thoughts to take over our identity. However, we cannot just push these thoughts out by fighting them. Instead, we have to challenge them and replace them.

This is a key principle in yoga, which is echoed by modern cognitive therapy as well.

Do not fight with negative thoughts when they arise. Instead, just observe them, give them your attention. Notice that much of the time, these thoughts are neither useful nor accurate. They are not a reflection of reality as it is. They are merely the ramblings of the mind, the repetitive statements of the mind about what it perceives reality to be in this moment.

In time, you will realize that you do not have to give all your thoughts power over yourself. You will begin to view them as just the chatter of the mind.

This basic exercise of separating our sense of deeper, calm self from the activity of these thoughts in our mind, gives power back to us. It helps restore our mind to its status as our inner friend and support!