"Do You Want to Feel That Way?"

And other self-intervention questions

I’m quite certain that one of the first moments of an awakening is the realization that we are not our thoughts and feelings. Here is a simple exercise for examining this …

Sit quietly. Imagine a whiteboard. Imagine filling this whiteboard with your current thoughts and feelings. Put as much as you can on the board. Do you see it? Now imagine erasing all of the words. Who is looking at the whiteboard? Who is erasing it?

The answer is this: you are. But not the “you” that your thoughts and feelings generated. They would not be able to observe themselves. This is the deeper You; the You that some refer to as the True Self or the Original Self.

This is the beginning of what Ramana Maharshi referred to as Self Inquiry. Self Inquiry is not just the examination and unpacking of identities, thoughts, beliefs, feelings, etc. It is also the realization that you have the power to ask your mind questions. And that the mind can’t avoid answering these questions.

I call these Self Intervention Questions (SIQs). There are hundreds of them. They can be used to break any mental loop: anxiety, worry, or my ego’s go-to - fear/insecurity/control. SIQs can be used for deeper Self Inquiry. They can be used to unpack an existential crisis. They can be used to change your story, change your path, change your trajectory.

“We are addicted to our thoughts. We cannot change anything if we cannot change our thinking.”
― Santosh Kalwar