No Thought - No Problem

Recognising the voice in your head

In the last week, I have given two talks in which I have spoken about restoring balance and finding flow, in which I have made a distinction between the thinking mind and the experiencing mind.

The former is that voice in the head which narrates your life from morning until night. The latter is silently experiencing what is happening, without continually commenting on it.

The thinking mind is a pattern recognising machine which creates categories, judgements and beliefs through language, which we then experience as thoughts.

The thinking mind enables us to travel forward and back in psychological time, to reflect on what has happened and plan for potential future scenarios. It’s brilliant at what it does, and allowed humans to conquer the earth.

Most people tend to unwittingly be of the view that the voice in the head is who they are. Consider the question, who are you? A standard answer might go something like this: I am a father, a husband, an author, I am British and I am kind.

Every single one of those descriptions is a category.

Being British only means something in comparison to people who are not British. If everyone on the planet was British, the word would become meaningless. And being British (or Britain for that matter) doesn’t actually exist in reality outside of people’s minds, any more than the equator does.

The same is true of the other categories. They are stories we tell to make sense of reality, which serve a useful purpose. But they are not ultimately real.

And herein lies the problem. We fall for the narratives of the thinking mind time and time again, believing that we are the voice in our head, and suffer as a result.

The thinking mind is a brilliant problem solver, but an even better problem creator.

Despite appearances, the world is so much safer than ever before. The vast majority of people don’t have to worry about finding a roof over their heads, or finding food to eat three meals a day.

And yet the thinking mind doesn’t reflect this reality, instead telling us we need more, or that things need to go exactly as we planned, and if they don’t our life could be irrevocably harmed. This is just the thinking mind doing what it is designed to do. It cannot be satisfied, because if it stopped it would cease serving any purpose.

The trick is not to try and change your mind, but to change your relationship to your mind.

If you are able to notice when the voice in your head is putting things into boxes, judging how things should be or creating beliefs about how things are, it’s an opportunity: to recognise that you are not the voice in the head, and create more internal space.

Back to my talks, and people always really resonate with this recognition. It is frequently a massive lightbulb moment, and yet invariably they are straight back into identification with their thinking mind when asking me questions afterwards. It is fascinating to see happen.

That’s why you need to recognise that you are not your thinking mind - and its categories, judgements, stories and beliefs - again and again. Every time you do, the gap grows until it is abundantly obvious that you are not the voice in your head. It’s an illusion.

This comes as a huge relief, and is the beginning of true freedom. And then you start to really notice how 99.9% of people are utterly identified with and trapped in their thinking mind, so much so that they are completely oblivious to their joyful, miraculous true nature.

This recognition is capable of infinite expansion. In my view, there are few things that are more important. It is the way to reduce suffering internally and conflict externally, which could then be reflected in how we live as a species if enough people truly saw it.

So what to do? Don’t fight the thinking mind. Observe it. Let it judge and categorise, but just remember: it’s not you.

If this resonates and you want to explore it more deeply — I’m working 1:1 and in small groups with people who are ready to look at this directly. I share the practices and insights that have helped me the most. If it’s something you’re drawn to, click the links or drop me a message.