Nine Steps to Self-Awareness: Steps 3 and 4, Working with the Mind

by Beth

In my last post on the Nine Steps to Self-Awareness, I explored Step 2: Becoming aware of your breath and energy states. In this post, I talk about Steps 3 & 4: Working with the Mind.

The Taittiriya Upanishad, the philosophical and spiritual source of this contemporary view of self-awareness has this to say about the mind:

“The vital sheath is made of living breath.
Within it is contained the mental sheath,
Which has the same form…. ”

 —The Upanishads, translation by Eknath Easwaran

In the original translation by Eknath Easwaran, the words ‘same form’ were followed by Sanskrit terms whose meanings are hard to accurately translate into English. The best found were: a desire to learn, willingness and diligence to do the work, the courage to persevere, and the honesty to accept and work with the outcomes of what you find.

When we think of the mind, we often include the brain but there are significant differences between the mind and the brain.

The Brain. Hippocrates was the first person (that we know of) to claim that the brain is the seat of consciousness. The brain is a visible, tangible part of the physical body. It weighs about 3.3 lbs. (1.5 kilograms) and makes up about two percent of a human’s body weight. The brain contains billions of nerve fibers, which are connected by trillions of synapses. The brain is physical. During an autopsy, the brain can be seen, touched, and dissected.

The Mind. The mind is that intangible part of ourselves consisting of thoughts, emotions, ego, personality, attitudes, beliefs, imagination, perception, and judgment. This is how we think, what we think about, how we express our emotions, what we pay attention to, and how we relate to ourselves, others, and life in general. The mind is not physical. During an autopsy, the mind cannot be seen, touched, or dissected.

The tasks of the mind are to think, plan, analyze, judge, critique, and warn. Our thoughts and emotions are tools to help us perceive and understand what is happening within and around us. This involves understanding the what and the why of our thoughts, feelings, and behavior.

Suppressing, repressing, or trying to rid ourselves of difficult thoughts, emotions or experiences are not helpful. The real goal is to recognize, become aware of, acknowledge, and accept what we find with compassion and without judgment in order to perceive and consciously change, re-frame, or accept what we find. We can do this by turning our attention to steps three and four of The Nine Steps to Self-Awareness:

Step 3: Identify your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Learn to observe and label them:

• What am I thinking?
• Are my thoughts focused on the past? The future? My current situation?
• Am I trying to solve a problem?
• What am I feeling? Can I label the feeling? Is it pleasant or upsetting?
• Am I feeling more than one emotion at the same time?
• Is there a pattern to my thoughts, and feelings?
• How am I expressing my thoughts and feelings through my behaviors?

Step 4: Explore your beliefs:

• What do I believe about my current situation?
• Is it connected to what I believe about myself?
• Is it something I believe about others?
• Is it something I believe about my life experience?
• Is there a pattern to my beliefs?
• Does this pattern lead to helpful or unhelpful thoughts, feelings, and behaviors?

Here’s an example of how that might work in an everyday situation, such as being stuck in traffic on the way to teach, or take, a yoga class.

Step 3: Identify your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Observe and label them—the WHAT:

• Thinking: Why is traffic so backed up? I’m going to be late for class.
• Feeling: I’m frustrated and irritated.
• Behavior: My lips are tight and my hands are drumming the steering wheel.

Step 4: Explore your beliefs. Consciously choose a response once you know the WHY:

• Thinking: Traffic is backed up. I’m going to be late for class. No choice. I’ll have to wait. It is what it is.
• Feeling: I feel frustrated and irritated. I don’t like waiting. It brings up a fear of not being in control.
• Behavior: I’ll take some deep breaths, put on relaxing music, and wait. If traffic doesn’t clear up in 10 minutes, I’ll call and let the studio know I’ll be late. It is what it is.

Finding the Pause: Your Practice

 Working with the mind requires the ability to observe what is going on within and around you in the moment. One of the best pieces of advice I’ve heard about how to do this comes from Iyanla VanZant in her interview on Oprah Winfrey’s Super Soul Sunday (11/5/17). She said, simply, “Pause, Boo!”

As yogis we can always turn to the breath to find the pause. Here is one way to do that. There are four parts to every breath we take. Two parts are fairly obvious: we inhale and we exhale. The other two parts are always there, but unless we pay attention we may not notice them. They are the pause after we inhale but before we exhale and the pause after we exhale but before we inhale.  Becoming aware of and paying attention to these pauses can help you “Pause, Boo!” Practicing when you are not in a difficult situation will help you call on this technique when you need it in the moment.

Instructions:

1. Take a comfortable position, seated or lying down.
2. Begin by placing all of your attention on your breath without trying to change it in any way.
3. Notice your inhalation and your exhalation. Watch these two parts of your breath a few times as you become familiar with the effortless flow of breath in and out.
4. Then begin to notice that there is a momentary pause at the end of each inhalation and at the end of each exhalation.
5. Just let your awareness of the four parts of the breath continue without trying to change the inhalation, the exhalation, or the length of the pauses in between. You may find that the pauses lengthen gradually and naturally. Your job is to notice with awareness.
6. Over the practice you may find that when the breath pauses, so does the mind and your thoughts. Welcome to the ‘pause.’
7. Continue watching and noticing for 2 to 5 minutes or longer if you are comfortable. Set a timer if you need it.

For the purposes of working with the mind, knowing how you are breathing in the moment is key to finding the all-important pause and the awareness needed to work with the mind using steps 3 and 4 of the Nine Steps to Self-Awareness.

In the next post we’ll take our stuck in traffic example and explore Step 5: Turn the mind back on itself and Step 6: Take skillful action.

 

Beth’s self-awareness newsletter is published six times a year. It features informative, inspiring and entertaining tips for finding clarity, contentment, and resilience in a complicated world. For more information and to sign up for the newsletter go to www.bethgibbs.com.

• Follow Yoga for Healthy Aging on Facebook and follow Nina on Instagram • Order Yoga for Times of Change here  and purchase the companion videos here • Order Yoga for Healthy Aging: A Guide to Lifelong Well-Being here.