I am not my thoughts, nor my feelings

From Vipassana Explanations

This is a very nice one and at the same time a very difficult one. As someone once asked me, "If I am not my thoughts, nor my feelings, what else could I be?". I have not an answer to the question and the thought seems to be very logical, natural. Of course I am what I think and what I feel. That is me!!

Here I dare to say that I choose to think differently. I think I am not my thoughts nor my feelings. And here comes the why:

  1. I really like the idea that I am not my thoughts nor my feelings. It frees me from the very compelling nature of thoughts and feelings: there seems to be no escape whenever I think something or when I feel something. How nice it is when all my thoughts and feelings are a choice: "I think this and I feel that but nothing is keeping me from having different thoughts and different feelings." I choose to think in a certain way, I choose to feel something. That choice can be made differently. I am free to choose whatever I want to think and whatever I want to feel. So I think I am not my thoughts, nor my feelings because I like it!
  2. Buddha tells me so
  3. Psychology but also embryology show that we are a lot of different things that are working together yet each one of those things is independent from the other things. I consider myself an ecosystem where there is a lot of cooperation but also a lot of independence of the different parts. Whether the parts are thoughts or the parts are cells. There is a lot of reason why we should see ourselves like this. The most appealing one is the fact that we can have conflicting thoughts. If we were one being reigned by a center of control, it is almost impossible to have conflicting thoughts. The Disney movie Inside Out but also my experience in hypnotherapy is teaching me that we consist of independent parts that work together
  4. I often exercise to replace my thoughts or feelings by other thoughts and feelings. Often thoughts and feelings can be heavy or depressing. Realizing a thought is not helping me, challenges me to have a different thought, not so depressing or heavy. Quite often I succeed in replacing my thoughts by other thoughts. The same goes for feelings: I consider feeling angry or feeling unhappy a choice. I can also choose to feel sympatic or feel happy. Thoughts and feelings are a choice
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