Decisions to make? Just stop shaking the bottle.

As with any dubious tyrant, we do need to be aware of what they’re doing.
And so here’s a way of noticing what your mind is doing today.
Picture your mind as a bottle of clear water with sand at the bottom.
When your mind is agitated by thoughts or feelings, it’s as if you’ve shaken the bottle.
The sand is now everywhere, making the water opaque and muddied and not good for anything but unhelpful and misguided reaction.
Fortunately, however, this state need not be permanent.
If we stop shaking the bottle the sand settles, and slowly, the water becomes clear again.
In a similar way, our mind settles as we pause – stop – to watch our thoughts and feelings rather than reacting to them.
Instead of being kidnapped or fixated by a thought, (they can be so powerful and pressing) which muddies our perceptions, we allow it to pass through.
It isn’t who we are. It’s just a thought.
Leaving us with a still clear-water mind…the best sort of mind for decision-making.
So repeat after me: ‘It isn’t who I am. It’s just a thought.’