The witness
Ali 
How learning to relate TO instead of FROM your inner dialogue and emotions is the path to freedom.
“It’s so interesting watching my inner dialogue. I used to be IN it, lost in the story. Now I can kind of observe it and see it for what it is. And it’s not like I’m just pretending I’m not feeling bad, either”
These were the words of a client earlier today, and they were great to hear.
She wasn’t talking about dissociating or disconnecting. I’m certainly not trying to have her bypass reality or ignore uncomfortable thoughts with fingers firmly in ears, pretending they’re not happening. It’s not an aim to live outside of our bodies, outside of our thoughts or feelings.
What we are talking about here is witnessing. When we start to witness the inner dialogue, we firstly see that a hell of a lot of the chatter that goes on, almost non-stop, in our heads, isn’t telling us anything true or helpful about the reality of the situation, or the life, we’re in. For much of the chatter, shining this light of witnessing awareness on it is all that’s needed for it to start to dissolve.
Some of the chatter and emotions, however, will need more exploration, and will point us to where some deeper therapeutic work would be helpful. The persistent overwhelming feelings, the recurring negative thoughts that feel old and familiar – these can be worth paying attention to, so we can explore and clear them, perhaps with some help from a coach or therapist.
The overall aim of all this understanding and exploration is to help us build the capacity to relate TO rather than FROM our thoughts, patterns and emotions. When we are lost in the inner dialogue, relating FROM, it can feel overwhelming and confusing. When we start to be able to relate TO…. well, this is the path towards freedom.
💚💚💚
Categories: : Coaching & therapy