Food for Thought

I've been reading The Power of Now, which is a very interesting tome (by Eckhart Tolle, in case you want to check it out from the library).

One of the things it talks about is watching your brain as it works. This sounds kinda weird, but it's interesting to see the results. For example: A friend of mine tells me some unwelcome news, and I start to feel sad, with the resultant physical results -- weird funny feeling in pit of stomach, sluggish brain, thoughts obsessively running in a little hamster-wheel contraption (in other words, following the same path over and over without getting anywhere).

It's weird. It's very odd to have feelings and then observe the feelings, because something happens immediately -- you begin to feel detached from those feelings and the thoughts that are causing them. Like, "Why did such-and-such make me feel like THAT?"

The idea is that by observing your thoughts, you become increasingly detached until you and your brain are clearly two distinct animals. This helps you tap into the vast power of life itself. Living in the moment, so to speak. And that's helpful because life is complicated enough without our big brains complicating things further.

I'm going home now.