Eckhart Tolle is a spirtual teacher/author. He has written a number of books many of which are about finding inner peace and well being. Now, let me first state that I am not a person who would be considered spiritual. I tend to be more of a science minded individual. I do not believe in anything super natural, or mystic. I do believe that, sooner or later, everything can be explained in natural terms. Now that's out of the way, let me tell you how Eckhart Tolle has helped me with my anxiety.
Last year my brother, who is more of the mystic type, came to me with a book in his hand. He shoved it towards me and simply said, "Read this." I tried to ask him what it was about but before I could finish my sentence he already had his back turned and headed elsewhere. Glancing down at the cover my first impression was that this book was filled with a bunch of mystic, feel good stuff. There wasn't too much to the cover, just a simple orang-ish background, and some not so fancy font. It's not the design that made me feel like this book was filled with a bunch of feel good nonsense, it was the title. It read A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose. If that's not a feel good title I don't know what is. How could anyone possibly tell me what my life purpose is? Eventually I decided to throw my judgement aside and give the book a try and I'm glad I did. Eckhart Tolle teaches the art of being present. He talks about how he believes that we are not our thoughts, and that thought is just something that happens to us.
When was the last time you identified with one of your thoughts? I can almost guarantee it was within the last couple minutes. Those of us with anxiety know that thoughts can be very destructive. We can obsess over them until we make ourselves sick. I could give you example after example of times where I worked myself into a panic from a simple thought. We identify so much with what we think that we become it. So is there a way to quiet thoughts? And how do you do it? Eckhart Tolle teaches that to become seperate from your thoughts all you have to do is observe something in nature that just is. By just oberserving I mean to be free of all thought. Just look at it. Your mind is going to want to name it, or it's color, or where it is. Your job is to let those thoughts enter your mind and leave. The goal here is not dwell on anything simply just to observe. When you are able to do this you will find that your body will relax and you'll simply just "be"
Now, being more science minded than anything else, I began to think of how this could logically make sense. Why would doing this be of benefit? After much thought, I came up with a theory that I think could be the reason this works. Day in and day out we are constantly thinking. Its practically like we can't get away from it. However, I feel like this constant thought could be relatively new to us. Back when we had to hunt and gather our food we weren't concerned with school, work, or a social life. Our only concern was to survive. I believe we were more in tune with nature as opposed to current day, where most people separate themselves from nature. The fact is we are nature. The more and more we advance as a species the more out of tune we become with nature. So when you step away from all the noise of life and revert back to nature, it frees us of the hustle that is the current times.
You don't have to believe me, but before you write it off give it a try. Go outside and look around. When you find yourself identifying things let the thought pass, and continue observing. It's an awesome thing to be able to quiet your thoughts and just be. As always thanks for reading and take care!
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