“You’re always living in the feeling of your thinking.”
Keith Blevens PhD, Clinical psychologist
Yesterday I read a Facebook post from a client asking if someone could tell him the difference between “thinking” and “thought”. In this article, we’re going to explore the difference between thinking, thoughts and the principle of Thought. In the following excerpt from my book CLARITY: Clear Mind, Better Performance, Bigger Results (©2013 Jamie Smart), I’ve capitalised the word “Thought” when I’m referring to the formless principle of Thought. This is to distinguish it from “thoughts” and “thinking”.
The tip of the iceberg
The portion of an iceberg that’s visible above the water’s surface typically only represents 11% of the iceberg’s total volume. Looking at the tip doesn’t tell you anything about the shape of the submerged portion of the iceberg.
Our moment-to-moment thinking is like an iceberg…
We live in a Thought-generated experiential reality; 100% of our experience is coming from 100% of our thinking in the moment. But the individual thoughts that we notice going through our minds (i.e. what we’re thinking about) are like the tip of the iceberg; they only comprise a tiny portion of the thinking that’s creating our experience of the moment. Like the submerged portion of the iceberg, the majority of our thinking is invisible.
So how do you know what’s in the invisible portion of your thinking? Your feelings. Feeling and thinking are like two sides of the same coin. Your feelings are the visible face of your (invisible) thinking.
Reality Check
Some people object, “Are you seriously trying to tell me that getting punched doesn’t hurt unless you think it does?”
No, I’m not saying that. But 100% of your experience of a punch (or anything else) comes to you via THOUGHT, the reality principle. You never feel anything that isn’t in your thinking. There are plenty of everyday examples of this fact:
– The scratch, bruise or cut that you don’t discover until minutes or hours after it happens. It wasn’t in your thinking when it happened, so you didn’t feel it.
– The problem that you dwell on and worry about all day, then forget about entirely while watching a particularly engaging film that evening. Something else is in your thinking, so you don’t experience the problem.
– The lamppost you walk into as you’re thinking about something else. The lamppost isn’t in your thinking until you walk into it; then it is in your thinking!
So what does this have to do with clarity?
When we believe we’re feeling something other than our thinking, our minds fill up and speed up. The more superstitious thinking is in our minds, the less clarity we experience. The less superstitious thinking is in our minds, the more clarity we experience. When you’re experiencing a high degree of clarity, you’re not thinking about anything; you’ve got nothing on your mind. This is some- times described as “flow.”
Since I wrote this back in 2013, my thinking (!) has continued to develop. Now, instead of saying “You’re living in the feeling of your thinking” I tend to say “You’re living in the feeling of the principle of Thought taking form in the moment.” While it’s a little more cumbersome (don’t try saying it five times quickly), it has a precision which I like. The more you realise you’re experiencing the creative power of Thought, moment to moment, the less likely you are to get caught up in trying to control or manage your thinking. And that frees you to awaken to the power of the present moment, the source of all clarity.
Wishing you increasing clarity in all things!
Big love
Jamie
P.S. The next round of Project Glasswing is due to kick off at the end of January 2016. If you’d like to be considered for the latest intake of the pilot programme – I’m looking for 36 very specific people:
– You are a coach, therapist or change-worker (Eg. Sports coach, psychotherapist, hypnotherapist, business coach, bodyworker etc)
– You have at least one year’s experience of working with clients (either paid, pro-bono or both)
– You probably charge by the hour, but want use a “coaching package” model and increase your income
– You have room to work with at least one longer term contract client, starting in February
– You’re an enthusiastic, friendly people-person
– You have a coachable spirit, and are willing to step out of your comfort zone if necessary, and
– You can keep a secret
If that’s you, then email me at info@jamiesmart.com, and let me know where you’re located and a little about yourself (if you don’t know what to tell me about, look at the list above for inspiration). Change the subject line to “Project Glasswing JST”. I’ll be choosing people in the next couple of weeks. Talk to you soon! J