Turn Your Mind Into Your Greatest Ally | Eckhart Tolle

0:00Few things are as uplifting as the greatest moments in sports, and nothing brings us together quite like Team USA at the Olympic Winter Games. From NBC Universal's iconic storytelling to the innovative technology across Xfinity and Peacock, Comcast brings the Olympic Games home to America, sharing every moment with millions. When Team USA steps onto the world stage, we're not just watching. We're cheering together. This winter, we're all on the same team. Comcast, proud partner of Team USA. Hi, my name is Lewis Houses, and welcome to the Daily Motivation Show. Now, I recommend the following practice, because you're standing there or waiting there, you might as well practice. Ask yourself, how would I experience this situation if I did not add any interpretation or any thought to it? How would I experience this moment?

1:02If I didn't add any thought to it, if I did not interpret it in any way, if I just allowed this to be as it is without burdening it with this baggage of thought, so okay, let's say you're standing in this line up, and it's very irritated. So how would I experience this if I did not, in other words, if I did not, in my mind, say this is bad, and all the other thoughts that come after that, then because when you say this is bad, then the next thought comes, my life is bad, and then we get a whole string of associated thoughts that are negative. How would I experience this moment without adding any thought to it? Okay, so yeah, you stand, and this would bring your attention into the present moment, and so your attention moves into the present moment, and in this present moment, you're standing there and you're breathing, you're looking around, people moving, the whatever, the role is you

2:06find yourself in, you're breathing, you're perceiving things, people, and suddenly, you may find that this moment is actually free of suffering, the suffering did not arise, was not caused, but by the external circumstance, it was caused by the narrative in your mind about this circumstance, that's a huge distinction, and this is beginning to live consciously when you realize this. Until you realize that, you live unconsciously, which means, in spiritual terms, to live unconsciously is to be totally identified with whatever your mind is saying, the, the, the, the, I call it the voice in the head, the narrative in your mind that tells you about how good see how bad things are, how they should be, they, they are, but they shouldn't be,

3:06that should be different, but they are, they are always in this moment, you can't change this moment, so you become aware, they were discovered by the way 2000 years ago by, not very well, non-entered great philosophy of ubiquitous, and he said, the, the, the most of your suffering is derived from what your mind is telling you about the situation, but not from the situation itself, and that's an enormous realization, and that can be the beginning of an awakening, to see that the narrative in your mind is mostly what chord is the suffering of, it is possible of course, that an external situation may cause physical discomfort, obviously, that's positive, your legs are hurting or back is hurting or it's too cold or too hot, what the physical discomfort, of course, that's possible, but that if not suffering in the sense

4:08in which we use this term right here, now the psychological suffering, unhappiness is another word you could use, it's a generic term for any form of negativity inside yourself, unhappiness suffering, where the so you begin to realize that most of that arises from a mental narrative about a situation or about your circumstances, but not from the circumstances themselves, and when, and then you can begin to practice, every time you feel upset is arising, some form of negativity, anger is arising, some form of negativity, blaming people and situations and saying this shouldn't be happening, or something is not happening, but it should be happening, or they should do this, or they shouldn't do it, all kinds of narratives in your mind, so you spiritually awakening is your beginning to be aware

5:11of what your mind is saying, the stories that you're telling yourself about situations, but also the stories that you're telling yourself about what you call your life, so because there are millions of people in this world who live with a very painful sense of identity, they perceive their life as a bird, so they live with this heaviness, and they don't realize what this heaviness that they call my life is actually a narrative that they tell themselves, and they say that's me, all the things that have happened to me, the dread, past, that people did to me, or circumstances did to me, or maybe even the bird things that I did, so you get a very heavy identity builds up, and that becomes your sense of self, and people don't realize it's a story you're continuously telling yourself in your mind,

6:14but you're so identified with a story that you don't exist, you're outside of the story, so that is what in some spiritual traditions is called the self, the Buddha called it the self, which is the mind-made sense of self, which the Buddha said which ultimately you recognize that that mind-made sense of self is ultimately a kind of fiction that you live through, so now when you realize that this is the case, this means that at this point of realization, another dimension of consciousness has arisen in you, which is not your mind, we could call it awareness, or we could call it presence, so when you realize what your mind is doing,

7:15that is not part of the conceptual mind that works through stories and words and concepts, it is a deeper, or you could say deeper, or higher, dimension of consciousness that suddenly has arisen, I often call it presence, but another good word for it is awareness, so awareness is the ability to know what your mind is doing, and then the wonderful thing is, at first it's just glimpses when you detach from the mind and say, oh wow, and then you have more moments when you're not suffering, because it allows this moment to be as it is. I have a brand new book called Make Money Easy, and if you're looking to create more financial freedom in your life, you want abundance in your life, and you want to stop making money hard in your life, but you want to make it easier, you want to make it flow, you want to feel abundant,

8:18then make sure to go to makemoneyeasybook.com right now and get yourself a copy. I really think this is going to help you transform your relationship with money this moment moving forward. We have some big guests and content coming up, make sure you're following and stay tuned to this episode of the Daily Motivation Show. Thank you so much for listening to today's episode of the Daily Motivation, and I hope you have an amazing rest of your day. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to click the link in the description that will take you to the full episode of our main podcast on the School of Greatness, and if you are loving the Daily Motivation, please follow us over on Apple Podcasts and Spotify and leave us a review over on Apple Podcasts right now. And if you want more exclusive content and ad-free listening experience, make sure to subscribe to our Greatness Plus channel on Apple Podcasts right now.

9:18And if you want to get even more inspiration from our world-class guests and learn how to improve your life and take it to the next level, then make sure to sign up for the Greatness Newsletter and get it delivered right to your inbox over at greatness.com slash newsletter. Again, have an amazing day, and I'll see you tomorrow with another episode of the Daily Motivation Show. Few things are as uplifting as the greatest moments in sports, and nothing brings us together quite like Team USA at the Olympic Winter Games. From NBC Universal's iconic storytelling to the innovative technology across Exfinity and Peacock, Comcast brings the Olympic Games home to America, sharing every moment with millions. When Team USA steps onto the world stage, we're not just watching, we're cheering together. This winter, we're all on the same team. Comcast Proud Partner of Team USA.