Thoughts Without A Thinker

Thoughts Without A Thinker helps you get more peace, overcome mental illness, and ease suffering by outlining the principles of Buddhism, mindfulness, and meditation as they relate to psychoanalysis.

When you were a kid, everybody expected you to behave as they thought you should. That meant acting against your nature at times. You couldn’t do what your instincts said because you had to follow society’s expectations to fit in.

This discrepancy between who we are and who we think we should be warps our sense of self. We might have to put on a face to pretend certain emotions when we feel the opposite inside. To be accepted, we often have to be someone we aren’t.

The end result is some pretty deep psychological trauma in the form of either an inflated or deflated sense of self. We might fear being forgotten or not being loved.

Think of it as a see-saw balancing on a fulcrum. True balance is in the middle, but most of us fall too heavily on one side or another.

Depression comes when we have a deflated sense of self, with narcissism on the other end of that spectrum.

Narcissists suffer because they’re too focused on themself. They are prideful, arrogant, and delusional. It’s no surprise this is so common in a world that emphasizes selfie culture and individualism.

On the other hand, those with depression don’t care enough about their identity. They think they don’t matter and entertain dark thoughts as a result.

Neither of these is healthy, but there’s a solution as you’re about to learn.

Do you ever wonder what your friends are thinking about themselves? What if you could have the same view of yourself also? It might be a lot easier to let selfish or self-deprecating thoughts go, wouldn’t it? This is what Buddhism teaches you how to do through meditation. I’ve been trying it out myself for a couple of years and each time I spend some time just observing my thoughts and feelings it always helps me relax and let go of my worries. Mindfulness is the cure for all problems with the self. But you have go into it with the right perspective. A man once asked Buddha if the self exists and he declared that responding would only support the misguided idea of the self. In other words, finding emptiness can free you, but holding onto it too tightly as a goal can make things worse. Instead, consider it more like seeking to free yourself of attachment. Try to become a fly on the wall, just observing your own thoughts. Compassion is another teaching of Buddhism that helps us beat our problems with the self. According to…