Managing the Mindset through Self Awareness

Seeing the Seeing

“It’s not what you are looking at, it’s where you are looking from…” Mooji

It was April 2010 and I was planning a holiday to experience a special festival that happens in India every 12 years, the Kumbh Mela. As a seasoned traveler I am used to vacating my home for lengthy periods so winding down food stocks to minimize waste was in the back of my mind underlying my purchasing decisions. As the time to depart got closer, I was under pressure to delay for a week due to commitments but somehow I felt stuck and torn in a resistance that I couldn’t understand. The resistance was preventing me from getting clear on an alternative departure date and left me feeling in limbo.

It was only after identifying the mindset from where the resistance was emerging that I could see it was linked to the food stocks. Delaying my departure would mean having to buy more food. This potentially meant waste in the fridge of unfinished items, which went against my values.

As silly as it may sound, this is how the mind works, holding us hostage to trivial issues that can easily be managed if we can see the mindset from where we are seeing. Recognising the value judgments and the beliefs that create the foundation from where we are looking is a critical step towards loosening the power it holds over us.

The problem lay in not what I was seeking to do, but from where I was looking. Through the conditioning of values and beliefs, the mind is veiled with a limited perception, creating a mindset that filters the way we see the world. We get so caught up in the details of what we are looking at; our interpretations of people and situations, but we rarely question the relevance of the mindset from where we are interpreting. When we see from where we are seeing, we are free to make choices to accommodate changing circumstances.

By cultivating self-awareness you are able to identify the issues that stand in the way of moving forward and make necessary adjustments as needed. When I saw the reason I was resisting was due to the value against food waste, I was able to consider making alternative arrangements like giving the extra food to neighbours. With a shift in mindset resistence evaporated and rescheduling my travel plans flowed like a breeze…

Workshops by Linda:
Power Manage Yourself