“Thought creates our world and then says ‘I didn’t do it.'” – David Bohm
The role of thought in our lives is largely underestimated and often unconsidered. We get caught up in the moment, in the contact sport of the game of life, and we’re pulled by our feelings every which way they try to take us. It looks very much like life is happening to us from the outside as we move faster and faster to respond to it.
But if we quiet ourselves, slow down a bit, we might notice something. Our thoughts run the show regardless of what seems to be happening outside. Our feelings arise within our bodies in response to those thoughts — often before we’re even aware of the thoughts that produce them — and then we tend to trust those feelings and act upon them. Once we understand how this mechanism of psychological experience works we can detach a bit from the thoughts and the feelings and feel less urgency about taking action.
Here’s a great animation by Rudi Kennard based on Sydney Banks’ book The Missing Link.