How to Calm the Voice Inside | Eckhart Tolle Teachings

Summary

This script delves into the impact of overthinking and negative self-talk on our mental and physical health. It emphasizes the importance of mindfulness and self-awareness to recognize the continuous internal dialogue that often generates unnecessary unhappiness. The speaker illustrates how our predominant mental state can influence our experiences and suggests that spiritual awakening and realization of being can transcend the state of lack and negativity, leading to a more fulfilling life.

Takeaways

• 🧘 Mindfulness involves recognizing the continuous self-talk in our heads and realizing it often generates unnecessary unhappiness.
• 🌙 The body cannot differentiate between real events and thoughts, meaning that fearful thoughts can cause the body to react as if in danger.
• 🤔 Overthinking and negative self-talk can lead to a decrease in the body's ability to fight diseases, highlighting the connection between mental state and physical health.
• 🔍 The script points out that mainstream medicine is beginning to acknowledge the link between mental well-being and overall health.
• 👥 There is a correlation between a person's mental and emotional state and the events that happen to them, suggesting that negativity can attract more negative experiences.
• 💡 Spiritual awakening is described as the realization of the constant mental activity and the potential negativity within it.
• 🌟 Awareness of repetitive and negative thought patterns is crucial for personal growth and moving beyond a state of lack.
• 💭 The script emphasizes the importance of developing an observing presence to notice and disengage from unhelpful thought patterns.
• 🌱 Spiritual practice and realization are necessary to transcend feelings of insufficiency and to discover one's true self beyond the ego.
• 🤹‍♂️ It's easier to recognize repetitive thought patterns in others than in ourselves, which is why self-knowledge is considered difficult.
• 🏞️ The script suggests that focusing on the realization of 'being' can help one move beyond the ego and its associated feelings of lack and neediness.

Q & A

What is the main issue with the way humans think today according to the script?

The script suggests that humans tend to overthink, leading to unnecessary and often non-existent problems. This overthinking generates a lot of unnecessary unhappiness.

What is the first awakening or spiritual awakening described in the script?

The first awakening is the discovery that there is a voice in your head that continuously comments on your life and what's happening around you. This is often referred to as self-talk.

Why does the script mention that talking to oneself in the second person can be problematic?

Talking to oneself in the second person (using 'you') can lead to self-criticism and annoyance, which can contribute to negative self-talk and unhappiness.

How does the script explain the impact of negative thoughts on the body?

The body cannot distinguish between an actual event and a thought, so when you have fearful thoughts, the body reacts with emotions like fear and anxiety, which can be detrimental to health.

What is the connection between one's mental state and their physical health as discussed in the script?

The script suggests that there is a growing recognition in mainstream medicine that one's mental state can significantly impact their physical health, with negative thinking potentially decreasing the body's ability to fight disease.

Why is it important to be aware of the self-talk according to the script?

Being aware of self-talk is important because it can often be more negative than positive, leading to a cluttered mind and potentially attracting negative events and experiences.

What does the script suggest about the nature of positive and negative events in our minds?

The script suggests that negative events tend to be more 'food' for the mind, leading to more extended periods of dwelling on negative thoughts compared to positive ones.

How does the script describe the correlation between a person's predominant mental state and their life experiences?

The script implies that there is a correlation between a person's predominant mental and emotional state and their life experiences, including who they associate with, where they work, and what happens to them.

What is the significance of discovering repetitive thoughts as mentioned in the script?

Discovering repetitive thoughts is significant because it allows an individual to recognize patterns of negative thinking that can be detrimental to their well-being and potentially change their mental habits.

What is the solution proposed in the script to transcend a state of lack or insufficiency?

The script proposes that spiritual practice and realization, focusing on the realization of being, is necessary to transcend a state of lack or insufficiency, moving beyond the ego.

Outlines

00:00

🤔 The Overthinking Mindset and Its Impact

This paragraph discusses the evolution of human thought, highlighting the tendency to overthink and create unnecessary problems. It emphasizes the self-talk phenomenon, where individuals continuously comment on their lives, often leading to negative emotions and unhappiness. The speaker introduces the concept of mindfulness and the realization that there's an inner voice that narrates one's experiences. The audience is reminded that this internal dialogue can be in the first or second person, and it can lead to self-criticism. The paragraph concludes by pointing out the physical effects of negative thinking, such as increased stress and potential health issues, and the difficulty in distinguishing between real events and thoughts, which can lead to emotional distress.

05:01

🧠 The Connection Between Mind State and Health

The second paragraph delves into the relationship between one's mental state and overall health. It criticizes the traditional medical approach that focuses solely on physical symptoms without considering the person as a whole, including their mental state. The speaker points out that negative self-talk is often more prevalent and longer-lasting than positive thoughts, which can lead to a predominantly negative mindset. This negativity can affect one's life, including the company they keep and the events they attract. The speaker shares a personal anecdote about realizing the connection between their negative thoughts and the negative experiences in their life, illustrating the power of the mind in shaping one's reality.

10:04

🔍 Discovering the Continuous Mind Activity

The final paragraph focuses on the concept of spiritual awakening as the realization of the continuous mental activity that often goes unnoticed. It discusses the difficulty of recognizing repetitive and negative thought patterns in oneself compared to others. The speaker encourages becoming aware of these patterns and observing them without judgment. The paragraph also touches on the idea of a 'cluttered mind,' which is filled with constant mental commentary and judgments. The speaker suggests that true fulfillment and transcending a state of lack require spiritual practice and realization, urging individuals to look inward to discover their true selves beyond the ego.

Keywords

💡Overthinking

Overthinking refers to the excessive analysis or rumination on a situation or problem to the point where it becomes counterproductive. In the context of the video, overthinking is presented as a source of unnecessary unhappiness and problems that are often non-existent. The script illustrates this with the example of lying awake at night and worrying, which generates negative emotions without solving any real issues.

💡Unhappiness

Unhappiness is a state of being unhappy or discontent, often stemming from negative thoughts or experiences. The video discusses how a significant part of the unhappiness in people's lives is self-generated through destructive mind activity, such as overthinking and negative self-talk. The audience is reminded that recognizing and addressing this internal dialogue can lead to a reduction in self-created unhappiness.

💡Mindfulness

Mindfulness is the practice of being fully present and engaged in the current moment, without judgment. The video emphasizes the importance of mindfulness as a means to discover the continuous self-talk in one's head, which often goes unnoticed. By practicing mindfulness, individuals can become aware of this internal dialogue and its impact on their emotional state, as illustrated by the video's mention of the 'first awakening' or spiritual awakening.

💡Self-talk

Self-talk is the internal dialogue that individuals have with themselves, often reflecting their thoughts and feelings. The script uses self-talk as a central concept, explaining how it can be a source of negative emotions and unhappiness. The video humorously points out that people may talk to themselves in the first or second person, indicating the personal and intimate nature of self-talk.

💡Emotional State

Emotional state refers to the condition of an individual's emotions at a given time. The video suggests that one's predominant emotional state can influence their life experiences, including the events they attract and the people they associate with. It implies that a negative emotional state can lead to a cycle of attracting more negative events, as the speaker reflects on their own childhood experiences.

💡Repetitive Thoughts

Repetitive thoughts are recurring ideas or mental patterns that play over and over in an individual's mind. The video discusses the importance of recognizing these patterns, as they can be a sign of being caught up in useless mind activity. The script provides the example of family members or relatives who may have the same negative judgments year after year, indicating the persistence of repetitive thoughts.

💡Observing Presence

Observing presence is the ability to be aware of one's thoughts and emotions without being consumed by them. The video encourages the development of an observing presence to recognize and step back from negative self-talk and repetitive thoughts. This presence allows for a more conscious engagement with one's mental processes, as opposed to being automatically reactive to every thought that arises.

💡Cluttered Mind

A cluttered mind is a state of constant mental activity, often filled with judgmental and reactive thoughts. The video describes a cluttered mind as being unaware of the continuous stream of mental commentary, leading to an immediate formation of judgments and positions on every encounter or feeling. This state is contrasted with the clarity and peace that can be achieved through mindfulness and self-awareness.

💡Lack

Lack refers to a feeling of insufficiency or deficiency, often associated with a sense of neediness or not having enough. The video suggests that spiritual practice and realization can help individuals transcend a state of lack, which is rooted in the ego. The script implies that external achievements and activities may not be the ultimate remedy for this feeling of lack, but rather, an inward journey towards self-discovery and spiritual understanding is necessary.

💡Spiritual Awakening

Spiritual awakening is a profound shift in consciousness that leads to a deeper understanding of one's true nature and reality. In the video, spiritual awakening is presented as the discovery of the continuous mind activity and the ability to observe it without being identified with it. This awakening is described as a basic and simple realization that can lead to a transformation in one's life, as it allows for a more conscious and less reactive approach to experiences.

Highlights

Overthinking leads to unnecessary unhappiness and problems.

Mindfulness involves recognizing the continuous self-talk in your head.

People often have repetitive negative thoughts that impact their emotions and well-being.

The body cannot distinguish between real events and thoughts, so fear thoughts trigger fear emotions.

Negative thinking can decrease the body's ability to fight disease, as recognized by mainstream medicine.

Traditional medicine often overlooks the connection between mental state and physical health.

Many people have a predominantly negative self-talk that affects their life experiences.

Negative mental states can attract negative events and experiences.

Self-awareness is key to recognizing and breaking the cycle of negative thinking.

Repetitive thought patterns are often easier to identify in others than in oneself.

Spiritual awakening involves becoming aware of the continuous mind activity and its impact on life.

Developing an observing presence can help one recognize and disengage from negative thought patterns.

A cluttered mind is unaware of the continuous mental commentary that forms judgments and positions.

Spiritual practice and realization can help transcend the state of lack and neediness.

Focusing on the realization of being is essential to go beyond the ego and its limitations.

Discovering who or what you are beyond the person is a crucial aspect of spiritual growth.

Transcripts

(bell dinging)

- But what has happened through

the gradual evolution of thinking

is that now humans

tend to overthink.

There is a lot of not only unnecessary thinking

that generates unnecessary, and in many cases,

non-existent problems such as when you lie awake at night

in bed and start worrying.

It generates a lot of unnecessary unhappiness.

So people don't realize

that a significant part

of the unhappiness in their lives

is actually generated by

unnecessary negative,

often destructive, mind activity

and they don't even know it.

Mindfulness is, first of all,

discovering the simple fact

that there is a voice in your head

that continuously comments on your life,

on what's happening around you.

It the self-talk

and everybody knows what the self-talk is

in that you talk to yourself.

Sometimes you talk to yourself in the first person, I.

Some people talk to themselves in the second person, you.

(audience laughing)

So you can get annoyed with yourself

and then you say,

"You shouldn't have done that."

(audience laughing)

And then you have another thought is that,

"Yes, but I couldn't help it."

(Eckhart and audience laughing)

And you might even get a third voice come in

that whatever it says,

"Why can't I get out of my self-talk?"

That's self-talk too.

But it's an amazing.

The first thing, what I call the first awakening,

spiritual awakening,

is something very basic and something very simple.

It's a discovery that there is a voice in your head

that always talks to you, mostly silently.

If it talks out loud,

then you're continuously and there's nobody around,

then you are considered insane.

(audience laughing)

And that's only if it's aloud,

but most people have that inside their heads

and they are not considered insane,

it's considered normal.

But there's not such a big difference between the two.

And sometimes when you listen to them,

there might be a man walking in the street, muttering.

(Eckhart muttering)

And you say, "Oh, he's really insane."

But it might be that you are doing the same,

but it's just not out loud, it's in your head.

(audience laughing)

Why didn't I? I should have said that.

Why didn't I say that?

Next time he does that,

I'm going to exactly know what I'm going to reply.

(audience laughing)

And it goes on and on.

Or you lie awake at night and start worrying.

You wake up and, "Oh my God, what's going to happen?

"What if that doesn't work and that goes wrong?

"And what if he does that?"

And on, and then you go into it, you get drawn.

One thought leads to another thought and another thought.

Oh my God.

And then the body, (Eckhart clearing throat)

the body cannot distinguish between an actual reality,

an event that's happening in the real life

and what your mind is saying.

So when you have fearful thoughts,

the body reacts to every fearful thought.

And that's an emotion.

The body reacts with an emotion,

the emotion you feel in your body.

The body cannot distinguish

between an actual event and a thought,

so when you think fearful thoughts,

the emotions you feel are the emotions that are saying,

"I am in danger.

"There is an actual danger here."

So you feel the emotion of fear, anxiety.

You might...

You feel agitated, and it's not only not pleasant,

if you indulge in that kind of useless,

dysfunctional, destructive thinking

year after year after year,

it has its effect on the body

and it decreases

the ability of the body

to have the energy to fight disease.

Even mainstream medicine is discovering

the connection between your state of mind

and your state of health.

And so gradually we are seeing

in the past they denied it completely.

They only looked at your body and not only at the...

They didn't just look at the totality of the body,

even within the body,

they just looked at one particular symptom.

What's wrong with that particular organ?

And you have, of course, in mainstream medicine,

you have specialists.

I'm a specialist for the liver,

a specialist for this and this and that.

Not only not taking into account

the totality of the body, but more importantly,

not taking into account the totality of the person,

which includes the physical body and the mind.

So it's vitally important

to discover, first of all,

that there is a voice in your head

that indulges in self-talk

most of the time.

And for many people, interestingly enough,

that self-talk for many people is not always negative.

But for many people, it is more negative than positive.

A good event that happened yesterday, a nice,

you might have gone to a nice reunion,

or you went out into nature

and you witnessed a beautiful sunset.

Okay, you can remember it today and think,

"That was a beautiful sunset,"

or "We had a nice talk yesterday."

But you can't do that much thinking about a nice event.

But the mind, when there's something negative

that happens yesterday,

somebody offended you

or didn't give you the attention that you needed,

that you wanted from him,

then you can start thinking of, "Oh my God, what he did.

"He's really...

"Next time he does that,

"I'm going to say that or he really should.

"Why doesn't he?"

You can go on for a long time

dwelling on something negative much longer

than dwelling on something positive.

(Eckhart laughing)

It is though a seemingly a negative event

is much more food for useless mind activity

than a positive event.

And this is life for many people.

A significant percentage of their mind activity is negative.

For some people, it is almost 100% negative,

but it is unlikely that these people

would get a job in this company.

(audience laughing)

And I mean that because the,

your predominant state of consciousness,

your predominant mental, emotional state,

there's a certain correlation

between who you associate with,

where you find yourself,

and even what kind of things happen to you.

There is a correlation

which is not always immediately recognizable.

But there is a correlation between one's,

a person's predominant, mental, emotional state

and who they are with, who their friends are,

where they work, and even what happens to them.

So if you are in a very negative state a long time,

you tend to attract also negative events.

But you can only have to find it out for yourself.

I'm not saying, "Believe me."

I know it from my own life

because when I first discovered this,

I was still very young.

I discovered that there is a correlation

between my mind activity and what happens to me.

I found a book

and that somebody,

several books that somebody left with us when I was 17.

And, therefore, the first time I read about

a person's mind and I suddenly realized

my mind was predominantly negative

because I was a very unhappy child.

And so my childhood was not pleasant.

And so the initial conditioning of my life

was that my mind was continuously commenting

and saying how bad my life was.

And whenever something bad happened to me,

I had a phrase that would occur again in my mind saying,

"Of course, bad things always happen to you, don't they?

"They're bound to happen to you.

"It always happens to you."

So I was talking to myself

and saying that bad things would always happen to me,

and they did. (Eckhart laughing)

So you can

discover first that the spiritual awakening is

to discover that there is continuous mind activity.

And for some people it's a discovery

that a significant part of their mind activity is negative.

But the vital thing is to discover

that's there is this continuous talk in my head,

which is called normal,

is considered the normal human state.

And you, of course, you cannot abolish thinking.

Of course, there will be thinking.

But the question is,

is there an awareness behind your thinking?

And if you can become aware that you are

indulging or caught up in

that useless mind activity,

and you suddenly become aware of perhaps

certain repetitive thoughts

that tend to reoccur in your mind again and again,

you might see it in others too, more easily in others.

When you go for your Thanksgiving dinner,

I think is it next week?

You will meet your family members or relatives

and some of you may realize

you already know what they are going to say this year,

because it's the same thing they said last year

and five years and 10 years ago.

And if they have negative judgements about you

or somebody else,

then it's the same thing

you will hear again next week when you go to them.

So it's easier to see how others are caught up

in repetitive thought forms.

Not as easy to see it in oneself.

This is why there's a saying that,

"Self-knowledge is the most difficult knowledge."

It's easier to see others.

But if you can discover, even in the midst perhaps,

in the moment of a certain thought appearing in your mind,

realizing, "Oh, that's all just,

"I've had this thought for years.

"It comes again and again and again."

And so you are,

there is an observing presence.

And from there you can.

And that observing presence isn't a thought,

it's just the ability to realize

that there is a voice in your head

and that there are thoughts.

And you realize that some of those thoughts are negative

and many of those thoughts actually are

not only unnecessary, but make your life very difficult.

Such as worry.

So most people live

with what I call a cluttered mind.

A cluttered mind means

they are completely unaware

that there's a continuous stream of mental commentary

and it goes.

And wherever they meet somebody,

and immediately certain judgments form.

And everything they feel

they need to immediately adopt a position towards it.

Immediately say, "I'm against it. I dislike it."

(Eckhart muttering)

Immediately adapt a mental position

and being identified with one's mental position,

which is a thought.

(soft relaxing music)

So if you discover within yourself

that a lot of the time

you're in a state of lack, of insufficiency,

of not enough,

and you feel that the answer to, the remedy is,

to be active in this world

and achieve and do as much as possible.

Then you'll probably find that ultimately,

that is not the answer to your state of lack.

In order to transcend,

to go beyond your state of lack, of neediness,

of not enough, spiritual practice

and spiritual realization is necessary.

Focus on the realization of being.

It's only there that you can go

beyond that state of lack which is ego.

Go within and discover who or what you are

beyond the person.

(waterfall splashing)