Two hours with Eckhart Tolle
Last weekend I went to London to see Eckhart Tolle speak. The talk was about two hours and a lot of it came down to something very simple: how much time we spend thinking about things that aren’t actually happening right now.
I recognised myself in that immediately. I can analyse conversations long after they happened, think about everything I still need to do or start worrying about something that hasn’t even happened yet. And for some reason, my brain especially likes doing this at 5 in the morning.
Eckhart talked about this too. You wake up, start thinking and within a few minutes your mind has found all kinds of things that suddenly need to be figured out. What I took from his talk is that you don’t necessarily have to do anything with those thoughts. You can notice them and focus on what is actually happening at that moment instead.
It sounds very simple, but I realised I almost never do that when my mind gets busy. A few days after London I slept nine hours straight, which honestly never happens to me. I have no idea if that had anything to do with the talk, but I did notice that I was dealing with my thoughts differently.
It also made me think about why I enjoy sound sessions so much. When I’m playing the bowls, I’m listening to the sound and paying attention to what’s happening right there. And when you’re receiving a sound session, you have the sound to focus on whenever your mind starts wandering. You don’t have to try very hard not to think. You can just listen.
Two hours with Eckhart Tolle obviously haven’t stopped me from overthinking, but I have become much more aware of how often I’m thinking about the past or something that hasn’t happened yet. And I’m trying to get a little better at simply noticing what’s happening now.... With love, Sofie
