Thought can be deceptive, distorting, and confusing. And yet the same thought-stream can become a doorway—if I notice what it is.
Most of the suffering I’m talking about isn’t caused by “bad thoughts.” It’s caused by thinking without realizing I’m thinking. It’s the moment I enter the world of a thought and forget I entered it.
So here’s the pivot: the next thought that tries to bind you can become the exact thing that frees you—if you recognize it as a thought, and let it go.
Thoughts Can Bind or Point—It Depends on Identification
While thoughts can be confusing, deceptive, and distorting, they can also be pointers—if I become aware of thoughts as such.
What causes anxiety, confusion, and dissociation is thinking without realizing I’m thinking. It’s being lost in thought. It’s being identified with thought.
But when I disidentify from one thought—when I recognize a thought as a thought—something changes immediately.
The Classic Example: “That Guy’s a Jerk”
Here’s a classic example I give.
I might have the thought: “That guy’s a jerk.”
If I don’t realize that’s a thought, I’m already in the world where that guy is a jerk. I’ve created that world and entered it without knowing it. Now “that guy’s a jerk” has effects on me. I have to figure out what to do about it. It feels like a situation I’m now inside of.
But the moment I realize: “Oh, I had a thought that says that guy’s a jerk,” it takes me out of the hot seat. Do you feel how there’s suddenly much less to solve?
A thought came. A thought went. I don’t feel triggered. I don’t feel like I created a world I have to resolve—a world that binds me.
The Mechanism Happens All Day Long
That’s just one example, but if I notice the mechanism of mind, I’ll see this happens all day long.
So if I become aware of a thought as a thought, that thought can be a pointer.
But to the degree that I’m identified with the thought, I’m seeing the world through the view of that thought. It becomes like a belief—an unconscious orientation to the world—and I suffer.
I forget the natural peace that is my birthright.
So I practice a simple thing: become aware of the next thought, and the next thought, and the next thought.
When I do that, any thought can be an entry point. Any thought can be a pointer to freedom.
“What Do I Do to Get Out of This?” as an Entry Point
For instance, I might have the thought: “What do I do to get out of this situation I’m in?”
If I’m identified with that thought, the world it creates feels uncomfortable. It feels urgent. It feels stuck. It feels enclosed.
But the moment I become aware of the thought—“Oh, there’s a thought that says I need to get out of this”—I have a new freedom.
At the very least, I can question whether I’m in anything at all.
Am I in anything such that I need to get out of it?
There’s an irony here: maybe it’s the thought that I’m stuck in that I need to get out of. But the moment I recognize it as a thought, I’m already out.
This doesn’t mean there isn’t a relative situation in my life that the thought refers to. But I have much more access to creativity, to presence, to relaxation when I don’t identify with that thought.
When I disidentify, I get room to breathe.
Right now, in this moment, am I in anything that suggests I need to escape?
What happens when I let go of the thought that says I need to find a way out?
I feel the freedom.
And the first time I do it, it might be just a little bit of freedom. So I keep at it.
“I Need to Make Myself Feel Better” and the World It Creates
Another common thought is: “I need to figure out how to make myself feel better.”
It could be about pain, illness, emotional states—anything.
If I’m fully identified with that thought, I’ve already accepted a world where I’m in distress and I have to find a way to feel better. And that acceptance already solidifies the problem.
But the moment I realize: “Oh, there’s a thought that says I need to make myself feel better,” I have room.
I can question:
Maybe that thought isn’t true at all. Maybe I neither need to find a way to feel better, nor is there a problem to begin with.
So if I can let go of that one thought, I may recognize something: there’s nothing I really need to do to make myself feel better.
Even if I feel uncomfortable, there’s nothing that says I have to do anything.
Often, the “having to do something” is the discomfort. It adds to the discomfort. It amplifies it—sometimes it’s most of the discomfort.
The Simple Seeing: “That’s a Thought”
As I disidentify from thought after thought, I start to find something very simple: the real discomfort—the amplifying discomfort—is the belief in a worldview based on a thought about experience.
And the moment I see: “Oh, that’s a thought,” I loosen the binding.
“I have to do something.” That’s a thought.
“I have to fix something.” That’s a thought.
“There’s something broken about me.” That’s a thought.
“I’m confused.” That’s a thought.
“I’m unhappy.” That’s a thought.
Even: “I’m happy.” That’s a thought.
And I might say: “Well, I don’t want to disidentify from happiness.”
But I’ll notice something here: conditional thoughts—positive or negative—can hide discomfort I don’t always see.
If I tell myself “I’m happy,” and I identify with the world in which I’m happy, that world is contingent on happiness. It can feel satisfying, but it’s satisfying because I think the world is that way.
And then as soon as the world starts showing me it’s not always that way, that view starts to collapse, and it feels uncomfortable.
Have you ever noticed when something good happens and you identify with it—“something good happened to me”—that at some point fear can follow: “Oh God, I could lose it. When’s the next shoe going to drop?”
So the discomfort I’m pointing to—adopting the world of a thought, being identified in that thought—is uncomfortable regardless of polarity. Good, bad—any of it can be binding.
And the moment I see that, I realize I can unbind from that.
I don’t have to be happy or unhappy. I don’t have to be satisfied or dissatisfied. I don’t have to do anything specific. There’s no problem to solve here.
Those statements are not something I’m trying to “believe.” They’re what becomes obvious when I let go of the binding thought—simply, innocently.
Thousands of Chances a Day
Thoughts have this binding quality when I identify, and the moment I disidentify, the binding releases.
Very simple.
Thousands of thoughts a day flood through the mind. And each one has the potential to bind me in this way.
But each one also has the potential to allow me to realize a degree of freedom when I disidentify—when I recognize a thought as a thought and see:
The world I have to buy into in order to be identified with that thought doesn’t exist.
So I don’t have to feel that binding. It’s not about me. It never was. It was never real.