Guided, two affirmations, done twice. Music underneath
There is a difference between I am depressed and I am feeling depressed. This whole meditation lives in that gap.
About 12 minutes with Steven Webb's calm voice.
Thoughts first, then feelings, and the same line each time. I have thoughts, I am not those thoughts. I have feelings, I am not those feelings. Here is the proof: if you were them, you could not be aware of them. The chair can be aware of the table but not of the chair.
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Thank you for sitting with me.
Steven
Who this is for
There is a difference between I am depressed and I am feeling depressed. This whole meditation lives in that gap.
When we are low, or lonely, or in a lot of pain, it stops feeling like something happening to us and starts feeling like what we are. This separates the two.
What happens in this meditation
The body settles first, and the breath is left alone.
Then thoughts. You watch them arrive and go, including the ones about this. What am I doing sat here. What is this meditation about. You smile at each, thank it, and let it float off downstream.
Then one line, twice. I have thoughts. I am not those thoughts. And you notice the small gap between a thought and the awareness of it.
Then the same move with feelings. You find where they sit, in the chest, the throat, the shoulders. You watch them rise and fade. I have feelings. I am not those feelings.
Then the proof, which is the part worth keeping.
If you were these feelings, you could not be aware of them. The chair can be aware of the table but not of the chair.
How to get the most from it
Twelve minutes, and the two lines are the whole of it. Say them slowly and check what they do rather than reciting them.
The gap between a thought and your noticing it is very small. Look for it anyway. Finding it once is what makes the rest of this believable.
Then carry it into ordinary language. You taste something and you are not the taste. You hear something and you are not the sound. Feelings work exactly the same way.
Questions people ask
Does this mean I should ignore how I feel?
The opposite. You can sit in it, experience it fully, and even enjoy it. What changes is that it is something you are having rather than something you are.
Why does the wording matter so much?
Because I am depressed makes it permanent and makes it you. Nothing that comes and goes can be what you are, and the sentence quietly decides which one you believe.
What if the feeling is very strong?
It still comes and goes, and this meditation does not ask you to make it smaller. If it is with you most days, talk to somebody. This sits alongside that.
Read along
The transcript
It follows the audio. Press any line to jump there.
overthinking · mindfulness · present-moment
Read the transcript
Hello and welcome to The Serene Observer. This is a little meditation that goes beyond your
thoughts and emotions and it really helps you to separate what's going on in your head, what's going on in
your body. And who you really are. You just take a step back from them. And very often when we're
feeling really depressed or we're feeling really lonely or we're sitting in a lot of pain,
very often we feel like that's us. And what this does is just separates ourself from that. So instead of
I am depressed, we become I'm feeling depressed. And it separates the self from the thoughts
and whatever's going on. And it gives us the power to be able to step beyond them
and transcend them. So it's about a 10-15 minute meditation. So if you begin
by finding just a comfortable seated position. And settle yourself in and you can gently close your
eyes if you choose to.
And if you choose not to close your eyes, just soften your gaze a few feet in front of you.
You don't always have to close your eyes to do meditation.
And just allow your body to settle in. Allow your body to relax. Your body knows how to relax. Your
body knows how to breathe we just become aware of the breathing.
And I'm Steven Webb And
Just a reminder, I have another podcast called Stillness in the Storms. Which
just helps you to get through some difficult times in life or just see life a little bit differently.
And as you're Allowing your body to settle in.
Allowing your awareness to become aware of your breath. Breathing in calm. Breathing out relaxed.
Just notice the natural rhythm of your breath.
You don't have to do anything with it.
Breathing in calm.
Breathing out relaxed.
And with each breath, just allow your body to relax a little bit more.
And now just shift your attention to your thoughts.
I want you to observe them as they come and go.
And it could be anything you could be thinking right down to. What am I doing sat here? Or
what's this meditation about? Or perhaps something you need to do later? Just
give it a gentle smile and a nod. And thank you for the thought. And allow it just to float
on down, say, a stream. And
you can see them and you see them just float away.
And as you're becoming more calm, just say this affirmation.
But really look at it and feel it and see what it resonates with you. Say
to yourself, I have thoughts. I am not those thoughts.
I have thoughts. I am not those thoughts.
And just recognise how that feels. Recognise how that lands.
I have thoughts. But I am not those thoughts.
And notice the small gap between the thoughts and your awareness.
And now you can turn your awareness to any feelings or emotions that are present within your body.
They could be around your heart or they could be lower. They
might even be in your shoulders or your throat.
Just become aware of any of these feelings or emotions.
And imagine them rising and becoming more and then fading and disappearing.
And You have feelings. But you're not these feelings.
And you can observe these feelings and affirm to yourself just by saying, I have feelings.
I am not those feelings.
I have feelings. I am not those feelings.
And just as you, you
can bring your attention to the taste in your mouth or what you can hear.
Whatever sensation you use, you're not the sound or you're not the taste. You're just they're
experiencing it. And this is the same with your feelings. You're just experiencing the feeling.
I have feelings. I am not those feelings.
And if you were these feelings or you were these thoughts, you wouldn't be able to be aware of them.
Just like the chair can be aware of the table,
the chair cannot be aware of the chair
I'm Not sure if that's a helpful analogy.
But if you're observer and you're watching over your thoughts or watching over your feelings, you cannot be those feelings.
You're
aware of them. Same as you're aware of any sounds that are coming in.
And recognise that your true self, your awareness, is separate to these thoughts and emotions.
You have emotions, but you are not those emotions. You
have thoughts, but you're not these thoughts.
And now just feel the liberation and the understanding that you are the observer. And
you're the observer of your thoughts and feelings. And you're not defined by them.
You have feelings, but you're not those feelings. And it means you can be free of them. You can
experience them. You can sit in them. You can enjoy them. You
can try to push them away if you don't like them so much. Perhaps they are not all joy.
But ultimately you're not them. You're
just aware of them.
So as we embrace the role of the serene observer here,
this part of you that is calm, it's unswayed and
you're away from the mind's chatter or the heart's turbulence and you're just observing.
And in this space there's a profound sense of peace and clarity. Just
rest here for a moment.
And just remember as you to go about your day that you can have thoughts and you can have feelings,
but you are not these ones. You're not the feelings, you're not the thoughts, you're observing them, you're having them.
Just the same as if you eat something, you experience the taste of the eating. You're not the actual
taste itself or you hear something. It comes in and you hear it. You're not the sound itself. And this
is the same for your feelings and the same for your thoughts. You're not the thought itself. You're just
experiencing the thought. And
when we really grasp this concept, it's really mind-blowing. It suddenly gives you this ah
this separateness that we've wanted for such a long time, this calm peacefulness. So
as you slowly bring your awareness back to your breath, I'm breathing in calm. I'm breathing out relax Feel
the sensation of the air entering and leaving your body.
And when you're ready, just gently open your eyes and shake out your arms and just look around the room
and really feel this sensation that you're not your thoughts. You just have thoughts.
You're not your feelings. You just have feelings. And they come and go. They're not permanent.
There's something to experience. There's something to either enjoy or not enjoy quite so much sometimes.
You
are just the observer, just awareness itself.
I'm Steven Webb and I hope this meditation helps and if it does you can support the show by clicking
the links below in the show notes and
just by leaving a review and sharing this meditation with others really does help. It
gives us a sense of calmness in the world. When it feels like everything's going crazy, we can have this
