3. WAIT: The Art of Catching Your Thoughts

Summary:Your mind is always talking — the question is whether you're listening. In this episode, we explore witness consciousness through Yoga Sutra 1.3 and introduce WAIT — a simple, playful acronym that activates your inner witness and interrupts the autopilot of the mind. You'll learn why you are not your thoughts, and how one simple question can change your relationship with your own mind. Awareness is always the first step — and now you have a tool to get there.Transcript: Have you ever found yourself stuck replaying an interaction with someone or thinking about something you did over and over and over? Or maybe you found yourself in a spiral of worry in the middle of what- if palooza? In the last episode, I introduced the idea of the stories in our mind, and today I wanna give you the simplest possible tool to interrupt those stories.Hey, it's Kelly G, your Radiance Coach. Welcome to the Embodied Radiance Podcast, episode number three.In the last episode, we talked about the fact that our mind defaults to old stories and conditioning when we aren't paying attention to it. It is going to try to pull up thoughts that we have had over and over because that doesn't use any energy at all. We are wired for the path of least resistance.And I also mentioned in the last episode that it is possible to change our thoughts, and it is, but before you can change anything, you actually have to see what is happening. You have to be able to see what your mind is doing. You can't work with what you can't see. If you are doing something without conscious awareness of it, you're not going to consciously do anything to change it. So awareness is always the first step.Now, if we take ourselves back once again to the Yoga Sutras, the traditional texts of yoga philosophy, Sutra 1.3 tells us that beneath all of the noise in our mind, there is a part of us that can simply witness what is happening. That part of us doesn't react. It doesn't judge. It doesn't get swept away. It just watches.And in yoga, this is what we call the witness consciousness. It's the part of you that can be aware of what your mind is doing without automatically believing your thoughts, without automatically identifying with what you're thinking or getting swept away by what's happening in your mind.Most of us spend most of our lives inside our thoughts. We are identified by them. We are run by them. We can even be convinced that we are our thoughts. But the witness consciousness within us reminds us that you are not your thoughts. You are the one who can watch them. You are the one who can tune in and see what your mind is doing, what patterns are there, what habits your mind has. And this distinction is everything.Okay, so let's go back to the intro of the episode. I mentioned that I was gonna introduce a really simple tool for noticing your thoughts. So in my own practice of working to notice what my mind is doing behind my back, outside of my conscious awareness, I was using the question, "What am I thinking? What am I thinking?"And one day, I remember exactly, I was sitting in my car tuning in, and I just said it really slowly, "What am I thinking?" And all of a sudden, I noticed the acronym W.A.I.T., W.A.I.T. And I thought, "Oh, this is perfect." It's a little playful. It's simple. It's really easy to remember.I wasn't trying to create a tool. I just noticed that when I asked myself the question, "What am I thinking?" it had a way of snapping me back into awareness, and I could shorten that down into this simple tool using the acronym W.A.I.T. And honestly, sometimes what really works in my mind is to step into a smartass tone to really snap myself out of what my mind is doing.So sometimes it sounds like, "Wait. Wait." Like, "Wait just a minute." And it really brings me into the moment to pause, to tune in. So W.A.I.T. stands for what am I thinking. That is the entire tool. It is the one question that activates the witness consciousness, that part of you that can see your thoughts without believing them, without buying into them, or getting swept away with them, and W.A.I.T. Is how you wake that part of you up.So this question, "What am I thinking?" does two things simultaneously. It interrupts the autopilot or the spiral that your mind may be in. In other words, it interrupts the regularly scheduled programming, and it creates a moment of curiosity. And in that moment, you're not judging the thought, you're not trying to fix it, you're not shaming yourself for having it.The point is really just to become aware of it. Become aware of what your mind is doing: the patterns, the habits that your mind has when we're not watching. In yoga philosophy, the practice of returning again and again without judgment, without frustration, that is the real work. Not the practice of having no thoughts, the practice of returning as many times as you need. And every time you use "wait," you are practicing. Every single time. You are stepping in to the witness consciousness that can help you become aware.Now, once you're there, you wanna stay in curiosity rather than trying to fix it. Awareness is the win for right now. When you ask, "What am I thinking?" and you tune in, you might find worry, you might find an old story, you might find a thought you really don't love having or that you didn't even realize you were having, and you don't have to do anything with it right now.Just knowing it's there, just seeing it is enough. That is the witness doing her work. Change is possible, and this is where it starts: with awareness, and without rushing to do the next step yet. We wanna stay in awareness first.Okay, so let's try it right now. Wherever you are, driving, walking, folding laundry, just pause for a second and ask yourself, "Wait, what am I thinking?"And just notice what's there. Not good or bad, not right or wrong. Just become the witness. Get curious about what your mind is doing. Can you see the thought without becoming it? Without getting swept away with it? And that's it. That's the whole practice. You can use this anytime, anywhere. The moment you realize you're spiraling, or you're checked out, or you just feel a little off, wait and check in. It just takes about three seconds.And over time, this can really change your relationship with your own mind. So remember, you are not your thoughts. You are the one who can watch them. And now you have a tool to remind you of that anytime, anywhere. Until next time, practice returning and let your life shine.Music by Rory Gardnerwww.yourradiantsoul.com