Are you watching it, or just thinking about it?

When you’re watching your favourite sport, or show, or maybe even the last ever episode of Neighbours - are you actually watching what’s going on in it? Or are you thinking about what’s going on in it?

You may think you’re paying attention to the match that’s being played, but it’s possible you’re wondering why your team didn’t score 5 minutes ago? Or maybe wishing the ref had made a better decision, or you’re thinking that the final whistle should have been blown ages ago. These are all thoughts about the game, but they’ll distract you from what’s actually happening in the game.

You probably won’t even realise you’re having these thoughts, and your mind will wander off thinking. All this time, you still think you’re watching the game but you’re probably in your head thinking about the past, or wishing things will happen differently in the future.

There are so many times we appear to be watching what’s happening right now in front of us - but we’re actually paying attention to the thoughts in our head.

Our thoughts can distract us from what’s going on around us, without us even realising.

Next time you’re watching your favourite show or match, stop and see if you’re thinking about the game, or actually paying attention to it. You might be surprised.

This is a great way of noticing your thoughts. And becoming aware that your mind can distract you without you even realising it. You think you’re watching what’s happening, but in fact you are paying attention to your thoughts.

Just being able to notice you are having thoughts, is a really strong step into freeing yourself from struggles and suffering.

It’s the first step in the Thought Management model here.

Try it for yourself today - when you’re watching a video, set a timer to randomly go off and at that point see if you can tell whether you’re noticing what’s going on in the video itself, or are you paying attention to the thoughts in your head about it instead?…