🌹"As you become the witness to your thoughts, your thoughts will slow down. [But] when you go along with what your thoughts tell you, by feeling something, ... your thoughts may bring some negative condition to you and instead of just being the witness and just observing, you react.
You react with fear, with anger, with hate, all sorts of emotions. This is what pulls you down. This is what keeps you embedded in maya [illusion], in the mortal dream."
~ Robert Adams (20th century American Advaita mystic)
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🌹Through self-observation, more presence comes into your life automatically. The moment you realize you are not present, you are present.
Whenever you are able to observe your mind, you are no longer trapped in it. Another factor has come in, something that is not of the mind; the witnessing presence.
Be present as the watcher of your mind - of your thoughts and emotions as well as your reactions in various situations. Be at least as interested in your reactions as in the situation or person that causes you to react.
Notice also how often your attention is in the past or future. Don't judge or analyze what you observe. Watch the thought, feel the emotions, observe the reaction. Don't make a personal problem out of them.
You will then feel something more powerful than any of those things that you observe: the still, observing presence itself behind the content of your mind, the silent watcher."
-Eckhart Tolle, Practising the Power of Now*
The thoughts change, But not you.
Let go of the passing thoughts and hold on to the unchanging self.