Most people live on autopilot, under the control of The Ego. The moment you take back control of your mind is when you reclaim control of your life. Connecting with your inner observer is magic. It’s when the real you can take the wheel of your consciousness instead of the passenger. Want to learn how to do it?
Taking back control of the mind isn’t hard; we just need to practice being fully present. When you are present and “in the moment,” you are aware of thoughts, emotions, body, and surroundings. That’s when the real you shows up. It seems like a lot of ground to cover, but the mind is a miraculous instrument. It is capable of much more than we realize.
Take Back The Wheel
Step one is finding out who is it that is in control. Who is behind the wheel? Is it you or your Ego? Most people live on autopilot, so the Ego is driving. Sadly, most people are unaware of the entity actually observing what’s happening.
Our mind is the home of our personality and instincts. They are the default tools of consciousness that connect us with our bodies. We need to learn how to use these tools correctly instead of allowing them to control our lives.
We hear a lot about the mind-body connection and how our mental and physical states are intricately linked. Yet, what lies beyond this connection has piqued the curiosity of philosophers, scientists, and mystics. Many spiritual traditions point to the entity beyond the mind that observes our thoughts, emotions, and actions.
But when we are present, this control dissolves, and what is left is the pure awareness of our being. It’s not the mind that is present, but a thread of consciousness spiritual traditions call spirit, soul, or observer.
What is The Inner Observer?
The entity in your mind you talk to is what religions refer to as the spirit, soul, or observer. It observes our experiences, everything from birth to death and perhaps beyond to infinity. Religions refer to this aspect of our consciousness as the Soul or Spirit. That’s who you are talking to right now inside your head.
You need to understand that our thoughts and emotions are byproducts of the mind. You are not a byproduct, and the “real you” is the one who experiences and observes your awareness.
The concept may seem foreign if you’ve never experienced life from this perspective. Many ancient traditions call the real you the soul, spirit, or observer. Your inner observer is the consciousness that we talk to inside our heads. It is the awareness that experiences our dreams. This level of perception exists beyond the confines of our bodies and our minds. (1)
You Need to Take Back Control of Your Mind
When we are present, that’s the moment when we are in the driver’s seat. In the driver’s seat, we contact our source. Our source is what some traditions call the spirit or soul. The modern world ignores our spiritual needs. It is this perspective that enables us to live life fully.
We can observe and direct our lives when we are behind the steering wheel. We are fully present in mind and spirit. And we can connect with the “source.” Our source is pure consciousness. When we live grounded in “source,” our intellect and intuition work together. This connection is only possible when you take back control of your mind.
When we are present, it gives us a unique perspective. It gives us access to both our analytical and intuitive minds. We are aware of what’s going on internally and externally simultaneously. In this state, we are conscious of the subtleties of our external and internal environments.
Your inner observer wants you to be present and your spiritual gifts. Here is where we achieve balance and a new level of awareness. Synchronistic events are all around us, but we miss most because we aren’t aware. Connecting with the “source” helps us recognize these events and their messages. We get support in unexpected ways.
The Problem
The problem is most people are just passengers in their lives. The Inner observer is absent from our awareness altogether, but it’s not your fault. We are programmed by the culture to ignore this aspect because it gets in the way of them selling us stuff. Those who drive the negative aspects of culture want us to be obsessed with our thoughts and emotions. It makes it easier to manipulate through their propaganda. They don’t want you to take back control of your mind, and you won’t buy useless things like religious ideologies.
When this happens, we lose connection with our source and allow Ego to control our awareness. We are a passenger. We are on autopilot. (2)
When the Ego is behind the wheel, we are more susceptible to negative programming from the culture. We behave in ways we would not have intended. The full range of the experience of life is missing. There is no magic in life. It becomes mindless and boring.
“Imagine that the universe is a great spinning engine. You want to stay near the core of the thing — right in the hub of the wheel — not out at the edges where all the wild whirling takes place… The hub of calmness — that’s your heart. That’s where God lives within you. So stop looking for answers in the world. Just keep coming back to that center and you’ll always find peace.” ― Elizabeth Gilbert
When you are not behind the wheel, it feels like your thoughts and emotions are ambushing you. They seem to come out of nowhere. The mind presents a continual cascade of ideas you can’t control. Sometimes, you can’t shut them off long enough to sleep. The inner observer gets a headache.
Meditating or feeling fully present is difficult when you cannot shut off the internal dialogue. These are symptoms of life on autopilot. Unfortunately, it’s far too familiar. In this situation, the temporal elements of Ego control thinking. You are not behind the steering wheel. You are a passenger.
How To Take Back Control of Your Mind
There are two ways to move from the passenger to the driver. The first way is the analytical approach. The second is through a direct experience of the transcendent. Think of them as two roads that lead to the same destination.
An analytical understanding of our thinking helps us see the observer. Otherwise, this level of awareness will stay hidden in the background.
Meditation allows us to experience this pure state of awareness directly. This is the home of your inner observer. Then, we can learn to bring this presence into waking consciousness. Both approaches will lead us to a magical experience. That’s when the real magic begins.
“Harmony is our natural state of being. And so, when our energies become too stagnant, chaos is thrown into the mix to stimulate what will eventually result in balance and invite flow. The trick is to not let chaos trap or define you. Simply allow it to create movement in the vehicle of your life so that you can snap your eyes open and take back control of the wheel. Do not lose yourself in the storm. Instead, be the calm in the storm.” ― Alaric Hutchinson, Living Peace: Essential Teachings for Enriching Life
Analytical Approach to Connecting with Your Inner Observer
The first step of this approach is understanding the components of the mind. As we mentioned before, the Ego is a necessary tool of consciousness connecting us to our bodies. It’s the home of our personality and instincts. These are the default tools of awareness. We need to learn to use them instead of letting them control the wheel of our presence.
So, why are personality and instincts in control in the first place? When we are born, we learn about ourselves and our world. We need a simple interface to connect our consciousness to our bodies. As mentioned before, the problem is that we can get “stuck” in the default mode. Many people feel they are missing something but don’t know what it is. That’s because they are stuck in the default mode. They exist but don’t live. They only get a glimpse of this observer when there is an imbalance in their emotions. When we have an extremely intense emotional experience, the observer breaks through the control of the Ego.
Analytical insight gives us the perspective to reach the magical state of awareness. Awareness is the key to connecting with your inner observer. The best tool we’ve found for this is the Enneagram Personality Profile. This process uses a set of questions. These will identify your personality, makeup, and instinctual stack.
Many people find the Enneagram results form an accurate picture of their thoughts. With these tools, you can see how and why you have thought patterns and emotional tendencies. You can “see” why you like or dislike certain things and situations. With this perspective, you can “observe” how your mind works. You will move behind the wheel instead of letting the mind run on autopilot.
A Direct Experience of the Infinite
Nothing is more convincing than a direct experience of the infinite. We recommend meditating using a process known as Japa Meditation. Japa Meditation is the traditional version of Transcendental Meditation (TM). This technique is the cornerstone meditation technique for any serious spiritual explorer.
This technique silences the internal dialogue. This allows for a direct experience of the transcendent observer. Connecting with your inner observer restores the proper balance of the psyche.
Even if you’ve had difficulty using other meditative techniques, this process will result. Japa uses a Sanskrit Mantra in a precise and effortless operation. A Mantra is a vibrational tool of meditation. When used correctly, it allows one to enter the source of bliss consciousness. It puts you in touch with the “real you,” the observer.
Learning Japa is easy. But you can’t learn this process from an audiotape. The mantra needs to be tuned specifically for you. You need to give and receive feedback during the learning process.
Take Back Control of Your Life
A lot of things become easier once you are behind the wheel. For example, many people can meditate much easier now that they are in the driver’s seat. Others get the same level of clarity using the Enneagram of Personality questionnaire. They find out how their personality has been covering up their awareness of the observer.
Either path will lead you back to the source of your true nature. You will feel more at peace and less frantic. You will spot synchronicities, feel more aware of your intuition, and make better decisions.
Your thought-life is now something you can direct for more positive outcomes. Life becomes more manageable and less stressful even when things aren’t going your way. It is all because you are behind the steering wheel instead of the passenger seat.
You can experience “the real magic” of life. All it takes is connecting with your inner observer. That’s how you are able to take back control of your mind. Learn to observe, choose, and direct your thoughts and emotions. You are not at war with your Ego.
References
(1) Human observers have optimal introspective access to perceptual processes, even for visually masked stimuli. The National Library of Medicine
(2) At the Heart of It All: The Concept of Presence. The Journal of Computer-mediated Communication