It’s demeaning sometimes
to watch your thoughts pass by
and realise how judgemental and petty they can be
like being sober at a debauched drunken party
and cringing as your friends make fools of themselves.
“Can this really be me?” you ask yourself, ashamed.
“Is my mind really so full of nonsense?
Have I really stooped so low?”
But who ever said that these thoughts were yours?
They’re only a process taking place inside you
like digestion, or the circulation of your blood.
And you’re not the process, any more than you are your digestion.
Pay as little attention to your thoughts
as you do to your circulating blood.
Take the content of your thoughts as seriously
as the contents of your intestines.
And then your thoughts will slow down, and fade away
until there’s only a background noise that doesn’t disturb you
like a tiny television set, turned down low
flickering from a far corner of your room.
Then you’ll find that there is nothing
– and no one – to be ashamed of.