Go Neutral

In the world of movies, there's a classic scene that we've all seen before. Someone's behind the wheel, cruising down the road, when suddenly, disaster strikes. The brakes are sabotaged, and their foot is desperately stomping on the pedal, while the car continues to accelerate. Panic sets in, and they're locked in this frantic struggle. Of course it never occurs to them to simply throw the transmission into neutral. Once you do that, it doesn't matter how the engine roars or revs out of control. The car is disengaged, no longer bound to the motor, and it can slow down and eventually come to a stop.

The analogy holds true in our own lives when it comes to our minds. Our minds engage with our emotions, and they start to ping-pong back and forth, creating a whirlwind of thoughts and feelings. This spirals into overdrive, and we find ourselves caught in a never-ending cycle. The more we feed our thoughts, the more our emotions flare up. It's a momentum that leads to discomfort, and it's important to understand that this angst isn't our true feeling. It's our resistance to acknowledging and accepting our genuine emotions.

So, what do we typically do in these moments? Most of the time, we panic and engage with our minds even more. We become reactive, attempting to control and prevent the experience from unfolding. Often we take it farther into numerous kinds of distractions or addictions to avoid ourselves. Unfortunately, this only pours more fuel on the fire, intensifying the anxiety. So, what's the solution?

It's actually quite simple when you start to practice it.

Go neutral.

What does going neutral mean? It means disengaging from the mind. Instead, focusing on the sensations in your body and feeling the flow of your breath. Let your mind do its thing while you stay in a neutral place. Watch your thoughts come and go, like clouds drifting across the sky. Observe the ever changing flow of emotion-based sensations, accepting them as they are in this here and now.

Thoughts themselves have no power. Once they arise they entirely depend on you engaging with them to keep them alive. Go neutral and they fall away. 

But what is this "you" that has the power to choose whether or not to engage in thinking?

You are awareness. Awareness is your most natural superpower.

This understanding becomes experience as we embrace the idea that we are not the mind, not the emotions, and not the thoughts. You are the silent witness of it all. Awareness remains neutral. It doesn't get entangled in thoughts, emotions, or experiences. It exists here now in the background, in the spaces between thoughts, where everything arises. It is endlessly spacious, our center, the source of inner peace, and the place from which we access infinite wisdom. It's our natural home.

Witnessing your life doesn't mean you're detached or uninvolved. Paradoxically, it means you are more engaged because you allow thoughts and feelings to come and go without meddling with them. By "meddling," I mean trying to decipher them, analyze them, or assign meaning to them. All of these activities distort our experiences and deplete our energy.

We can let thoughts come and go without getting caught up in them. We don't have to think unless we choose to. The default mode, the way many of us interact with our minds unconsciously, results in the mind habitually using us rather than us using it.

Learn to go neutral.

So, how do we go neutral? Connecting with your body is an excellent gateway back to yourself. Feel the breath as it flows in and out through your nose, down into your belly. Pay attention to the sensations in your body as feelings and emotions pass through. Witness your thoughts and emotions without becoming entangled in them. Let them come, let them be, and let them go. It sounds like a meditation practice, doesn't it? It is — 24/7 meditation, meditation in action.

When we fear our feelings, we often disconnect from our bodies and live exclusively in our minds. Our breath becomes shallow, and we might even hold it back. This shallow breathing further intensifies the discomfort. Trying to avoid what we fear actually increases our discomfort and disconnection from ourself. To reverse this, breathe down into your belly. Practice the 4-7-8 breathing technique whenever the discomfort is up.

Our body is our friend in processing emotions. We feel our feelings within our bodies. When we're afraid of these feelings, we tend to escape from our bodies and seek refuge in our minds as a defense mechanism. While it might seem to work temporarily, all it does is further engage our minds in trying to "solve the problem." But what problem? The mind often interprets emotions as issues that need fixing, leading us on a tumultuous journey.

In truth, there is no problem. A “problem” is a mind-created construct and actually does not exist. Feelings are not problems. Emotions are not problems. Thoughts are not problems. We only perceive them as such when we believe what the mind tells us about them. Don't believe everything you think. Just feel. Feel and disregard what the mind has to say about it. Witness it all happening. There's an inherent intelligence that operates through you when you allow it. This is living in neutral. Observe it all unfolding.

I’m not suggesting to never use your mind and just let it sit there drooling. Just as driving a car and choosing when to engage the transmission, you choose when to engage the mind when you need it to perform a task. And then when you don’t need it, you disengage. This makes use of your mind more efficient because you are not burning energy unnecessarily.

Don't take my word for it—practice this and notice your experience. Practice going neutral with your mind. The more skilled you become with this, the more you get to engage with your life, and the more you will enjoy your journey. 🕉