You are not broken, neither am I and neither is anyone else. I truly believe this now but I didn't used. I used to think, 'There are so many broken people. How can I help them?' So when a client sat in front of me I saw that they were broken and hen I spoke to them, I heard that they really thought that too. But then I saw the truth which is encapsulated in these words, 'You are not broken, you just think you are.' Because that's how it works. Once you believe you are broken, that becomes all you can see. That belief acts like a filter.  You stop seeing your wisdom, your inner calm, your resilience and your confidence but they are still there.

As your belief in your thoughts starts to weaken, you will see it more clearly and then you can reconnect to that which was always there anyway.

The power of simplicity is something I have seen more and more over the last 2 years. Of course, life got simpler in the outside world because there was less to do, places to visit and less stuff to buy. I really enjoyed this. But my seeing of the power of simplicity goes so much deeper than this. You see, I spent a long time searching for source of my feelings because I was looking to change them and I thought getting to the source would do that.

I looked in the past mostly but in other places too but it all got so complicated. Every time  I felt a feeling, there was all this searching but now there is only ever one answer. Every single feeling comes from thought in the moment. This brings simplicity, calm and clarity.

Fear of the unknown seems to be a current issue which innocently creating suffering. I hear it expressed often particularly about the future. People say, "I am afraid of the unknown", but when we think about that word, unknown, what does it really mean? If something is unknown their is a space. But it is a space we innocently fill with what we think we already know. We fill it from our intellect, habitual thinking and old beliefs. That's what we are really afraid of. Not the unknown but the thoughts we put into that space.

What really helps is to see you are doing that.

Commitment is a word which is used a lot in relationships, in business and in learning to name but a few. But here is different question about commitment. How committed are you to what you make up? I mean the things you make up about the future, the thoughts you imagine in other people's heads and even the beliefs you have about yourself. Have you noticed that they come with a feeling (it's not nice) and have you noticed that the more committed you become, the worse the feeling gets? 

The feeling is telling you that your thinking is off - that's all! More commitment to your off thinking = worse feeling. Once you see this, it simply melts away!

I woke up feeling anxious! You know the feeling. Butterflies in the stomach, a general unease around the shoulders and a head which is a bit fuzzy. I started searching for why. Did I have a bad dream? What is going on today? What could be wrong with me? I noticed the feeling intensifying.

Then I remembered. "You are feeling thought, Clare." Then I let go. "You don't need to know what the thinking is, Clare", then there was more calm. "You are okay with that feeling as it is, Clare."

But, what I am sharing here is not a tool for you to use. That's what happens inside me when I remember that 100% of my feelings are created via thought in the moment. That's my little process but it might not be yours. But when you know with conviction that the only source of your feelings is thought in the moment, you will come up with something which makes sense to you in the moment. My way is not a prescription.

Information from the outside creates that overwhelmed feeling. Information from the news, social media and other people's ideas. But also information about the inside like seeking the reason for feelings, trying to control our thoughts and searching for calm. All this information and trying to understand fills our heads and if we have a decision to make, it can really get in the way. Did you know that what is right for you is unique and your right next step is just for you. It is available to you when there is space and calm inside but when you look elsewhere, into the noise, you are using someone else's past to create your future.

You have a light to shine and something to do in the world. Don't leave it buried under all that information.

Lies, damn lies and the things we think about ourselves ordered perfectly from bad to worse and here's why. You see the things you think about yourself have literally nothing to do with you. They have been innocently created over time by other people like parents, teachers and other children. We don't need to explore this further as it's just something to know. It helps to distance yourself.

You will sometimes have a thought about yourself like, 'I am not good enough.' and this as with all thoughts has some truths worth knowing. You did not create it, the origins of the thought are not you and the thought is not truth. Due to all the above, your thinking has literally no idea what you are capable of and that is why every single day, you do things your thinking said you couldn't.

You do not have to change your thoughts but what does bring some calm is changing how you view thought itself. That is what is truly transformational.

"I am not coping with this", said someone I was talking to a few days ago. I asked him a simple question, "How do you know you are not coping?" He paused and suddenly there was space. That question was asked in all innocence because I really did wonder how we know whether or not we are coping and what does coping even mean? It seems to me that your version of coping will be different to mine because it only exists on one place; inside our heads, in thought.

What if you knew you were coping? What if you knew that you could be feeling literally anything but that underneath it all, you were still okay? That there was something magical pulling you through life no matter what. Because, have you noticed that you have always come out the other side. Perhaps with hindsight you have seen how you coped in the past which probably means that you are coping right now. I hope this helps you to see that.

Control is an old friend of mine which is thankfully now hanging around a little less but we were close for a long time. Once upon a time, I tried to control E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G! It happened in two phases. In the run up to burnout it was people, circumstances and the future. Then whilst on the self-development hamster wheel it was my thoughts, feelings and behaviour. It was exhausting, laden with judgement and like a 24/7 game of wack-a-mole! Perhaps you can relate.

If you are trying to control like I was it is feeding that feeling of overwhelm but it doesn't have to be that way. You can split up with control as soon as you are ready.

The past is so temptingly presented to us as the panacea of mental wellbeing. You are encouraged to work through your traumas, find the source of your behaviour and root out those unwanted feelings. I went down that path for many years but it just doesn't make sense any more. Because now I see the truth that human beings feel what they think in the moment. So, when we think about something bad in the past we feel it. It's a clever trick which makes it look like the past has harmed us but it really is all thought!

Imagine if you stopped thinking about the past. You would never feel the past again. I know this is not always easy but just knowing this is how it works can be helpful.