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Our thinking mind, ego or storyteller would have us believe that we need to judge others in order to feel better about ourselves. Its job is to be a protector, so it stands to reason that no matter what the circumstances are, we need to come out on top. At least that’s according to our thinking mind.

What I am learning by reading books like Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor’s My Stroke of Insight is that the left brain storyteller or ego sees sorting information as its job. Thank the stars for our thinking mind: it’s responsible for keeping us on the right side of the road when we drive our car; its job is to remember our name, where we live and our children’s birthdays.

It is truly a miracle worker and I appreciate everything the thinking mind is capable of doing for us especially now that I am learning to manage it. When we let the thinking mind run the show, we leave the door open for all kinds of random, silly stuff to invade our lives.

The Course in Miracles, by Dr. Helen Schucman, refers to one tiny mad idea that our ego or storyteller gets hold of and off it goes on some random tangent, making up stories around that one idea. We go along with the show when we don’t know any better; when we aren’t aware that we are in charge of our thinking mind. Consider the thinking mind like a little two-year- old child. It requires tender, loving discipline.

One of our thinking mind’s favourite tasks is judgment. We can be hard on ourselves and on other people – the process is quick and easy, even comfortable for our thinking mind. If you look a certain way, you must be a certain type of person, so I’ll file you over here. Our thinking mind likes everything to be organized, so we judge situations and people in order to file them in what we think is an appropriate compartment. It happens hundreds of times each day; we do it automatically, without thinking. There’s the key . . . we do it without thinking, without being mindful of what chaos we’re creating for ourselves or what damage we might be doing to someone else by simply judging and dismissing them.

Remember that according to the law of attraction what we think about and focus our attention on is what expands in our lives. Judgment brings about more judgment and if it’s not on the list of what we want then here’s an opportunity to shift focus to something else. When you give your thoughts a second thought, you can see how absurd this judging habit is and how choosing another thought, such as compassion, will bring a different result. I can guarantee that it will be a better outcome for you and for the person to whom you are extending compassion.

I have to say again what an amazing tool our thinking mind is and if managed well, it will serve us well. Where we get into trouble is when we believe everything our thinking mind tells us, including that everything needs to be filed away neatly.

Our thinking mind wants us to believe that we should be in control, however life is so much easier when we give up the perception of control and accept that there is a flow to this life. Our job is to get into that flow.