How do you start stepping back from your thoughts? Right where you are. Begin this very moment. Become aware, right now, without thinking about it, that you are thinking. See that there are thoughts and feelings coursing through you. As you watch their movements, be their silent witness. Just observe.

To observe yourself, assume no position on the thoughts and feelings you see moving through you. Don’t put yourself on either side of any thought’s content. In other words, be neither for nor against any thought with any other thought. And should you get temporarily caught in the web of any thinking, then watch that event with the impartial intent and simply start over. Just let your awareness of these thoughts and feelings be there.

The foundation of self-observation is a higher self-awareness that puts you in direct contact with a new and superior intelligence, a silent wisdom that immediately goes to work in your favor, knowing exactly what to do with all that passes before it. It can see the mindless, self-serving antics of your lower nature coming from a thousand miles away — which is the same as taking you out of harm’s way.