The Resilient Mind - You’re Not Your Thoughts: Why You’re Feeling Tired & Anxious - Sadhguru

Episode Date: September 19, 2025

Sadhguru is the founder of the Isha Foundation located in Coimbatore, India. The foundation operates an ashram and yoga center that specializes in education and spiritual practices. An accomplished yoga teacher since 1982, Sadhguru is also the author of several New York Times bestsellers, such as Inner Engineering: A Yogi's Guide to Joy and Karma: A Yogi's Guide to Crafting Your Destiny. He is also a frequent speaker at international events and forums.Take action and strengthen your mind with The Resilient Mind Journal. Get your free digital copy today: ⁠⁠⁠⁠Download Now⁠⁠This episode is brought to you in partnership with Sadhguru. Follow their YouTube channel by visiting: https://www.youtube.com/@sadhguru/featured Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to the Resilient Mind podcast. In this episode, you will be listening to You're Not Your Thoughts, Why You're Always Tired and Anxious with Sad Guru. Get access to the Resilient Mind Journal by clicking the link in the show notes. Enjoy. If you learn to simply set, you'll become tremendously intense. Right now, your energy is simply expanded by doing unnecessary, endless activity. When you have so much mental diarrhea, how can you have energy?

Suppose you have diarrhea, do you see how weak you feel? Right now, this mental diarrhea, that's why people have no energy. They want to just eat and sleep all the time, because mental diarrhea is very exhausting. If you have physical diarrhea, you know how exhausting it is. Yes? This is also equally exhausting. People are sleeping eight hours, ten hours a day. Not because they're working so much or their body is in such a bad state.

It's just mental diarrhea. If you stop the mental diarrhea, there's enough energy to make this very, very intense. Now, how do I stop mental diarrhea? If you have diarrhea, physical diarrhea, What is the first thing to do? First thing is, stop eating, right? You should know. But diarrhea means in some way we've eaten something that the body doesn't want.

It's trying to throw it out. Yes? You've taken something inside which the body doesn't like. It wants to throw it out. First thing is, stay away from food for some time. You eat bad food and then try to stab diarrhea, it's not going to work. So similarly, bad food for the mind is just this. You have gotten identified with things that you are not.

The moment you get identified with things that you are not, mental diarrhea is inevitable. It's bad food for the mind. Now it will run endlessly, do what you want. You do any damn meditation. You say Shiva, Rama, it's not going to stop. It's not stopped, isn't it? Because bad food is being eaten.

Every day you're getting identified with more and more things, and you want to stop your mind? You do whatever kind of circus, it is not going to stop. If you disidentify with everything, if you understand what is you and what is not you, If you keep a little distance from that, mind will become still. If you want, you can use it. Otherwise you can keep it.

Now my hand is there. If I want, I can move it. Otherwise I can keep it. This is a useful hand. Suppose it starts jumping like this. You clearly know there is some kind of an ailment, isn't it? Yes or no? So if hand is jumping, you know it's an ailment.

If mind is jumping, is it an ailment or no? The ailment has come because continuous wrong diet. You tell your mind that I am this, I am this, and I am that. It's having a barrier. You stop giving it wrong food. If you clearly say what, even if you do not know what is me, at least you know what is not me, isn't it? me, isn't it? This much you do? Tonight before you go to bed, sit on your bed and sit down and

discount everything that is not you, this house in which you're living. Is this me? No. This loving parent or mother, father, wife or husband or child, they're wonderful, but is this me? No. No, these nice clothes I'm wearing. Is this me? No. Now my body, I like it, but is this me? No. Now I'm having so many thoughts. Is this me? No. Now I'm having wonderful emotions. Is this me? No. Like this, everything that's not you, before you sleep, keep it down and go to bed.

Tomorrow morning, you will wake up considerably more intense than today. Every day you do it. In a little while, if you simply sit here, things around you will reverberate. I was in a few years ago, a couple of years ago, I was in America and this is a very typically American question. This lady comes up to me, and she's very angry. I've been doing this yoga for the last 35 years. Nothing happened. But you went and just sat in a rock.

and things happen to you. This is not fair. Where is that? She thinks it's the rock which you did. The only sadhana that I did in my life is, right from my very early age, though I was very actively involved with everybody around me, I never identified myself

with my parents or my siblings or my endless number of friends, or the society or the religion, or the country, or anything around me, never identified. Not that I was not involved. I was very involved, very active. Even today I'm very active and involved, but not identified.

If you don't identify with anything, there is enough energy in this to become intense. See, I want you to understand your life energy right now in this body, how many things it's doing here as you're sitting here? Hello? Do you know? The complexity of activity it is doing? Every cell in the body, your liver, your kidney, your damn spleen, and all kinds of stupid

things that we cannot even figure even today. Yes? Just see as you sit here, how many things this element. energy is doing. Obviously, it must be intense to do all this. You are not able to experience it because of diarrhea. When you have diarrhea, that's how you feel, isn't it? I said, no? So that's how it is. Stop the diarrhea. Stop eating bad food. Diary will stop. Once diarrhea stops, there's enough energy in this to sit here and reverberate in a very intense. way.

In life, there are many phrases where we feel that we are depressed, we are lonely, and when everybody is against us, and there is no one to, you know, guide us or talk about it. So at that moment, how should we handle it or how should we deal with it? See, this is an unfortunate condition that a whole lot of human beings are in, in their experience, In their personal experience, life is like me versus the universe. Being in competition with the universe is a stupid thing to do. That's not a competition you must get into. Hello?

Me versus the universe is a bad competition to get into. What do you also agree with? So this is why yoga. Yoga does not mean twisting and turning your body. The word yoga means union. Right now it's me versus. the universe. This is just your psychological condition. This is not the reality. Even when you feel utterly lonely, are you still breathing? So you're transacting with the world, isn't it? Yes? You only

can't get along with the people around you, but the atmosphere is okay with you. Food is okay. If it tastes good. Water is okay. You have transaction with the world, isn't it? Your existence is constantly an engagement with the universe. But you are a very much. mind becomes against the universe. If you create a psychological condition that you're against or you're in competition with the universe or the cosmos, obviously we'll feel crushed for small things. Little things will crush you. When I say little things, maybe you failed your examination, maybe you got thrown out

of this university. Maybe you got fired from a job. Maybe somebody ditched you. Maybe something else like this happened. These are all small things between life and death. Because you came here with nothing, isn't it? When you die, there is no container service for you. You die with nothing.

In spite of that, most people have turned their homes into warehouses. Most people are carrying such a huge baggage on their head as if they're carrying the whole universe on their head This is their own psychological condition Your thought and emotion is what you're talking about right When are you going to figure out how to handle your thought and emotion? Not hers not hers not his yours When are you going to learn how to handle my thought and my emotion?

the end of your life? The only problem really with life is just this. Most human beings have taken themselves too seriously. They don't understand. You've seen on the computer screen these pop-ups? You are a pop-up on this planet. You pop-up for two seconds and pop-out. No, no, you must see. Countless number of people like you and me have walked this planet. They were also big people. Where are they? All? Topsoil?

Topsoil or no? Unless somebody, your friends decide to bury you real deep, fearing that you may raise from the dead. You know, there have been such instances. Or maybe you're planning to go to heaven. Hello? Anybody who talks about a place other than this place,

has a better place than this, this is a crime against humanity. My fundamental work is to destroy all heavens so that people will learn to live well here. All these idiots who made a hell out of themselves, they want to go to heaven. They made a mess out of this place and then they want to go to heaven.

I am asking you, do you have any proof? Do you have any proof that you are not already, in heaven and messing it up? Do you have any proof? You're already in heaven making a mess out of it? Yes? Simply because you are not even learning

how to handle your basic faculties of thought and emotion, isn't it? Your only justification is everybody is like this only. That's how it is in a madhouse. That is how it is in a madhouse. Only a doctor looks crazy. So when are you going to handle it? Slowly, at the age of 60. I'm asking, when will you learn how to handle my thought, how to handle my emotion, how to handle my body, how to handle my chemistry, when are you going to figure this at the end of your life?

Because this culture has grown when to do spirituality means when you're 70, when you're no good for anything else? No, at the earliest possible time, whatever is most profound about you, not about heavens, About this life, everything that you need to know, you must know soonest, isn't it? Only then you live a sensible life. Okay, if I tell you a joke, you won't get offended. Because this is the most serious crowd I've ever seen in the last few years. How many of them are journalism? Most of them?

Okay. This happened. Shankar and Pillai, when he was in Paris, was married to a French woman. One day, it was their anniversary, first anniversary. So she invited a bunch of friends, and she wanted to cook something really fresh, everything fresh. So from morning she was driving him to this market, that market, he got this, fresh vegetables, fresh meat, fresh chicken, this, that, everything. Then in the evening, she said, because the French have this, you know, snail appetizer, she said, go to the beach. and get some snails fresh and I will make some appetizers for all the friends who are coming.

So Shankar and Pillai went to the beach and he was picking up all the snails and putting it in a bucket. Then he met an old friend, an Indian guy. They hit it off and they were talking about their old times. He just forgot that he's married. You know, when you meet old friends it happens. And both of them went to a... of them went to a bar and they had a few drinks and he just forgot. Then he realized, then the snails were just climbing out and took one snail, fell out of

the bucket. He realized, oh my God, I'm supposed to take the snails my wife, French wife. She's waiting. So he said, I need to go and he went. By then it was already very late. He went, he knew it's not going to be pleasant. So he came near the house and spilled all the snails on the ground, threw away the bucket, and went and knocked on the door.

The French fury came. He turned back and said, come on, you guys, we're almost there. Come on, let's go. So when are you going to pick your snails and put them in the bucket and fix them? Huh? Your problems, you must fix them, isn't it? These are not problems. I want you to understand you are not suffering your life.

You're only suffering two fantastic faculties that only... It's a privilege of being human that we have these two fantastic faculties. One is we have a vivid sense of memory. This is because of this memory our life is so rich, unlike any other creature. And we have a fantastic sense of imagination. Now this is what you're suffering. What happened 10 years ago you can still suffer? Why?

Are you suffering life or memory? Hello? Memory? What may happen day after tomorrow you're already suffering? Are you suffering life or imagination? Two most fantastic faculties you have, you're suffering. So what are you asking for? You want to become once again an earthworm.

An earthworm is a very eco-friendly creature. I have nothing against it. But it took millions of years of evolution to get you at this size of brain. And now you're suffering it. If we take away half your brain, of course you will sit there without any anxiety, without any suffering peacefully. What we need is we need to remove your brain because you are suffering your own intelligence. Yes or no? Because we gave you a very complex machine.

You have not bothered to read even the user's manner. You want to just blunder around. No, young people, it's time. You figure out a few things about you. If you don't know how, we will give you tools. How to figure this machine out? Because in your life, many issues will come. More issues come up in your life means you're living a more active life.

Nothing came up means you're not living. Yes? Lots of issues every day. I have the maximum number of trouble going on. in my life on a daily basis because so much of activity around the world, global level of activity only with volunteers, okay? Volunteers means nobody is qualified for the job and you can't fire them for inefficiency and they love you. What to do? This one thing you must fix, that is, in your life you are not the issue, okay? Whatever the issue will do our best.

but this should not be the issue. Thank you for tuning in. Continue strengthening your mind by listening to our other episodes.