The Watcher.
The Watcher always looks at every aspect of life from a distance, as an observer, if you will. Never becoming caught up in anything, always watching from a distance.
A teaching of Eckhardt Tolle – “The Power of Now”.
It’s well worth starting at the beginning of the series.
It was only after reading Eckhardt’s book that I became aware of this characteristic in my life: I fully engaged in every trauma, event and experience in my life. I suppose another way of saying this would be that, “I took everything personally”.
It almost seemed that I wanted to take responsibility for everything negative that happened in and around my life.
Right back to my earliest childhood memories, I recall emotions of fear of 
abandonment, rejection, failure and lack of self-confidence (just to name a few).
I was always clinging onto someone or something to bolster my confidence and erase my fears. My state gave new meaning to the word co-dependency.
The effects of this state were very destructive in so many ways, especially in the area of my relationships.
Some years back I read a little book called, “As a Man Thinketh”, by James Allen, who was born late in the last century. One of Allen’s most notable quotes was: “You are today, where your thoughts have brought you; you will be tomorrow, where your thoughts will take you”.
This book was a life-changer for me (I feel it important to mention here; over the years of my life, I have been through several life-changing experiences, as I suppose many of us do).
Yet, for me, whilst Allen’s writings explained in principle, that we are all the product of the daily thoughts we entertain, his philosophy in how best to benefit from right thinking, left me in limbo.
This experience though, led me to many other books notably those of Wallace Wattles – a latter contemporary of James Allen, and Eckhardt Tolle.
It was Tolle that used language I could get to grips with in terms of how to manage my thoughts. When I use the expression, “manage my thoughts”, I mean the ability to allow the thoughts resulting from experiences and events in my life to benefit me positively; instead of those thoughts reinforcing my fears.
Tolle was no ‘easy-tucked-under-the-sheets-last-thing-at-night reading though. But I have been well prepared. As a youth training for the priesthood, my tutor drummed into me this saying: “Repititio est Mater Studiorum’ (repetition is the mother of 
studies). As a result, when I read something I do not at first grasp, I go over it again and again until I understand.
All this led to my present state of personal thought management and it goes like this:
In any experience or event in my life, I immediately distance myself from all negative thoughts that may result from the experience or event (Hence I call myself ‘The Watcher’).
I do not attempt to change the negative thoughts; I tried this process and for me it did not work. I simply sidestep the thoughts, conceal myself on a mental observation point and watch the proceedings.
Fairly soon, whatever is taking place in my experience or event, I simply observe, not taking part mentally, in what is happening.
For me, this discovery was ground breaking, but the practical outcome has been a slow process. Yet, I am happy with my progress, however slow, because, like so many things in my life, I have found that good habits take time to cement into my life, but once they take hold – the benefit is a treasure chest.
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