Trauma Informed Mindfulness: You Are Not Your Thoughts

Are You Your Thoughts? A Tantric Perspective on Mindfulness, Identity, and Values

Ever had a brilliant idea flash through your mind, only to have it slip away before you could catch it? Or walked into a room and forgotten why you went there?

The mind is like that — restless, quick, and constantly moving.

As a yoga teacher working with people navigating burnout, overwhelm, and disconnection, I see this all the time. Many of us aren’t struggling because we think too much, but because we believe every thought we have.

The Nature of Thought

Thoughts, ideas, memories, daydreams drift in and out, never staying for long.

They move through us like the breath itself. One inhale becomes an exhale, and before we know it, the cycle begins again. Thoughts are much the same. One arrives, and before it’s even finished, another is already on its way.

One moment, you’re thinking about something ordinary like shampooing your hair. Next, you’re deep in an imaginary argument or replaying something from the past.

In the Bhagavad Gita, chapter 6 verse 34, Arjuna is lamenting to Krishna, he tells him yoga feels impractical and unattainable. He says: “The mind is very restless, turbulent, strong and obstinate, O Krishna. It appears to me that it is more difficult to control than the wind.”

And Arjuna certainly is not wrong. The mind moves quickly, and when we don’t understand its nature, it can pull us in every direction.

When Thoughts Become Beliefs

When we grip our thoughts too tightly, they begin to harden into beliefs.

Beliefs are shaped by what we’ve heard, read, or experienced. They’re influenced by our environment, our relationships, and the systems we live within. Over time, repeated thoughts create patterns, what yogic philosophy refers to as samskara (mental impressions, or psychological imprints).

For example: “I believe that because I fought for social justice doing X, Y and Z yesterday, I am therefore a kind and just person.” While it may feel true, it’s still a constructed belief.

The Difference Between Beliefs and Values

Beliefs and values are not the same.

Beliefs are often externally influenced and can change quickly when new information appears.

Values are more stable. They are the principles that guide how we move through the world.

A belief might be: “I am a kind person.”

A value might be: “I value compassion, so I choose actions that support others.”

This distinction matters. When we confuse beliefs with identity, we become reactive. When we’re grounded in values, we can respond with more clarity. When we don’t recognize thoughts as transient, we start to attach to them—or push them away.

This creates reactivity.

We might:

• become defensive when our beliefs are challenged

• act in ways that don’t align with our values

• struggle to hear perspectives that could deepen our understanding

In trauma-informed yoga and mindfulness practices, this is a key point: awareness creates space.

Without that space, we act unconsciously. Let's apply that understanding to the earlier example with social justice: When someone believes “I am a kind and just person,” that belief can quietly become part of their identity. At first glance, this seems positive. But when identity is built on a fixed idea of who we are, it can make accountability much harder.

If harm occurs, whether intentional or not, it doesn’t just challenge a single action. It ends up threatening a person's entire self-image. Instead of asking, “Did I act out of alignment with my values?” the mind shifts to “I am not that kind of person.”

From there, defensiveness can arise, and often conflicts spiral out of control.

We might justify our actions, minimize the impact, or avoid the conversation altogether, not because we don’t care, but because acknowledging harm feels like unravelling who we believe ourselves to be.

This is where attachment to thoughts creates suffering.

When we are attached to the thought “I am a good person,” we lose the flexibility to recognize when we’ve caused harm. The belief becomes something we have to protect.

Values Don't Require Protection

Values don’t require protection in the same way our identities do.

If, instead, we are grounded in a value like justice or compassion, we can meet moments of harm with more honesty. We can say: “In this moment, my actions did not reflect my values.”

That recognition doesn’t collapse the sense of self; instead, it creates space for repair.

There is more room for accountability without shame; for self-reflection without defensiveness; and perhaps most importantly, there is room for change without losing a sense of self.

In this way, loosening our grip on identity doesn’t make us less responsible; it makes us more responsive. We are no longer trying to prove who we are. We are practicing alignment with what we value.

You Are Not Your Thoughts

When we step back and observe a thought, we return to awareness.

That awareness is what gives us the agency to move in alignment with our values.

A common metaphor in tantric yoga is this: thoughts are like clouds, and you are the sky. If you have ever flown on an aeroplane, then you know that it doesn't take long after taking off before you are suddenly up flying in a bright, open blue sky. No matter how cloudy it seemed from the ground. Even on the most overcast day, the sky itself is still vast and unchanged. Sometimes your thoughts might feel like big dark grey storm clouds looming overhead — intense, repetitive, or overwhelming. Other days, they might feel like big, fluffy white clouds on a sunny day, and you feel inspired, optimistic, and creative. But regardless of what kind of cloud is there - grey storm cloud or fluffy white cloud— there is a part of you which is simply aware clouds are passing through, and that part of you is your awareness. Awareness is like the vast, open blue sky through which all clouds pass. Today there may be grey clouds, but tomorrow might be different clouds. Today's clouds are not the totality of who you are. You are the open sky through which different clouds (aka emotions, thoughts, ideas, and memories) pass. Mindfulness is the practice of this recognition.

A Simple Mindfulness Practice

When thoughts feel overwhelming, try this:

Breathing in, notice: Thoughts are coming and going. Breathing out, recognize: I have thoughts, but I am not my thoughts.

This simple shift can reduce reactivity and bring you back into alignment with your values.

In my own work teaching yoga, especially with people experiencing anxiety or burnout, practices like this are often where things begin—not by controlling the mind, but by changing our relationship to it.