The thinking mind likes its authoritative position. We have learned to defer to it to tell us about ourselves, others, and the world at large. We have learned to trust what it tells us; we may not always like it, but we tend to believe it. So, when we step back into awareness to watch the thought stream, the thinking mind doesn’t like it. At all. It will react defensively. Common tactics are boredom, restlessness, sleepiness, doubt, argumentativeness, and fear. It is useful not to be taken in by such tactics and even more useful to know how to work with them.