Nisargadatta on self-improvement'

Inspite of whatever I say, I know you will continue on your `self-improvement' course and keep looking for 'tips'. So open your note books and write them down: (a) Make it a habit to think and speak in the passive tense. Instead of 'I see something' or 'I hear something', why not think the passive way: 'something is seen' or `something is heard.'? The perception will then be not on the basis of an action by the phenomenal entity, but on the basis of an event or occurrence. In due course, the pseudo-entity 'I' will recede into the background. (b) Before going to sleep at night, spend about ten minutes sitting relaxed both in body and mind, taking your stand that 'you' are not the body-mind construct but the animating consciousness, so that this idea will inpregnate your being throughout the period of your sleep.

~Nisargadata from 'Pointers from Nisargadatta Maharaj' by Ramesh Balsekar