Since we make up our thoughts every day – thinking about sixty thousand of them – and, since most of them are identical as the thoughts we had yesterday, and identical to the thoughts we will have tomorrow – why not put a spanner in the works?
Usurp your own thought processes – change your mind.
Radical – and it has been done before – this is why meditation and trance work, yoga and tai chi and other methods of changing ‘who’ we are by what we do – is so popular – as most thoughts, by the time we notice them, have run grooves in our psyches so deep they are like the Grand Canyon, and it feels almost impossible to change course.
The trick is to become aware of them – I know, I know – this is practically impossible. How do you remain aware of 60,000 thoughts all day – I mean all day! Practically impossible – but we can become aware of some of them – or, to begin with, we can become aware of the emotions that our thoughts pick up. Last blog I talked about how we can suddenly be in some stupid mood and have NO IDEA how we got there. This time, I ask you to take stock of the situation you are in when this happens – when you become aware of it. What were you doing, what are you doing, where are you, what incident or happening ’caused’ this mood? Can you become aware of the series of events and thoughts that led to this? I assure you – once you can become aware of what is going on, you will be quite surprised at how predictable it is – and, like me, you may snort with laughter at your own behaviour.
You may even realise it is nothing outside of you that ’causes’ this – it is like leaving the radio on while you go and have a shower – it just keeps on doing what it’s doing in the background while you are paying attention to other things – and has no bearing whatsoever on what is really happening now. It really doesn’t. It’s a routine, a habit, a pattern, and sometimes absolutely nothing to do with you at all – quite puzzling, really.
What good is this? Why bother? Well – for a start – it’ll get you out of that stupid mood, and secondly, when you become aware of it more often, they stop because the unconscious programme is no longer running – it’s like you switched the information stream off. Hooray, no more inner social media junk. Switching it off is always so restful, so much better – from the mobile to the TV to even your own mind.
Catch yourself at it – and laugh! As the majority of these thousands and thousands of thoughts are just a programme running on empty – and not you at all.
Lizzy Agatha 