Thoughts and thinking

What are thoughts?

Your thoughts are the result of your creative and meaning-making brain.
Your thoughts are the result of your problem-solving brain.
Your thoughts are the result of your reason-giving brain.
Your thoughts are part of the ‘story’ that your brain constructs about You!
But what do you think about your thinking?

• Do you think your thoughts are real and what they say is actually happening?
• Do you think they are the truth and must be believed?
• Do you think they are important — that you must pay attention to them and take them seriously?
• Do they give you orders and you must obey these orders?
• Do you think they are intelligent and wise thoughts?
• Do you think that when they threaten you should pay attention and be scared?

To answer these questions you will probably need to pay attention to the mind chatter in your head and listen carefully to what your mind is saying.

Instead, can you see your thoughts as simply:

• Sounds
• Words and stories
• Bits of language (all kinds of words and ideas with meanings attached)
• Sometimes important, often not
• Sometimes wise, often not
• Ideas, not demands that you must meet
• Ideas, not threats that you must fear
• Ideas, not orders that you must obey

Maybe you could reword your thoughts in these ways:

I’ve just had an idea that [insert the threat, order or demand].
I heard my mind say that [insert the threat, order or demand].
I noticed that I was thinking again that [insert the threat, order or demand].
I notice I’m always thinking that [insert the threat, order or demand].

What you can do:

1. Notice what you think about your thinking
2. Notice how your thinking affects your feelings and behaviours
3. Notice how you react to your thinking
4. Just step back and notice — nothing more…

Stay tuned for the second part of this post in a couple of weeks!