Thinking.... From Daily Meditations For People Who (May) Worry Too Much
"You are today where your thoughts have brought you; you will be tomorrow where your thoughts take you" ~~~~~~~~James Allen
Rarely do we realize that our thoughts are just that....our thoughts. Because we think them, we often fail to see that they are not necessarily reality. They are our view of the reality at that moment....nothing less.....nothing more. Then, if we take the original thought and embellish it, elaborate on it, and build on it, we begin to construct a house of cards which we can move into and start decorating.
Often, our minds are our worst enemies. Or, we let them be. With little effort at all we can think ourselves into a complete tizzy. We cannot actually live in the future...but...our minds can and do.
It's important to remember that our thoughts aren't real. They are processes that we can observe, find interesting, and then, let go of if we wish.
We can think ourselves in or out of anything. It's the living that's important.
awesome tryingtohelp! I was reading a book on meditation by joseph goldstien and he said something completely similar. It's so simple but total wisdom. I believe it was something like "a thought it like a seed, we have the power to ignore it and let it dissapear or water it and feed it's growth." I think it's hard for people in recovery to put this bit of wisdom into practice. Sometimes the more I try, the more I fail, I forget that actually trying not to think about something is still thinking about it, instead of just letting the thought be and moving on to something else. Sometimes All we can do is live one sober moment to the next!
Yes the power of the mind...I was thinking just the other day,how in my last sober period I didn't seem to have that one giant hamster-wheel thought of "Where can I score, when can I score"-I was trying to focus OUTWARD on other things,elsewhere.I found it to work, too but it's v. hard to explain..it's like you can't try too hard, or delve too deeply, just sort of drift, I guess. Let yourself be entertained by what's in front of you. Even something as mundane as chopping an onion, or vaccuuming.I think it may be Zen;I am not a monk so I don't know. But it was like taking simple pleasure in every thing one does, a detatchment.I just hope thinking like that wasn't a sign of mental illness.But in the paper last weekend there is some Guru guy offering a course in thinking the same way,& charging like 160 bucks, so, who knows?Thinking too much has always been my biggest problem...
Alaska; In buddhism they call that mindfull meditation. It's very theraputic and very effective, I used the same method to get clean; focusing entirely on the moment. It's not as easy as it sounds, but something you can def train your brain to do!
Wow Meditation,:that has always intrigued me but my mind races so, always a thought or two or three, dumb commercial jingles running thru my mind, I can't stop the Chatter The more I try the worse it gets!! Sometimes it's like so out of control. I worry if there is something really wrong w/ me.Tell ya what though, getting off Sugar has helped w/ my Moodiness, for sure. Even my Rage seems to be a bit more tamped down. I can't tell you how much better I feel off it.I am even doing a bit of DRAWING again,;I've been blocked for so long...
Alaska, I keep a pen and paper handy for those times, I write down dreams sometimes, or just for when I have those mental (as in crazy) thoughts in the middle of the night that I think would make an entertaining peice. It's good for when you have a block artsy-wise. Even when all else fails, open your window, there is a ton of nature out there screaming to be drawn again and again, every thing you can look different when you use the world of (hearts) perspective (hearts)!! How I love it. Well I'm certainly in a good mood this morning.
