Choosing our thoughts like we choose our
clothes for the day
We would have to start choosing our thoughts like we choose our clothes for the day.
1. Get ready to move out of your castle. Imagine your mind lives in a giant castle filled with the stuff that fills up minds: thoughts, worries, anxieties, fears, memories, desires, questions, yearnings, ... and more thoughts.
Now imagine you are going to move out of this giant castle. It has been good to you no doubt but the rent is up and you can’t afford it anymore, and you are moving into a clean, open, well-lit but teeny tiny space in your favorite spot in the world.
2. Choose carefully what you pack. You have to pack very light. And you can only take with you what you plan to use. Ask yourself (really, loud and clear, ask yourself):
Am I going to use the worries, the anxieties, the fears and the negative thoughts? Am I going to use the memories, the desires and the positive thoughts?
Decide on each one as if this were a real move (because it is). Decide consciously and with intention. What will you choose to take, and what will you choose to leave behind?
3. Find a space for everything you brought as you move into your new place. Everything has to occupy a space and no two things can occupy the same space at the same
We would have to start choosing our thoughts like we choose our clothes for the day.
1. Get ready to move out of your castle. Imagine your mind lives in a giant castle filled with the stuff that fills up minds: thoughts, worries, anxieties, fears, memories, desires, questions, yearnings, ... and more thoughts.
Now imagine you are going to move out of this giant castle. It has been good to you no doubt but the rent is up and you can’t afford it anymore, and you are moving into a clean, open, well-lit but teeny tiny space in your favorite spot in the world.
2. Choose carefully what you pack. You have to pack very light. And you can only take with you what you plan to use. Ask yourself (really, loud and clear, ask yourself):
Am I going to use the worries, the anxieties, the fears and the negative thoughts? Am I going to use the memories, the desires and the positive thoughts?
Decide on each one as if this were a real move (because it is). Decide consciously and with intention. What will you choose to take, and what will you choose to leave behind?
3. Find a space for everything you brought as you move into your new place. Everything has to occupy a space and no two things can occupy the same space at the same
time so it would be best if you brought not quite so much.
There’s room only for half the stuff in your head
anyway!
4. Apply the rule to live clutter-free now. If you chose to leave behind the worries, anxieties, fears, and negative thoughts, then you have de-cluttered your mind from the get-go. You are truly a hero, at minimalism and at positive thinking (and the rest of us envy you!)
But not all of us can detach so quickly from our cozy familiar world even if it means our negative thoughts.
So if you chose to bring everything—the good, the bad and the ugly—your tiny space will be beyond cluttered. That’s okay. Just consciously apply the rule: No two things can occupy the same space in your mind at the same time. Choose either a negative thought or a positive one for this day or this hour or this very minute. Discard the other.
For instance, you can either choose a peaceful memory or a big worry, fear or courage, acceptance or denial.
And listen, you can choose the worry if you want. Just choose it consciously. No fooling yourself. And then, worry. Worry until you are sick of it. Worry a lot. Then choose fear if you must and fear as much as you can. Then choose anxiety and be anxious for a few hours.
I am not saying you can’t choose the bad. I’m just saying you can’t choose both and this is where we finally start to outsmart that clever mind of ours.
4. Apply the rule to live clutter-free now. If you chose to leave behind the worries, anxieties, fears, and negative thoughts, then you have de-cluttered your mind from the get-go. You are truly a hero, at minimalism and at positive thinking (and the rest of us envy you!)
But not all of us can detach so quickly from our cozy familiar world even if it means our negative thoughts.
So if you chose to bring everything—the good, the bad and the ugly—your tiny space will be beyond cluttered. That’s okay. Just consciously apply the rule: No two things can occupy the same space in your mind at the same time. Choose either a negative thought or a positive one for this day or this hour or this very minute. Discard the other.
For instance, you can either choose a peaceful memory or a big worry, fear or courage, acceptance or denial.
And listen, you can choose the worry if you want. Just choose it consciously. No fooling yourself. And then, worry. Worry until you are sick of it. Worry a lot. Then choose fear if you must and fear as much as you can. Then choose anxiety and be anxious for a few hours.
I am not saying you can’t choose the bad. I’m just saying you can’t choose both and this is where we finally start to outsmart that clever mind of ours.
Just consciously apply the rule: No two things can occupy the same space in your mind at the same time. Choose either a negative thought or a positive one for this day or this hour or this very minute. Discard the other.
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