thinking

“As a man thinketh, so he is.” Change your thoughts, change your life.

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Have you ever considered how much time is spent “thinking”? Or how it affects you?Or what it means to different people? Or if some people are active thinkers while others are incidental thinkers? I have accepted that actions come from words, which erupt from thoughts. Who has taken a course of action, without saying or thinking things that were in line with the subsequent decision?

Can you think “too much”? Can it hurt you, as well as help you? Shouldn’t we be “well thought”? Or can we “think it to death”? Why am I thinking about all this today?

My adult son has told me on several occasions,” Mom, take a break- stop thinking for a little while. You need a rest.” Why? Because he is just like me and knows “we” get overwhelmed with the mind activity. It’s almost like a gerbil on a treadmill- round and round- with no end in sight!!! Only sheer exhaustion will stop that wheel from turning. What is sheer mental exhaustion and why do we ever allow ourselves to get there? We are “just thinking”. It seems innocuous enough, but it is an insidious slippery slope from thoughtful reflection to serious overthinking.

What does it look like?  There is a continuum. All mental disorders relate to thoughts. We have the mild symptoms of tiredness, mental distress, lackadaisical to hyperactive behavior, just a feeling of being ‘out of sorts’ or unbalanced or uneasy. You know that you need to take a break and get away from your thoughts or let your body relax in that “zone” where you do and don’t think. On the other end of the spectrum, people get diagnosed with psychiatric disorders from sheer thought chaos, disorganized thoughts to suicidal ideations. Depression is anger filled thoughts turned inward. How many times have you heard someone say, “I’m depressed” and the only words out of their lips are negative or woe, woe, woe is me,  or the “somebody done somebody wrong song”? ECT treatments are geared to disrupt the memory and thought centers.

So, there are optimal amounts of thinking and dangerous levels of thinking. The definition of thinking is “marked by use of the intellect” and the synonyms include sane vs antonymns like nonsensical. There is a treatment known as cognitive behavioral therapy that works to “change thought patterns”  through therapeutic intervention with the client’s ways of thinking. It works.

So, what is the value of the right amount of thinking? It prompts us to be at peace with our understanding of our lives, our values and our self. It motivates us to make good decisions. Any excess in thinking can stymie all of these and any limits can likewise impair.

It was funny to hear the country song by Dierks Bentley, “What was I thinking?” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcuPY9qGlVs

It’s even funny to watch children and wonder “what are they thinking?”. We know their limits and that they can’t see beyond their developmental stage. It’s not amusing at all to see someone trapped in the past, thinking of things that can’t be changed. The only thing that can be changed is their acceptance and decision to “not think of it, again” or purposely redirect their thoughts if they drift that way. Where does addicition root? In guilts and fears. If a mind can be free from fears of discovery or guilt, the hold of substances can be broken.

Of course you can stall and delay decisions, like Scarlett Ohara,”I’ll think about that tomorrow”. Yes, you can put it off. It’s not really the thinking that you put off, its the final thoughts on a subject that requires action. Anything we push away that must be considered, will return to haunt you night and day. Anything you have already thought out needs resolution. Do you see why counselors don’t actually offer much in the way of direction besides encouraging you to think out loud on your unresolved issues? You must do something with your thoughts!

What am I going to do with mine? Silence them, by mindless activity for the next few hours. I am going to scrub the bathrooms and polish the floors.

Find something useful or enjoyable to engage in, for a few hours of “downtime” when you let your mind rest. Focus on nature or meditate. No thinking!