Put it Down
by Leslie Sann
Feeling is what you get for thinking the way you do.
Marilyn vos Savant
A younger version of myself spent way too much time fruitlessly figuring out why I was upset, which only upset me even more. Like picking a scab until it bleeds, inflicting pain on top of pain. Ignorant that I was harming myself as I thought I was helping. Nay, I was merely digging myself in even deeper.
At the time I didn’t understand how I could have a joyful ebullient nature and suffer so dreadfully as well. I didn’t realize what a habit thinking about my thinking had become. Our experience is created from our thoughts and, based on results, my thinking was less than uplifting. I am not my thoughts. I am not my feelings. In thinking about my thinking, I had abandoned my joyful self. I had gone missing from my happy.
After years of self torture, I learned to ignore my thinking, most of the time. And when I do get trapped in a maze of “going nowhere” thoughts and can’t get out, I use one of my detangling tools. It doesn’t take much to relax the grip of my crazy brain and move into calm clarity.
Consider this analogy: Imagine holding a glass of water out in front of you. No problema. Now keep holding it. After a few minutes it is becoming an issue in that the glass is getting heavier. Keep holding it out. For the whole day. No — for the rest of your life! Imagine that.
I know a woman who had a disagreement with someone almost 40 years ago. If you ask this person about it they will spew upset as if it had just occurred. 40 years carrying that glass of water, as in her thinking about that moment over-and-over.
You don’t have to be like her. You don’t have to be like my former self. You can put the glass down and move on. Life is way more fun that way.
If you would like some assistance reuniting with your joy and happy, well, that is what I do.
Yours from Planet Joy,