What Do You Really Think?

Somehow most people today trust and believe what they think. I do not claim to know all of the reasons for this current state of affairs. My focus instead will be on some reasons why this is not justified and how we can do better from now on.

I remember being a kid and doing things that just occurred to me to do. One or both of my parents would say, “Why did you do that?” Somehow I knew that they were not asking a philosophical question. Somehow I was also able to understand that in that question was a judgment about my behavior that was not in my favor. My response was always the same. “I don’t know.” I find it pretty funny now when I think that they often asked me this question, giving me the opportunity to give them the same response every single time.

What I know now is that I had a thought and acted on it. As a child, I knew that many of my thoughts were not my own. I grew up in a Christian Church and had some exposure to the idea of evil spirits, so I believed that these spirits were influencing me to do things that were not in my best interest. I experienced these thoughts as coming from outside of my brain. I had no idea where they actually came from. I just knew I hadn’t come up with most of them. Somehow I knew.

As I got older, I started to think more and more that I was coming up with my own thoughts. I started owning them as my own creations and thinking of myself in terms of these  thoughts that I was experiencing. What was I thinking?!

Here’s the truth: the human brain is a receiver and transmitter. It sends and receives thoughts that are perfectly aligned with its current settings. Just because a thought is transmitted or received has nothing to do with its relative truth or falsity. They are just thoughts—energies passing through the brain’s circuitry.

There are many ways to become more aware of our thoughts. Whatever methods we employ, it is important to become observers of our thoughts and the feelings associated with them. Believing what passes through the brain is like accepting every stranger into your home that knocks on your door, having them tear through your cupboards—eating all of your food, and letting them trash your entire house. It’s time for us to become much more discriminating about which thoughts we entertain and which we send along their way.

Choose to spend time with thoughts that serve you, and send the ones that don’t on their way!

Share on Facebook

Popularity: 5% [?]