You can’t control your thoughts
Tell me a time that you were able to stop a thought.
I’m waiting………..
The reason you can’t CONTROL your thoughts, is because, drumroll please…I’m loving the theatrics of this post btw….. THEY ARE NOT YOUR THOUGHTS.
Hang with me a sec with this little example:
Your lungs breathe air. Without air your lungs can’t breath in oxygen and power your entire body to function. But did you make the air? Did you combine oxygen molecules together and stuff them into your nose? Did you make yourself breathe? Nope. Your body breathes, and it breathes oxygen that is all around you.
How about good ol’ agua. You must have water to function. Did you make the water? Even if you ‘make’ water cuz you’re a genius, you didn’t make the hydrogen or oxygen molecules, cuz you can’t. They just ARE.
And food? Yup, gotta have that. But you didn’t make the molecules that make up food, even if you’re the best organic vegan farmer on the planet.
And emotions- your body feels emotions as a way to communicate to you what it needs and perceives as threats or benefits. But did you make the emotion sadness? Happiness? Grief? Regret? Big fat nopes all around amiright? Emotions are just emotions (I won’t get into what I really think they are yet). But seriously, emotions? Nothing personal. They don’t (really, they don’t) mean anything.
So now we are back to thoughts…your brain uses thoughts to function. This is red, this is blue, this is big, this is small, this is safe, this is dangerous. Dark, light, she’s pretty, he’s mean, I hate lima beans——all just words that are popping into your head- and we call those thoughts.
YOU DID NOT MAKE UP THOUGHTS, just like you didn’t invent words. Thinking you are controlling your thoughts and emotions is like the ocean thinking it is creating the waves and undercurrents within it. Nope, they are just affects of the environment around and within it.
Thoughts are just floating around, into and out of your brain.
They are not yours.
I can’t stress how understanding and feeling into this concept helps release the shame and guilt around ‘your’ thoughts. When we realize most are just energetic patterns happening over and over again and have nothing to do with who we are, who we truly spiritually are? Baby, everything after that is cream cheese.
Today just observe the thoughts occurring in your head today. Try to notice them as a neutral witness. Just watch them. Notice how you didn’t invent a single one of them, and if we were to investigate it, you’re probably the 500th millionth person to think that thought, not the first (but even if you were the first, it’s still not your thought)
So, there you go, something to think about (haha) today.