78.8736% of Your Thoughts Suck

What's that you say? Your mind is like an angry ADHD monkey? You're not alone!

78.8736% of your thoughts are negative.  Of course I just made up that figure. But if you're honest with yourself and observe your thoughts , you'll see that most of the time, you are gossiping, judging and blaming yourself and/or others throughout the day. 

"My butt is way too big - geesh thanks for the great genes mom!" "Can you drive a little slower! Good gracious you should not be on the road!" "My boss is an asshole! I can't deal with this anymore!" 

Or maybe you fall into the self deprecating category. 

"I just can't ever seem to do anything right!" "I should have said something! Why can't I stand up for myself? I'm worthless!"

These and other fun phrases seem to effortlessly plow through our minds and take over most every single waking moment. If you're saying, "I NEVER think that way! I'm enlightened and I only see the good in people! I'm a positive thinker 100% of the time!" You lie like a rug - even if only to yourself. If you're human, which I assume that you are, you have thousands of these or similar thoughts each day. 

YOUR MONKEY BRAIN IS MAKING LIFE HARD

Expecting your life journey to be sunshine and daises, even though you allow your Ritalin deprived monkey brain to drive the car, is like expecting a garden to grow but never planting the seeds. When the monkey drives the car you can bet that you'll be acquainted with a bottom of a cliff sooner rather than later.  

CAUTION - DON'T FEED THE MONKEY

Getting control over your mind is the best way to get control over your life.  To do this you must first be self aware enough to admit that you have what the Buddhists call the monkey mind. You are not your mind. Say it with me now... "I am not my mind." Good! Now that we know that we are not our minds, we can now disassociate with 78.8736% of our thoughts as well. 

When negative thoughts pop into your mind do not feed them. In other words do not pay one ounce of attention to them. This is easier said than done, I know.  Instead, observe them as just thoughts.

MONKEY ON A HAMSTER WHEEL

If you feed the monkey brain by addressing, engaging, judging or defending the thoughts you have, you're not only feeding the thought, you're putting it into an infinite spin. Nothing ever gets solved when we put our monkey brain in a hamster wheel. It can run and spew and even exhaust us but you will never find peace by spinning.

Take a deep breath and try something different this time. Remember that you're not this thought. You are not the monkey. You are you.

MONKEY IN A FISH BOWL

When you observe a thought such as, "Either Aunt Sally's moo-moos are getting smaller or she's eating way too many of cousin Leta’s chocolate cake," instead of continuing to judge in this harsh manor or getting upset with yourself about thinking this, just observe it as a thought. It's not right nor wrong. It just is what it is; a thought. 

Your thoughts will always be rampant as long as you're here on Earth. It's a part of our makeup. But the realization that you are not these negative thoughts and that you can begin to separate yourself from them and create a new thought is one very important tool that will aid you to live the life that you desire. 

Give the monkey full license to create and drive your life and end up with constant pain, drama and exhaustion or calmly observe the monkey and move on to more productive, creative, positive thoughts and find yourself calmer, happier and more successful. It's your call. 

Comments

[Deb Brockmann]

Thanks Anne! That's a GREAT tool to separate from the ego! Wonderful!

[Anne Thompson]

As always, Deb, a great post! Thank you! I read something related to this that has stuck with me: If you can control the breath, you can control the mind. Sometimes that's more accessible to me than non-judgement.