“You don’t have to control your thoughts. You just have to stop letting them control you.”
~Dan Millman
Oh yes, and how do I do that I asked the laptop as I copied and pasted.
There was a time when my mind was completely consumed by worries, and I lived in a perpetual state of panic.
I worried about things I'd said and whether people were judging me, things I should be doing and whether I was using my time well, the state of my life, the state of the world, and just about anything else one could worry about.
Life always felt scary and uncertain, so I always felt unsafe, and worrying gave me the illusion of gaining some semblance of control.
Well-intentioned people advised me to just be positive—then I'd feel a lot better about life. But I’ve always found the concept of positive thinking somewhat frustrating.
First, it made me feel guilty, since no matter how hard I tried to avoid negative thoughts, they’d inevitably pop into my head. Secondly, it was exhausting. To constantly monitor your mind takes monumental effort, and it seemed contrary to my goal—to be less burdened by my brain.
Still, there’s no denying that our thoughts influence our feelings. When we sit around dwelling on everything that could go wrong, or everything we think we did wrong, we end up feeling drained and depressed.
So what’s the solution, then? How can we allow ourselves to be human and simultaneously ensure we don’t drown in our fearful thoughts?
For me, journaling has been key.
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