Your Thoughts: Prison or Paradise?

Fifty-six thousand.

That's how many thoughts a reasonably thoughtful person will think each day. (I didn't sit around counting. This comes from the National Science Foundation.)

So you have to ask yourself: "How many of these thoughts are actually under my control?" Or perhaps even more important: "How often am I myself actually controlled by these thoughts...many of which remain unconscious?"

The answers to these questions have serious implications.

First of all, most of our thinking functions on auto-pilot, producing a constant stream of background chatter of which we are only half aware. But that doesn't mean it produces no effect. On the contrary, the current of these thoughts, like a current of electricity, charges our lives with positive or negative energy. These states tend to be self-perpetuating. If we are feeling anxious we tend to continue being anxious unless we take some action to change our thinking and state of mind. Fortunately, it works the other way around: happiness begets more happiness, although often it seems that this condition is more delicate.

Secondly, our thoughts do more than condition our experience; they actually construct our world. And the effects of this mental construction become more pronounced as we mature. By mid-life many people are actually hemmed by a thicket of thoughts, opinions, and prejudices. The objective world--to the extent that there is one--is made to conform to constructs fashioned decades earlier, and anything that doesn't fit is either unseen or is seen and rejected. And because the contemporary world increasingly fails to correspond to our preconceived notions of what "ought to be," we may be tempted to retreat into a smaller and smaller space where we try to console ourselves with the memories of things past. Will it work? Yes, after a fashion, but we pay a heavy price for our imprisonment.

What about a jail-break? Is it possible?

Yes.

The good news is that this entire process can be reversed. We can quite easily uncoil our thoughts and open them--and ourselves--to the world around us. Doing so requires only two things: the intention to do so, and a technique.

The intention I leave up to you...your choice.

As for the technique, you have many options. A religious person may turn to his or her faith. Even so, other hands-on options exist. I specifically recommend techniques that deal directly with the content of our thinking. Self-hypnosis and NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) are both excellent tools. Another terrific resource is the weekend introductory program offered by Landmark Education. This program creates the opportunity for you to look critically at the stories you tell about your life and whether they limit or liberate you. If you have the time--and the money--you can pack a whole lot of transformation into just a couple of days. (For more information, check the list of links on the left side of this page, or visit our online store, "The Dog Pound."

But whichever path you choose, remember your thoughts pave the way: either to a world that continually opens to novelty and enJOYment, or one that shrinks in around you.

It's worth thinking about.