I think therefore I am

“I think therefore I am” René Descartes (French philosopher, mathematician, and writer 1596 – 1650)

We are always thinking, we can’t stop ourselves, and according to the UCLA Laboratory of Neuro Imaging the average person has 70,000 thoughts per day.

Unfortunately a large number of these thoughts are not a lot of use to us, even getting in our way. We may be thinking about what happened in the past or what might (or might not) happen in the future.
Negative thoughts in particular can be very damaging, causing stress and anxiety as we worry about things or talk ourselves out of doing something well.

I’m actually sat in the car writing this while waiting for my wife, who is in a meeting. Instead of just thinking about this blog my thoughts skip to “how long will I have to wait”, “the noise of a passing bus” and “the sun going behind the clouds” etc…
Why can’t I concentrate and make it interesting and witty? What was that joke I heard yesterday that was so witty? Who said it?
There I am… going off on another chain of thoughts… that is not what I need!

How can you keep your thoughts centered on what you really have to do and stop other non productive thoughts popping into your head?

To get the mind tuned to think about just one thing consistently requires some serious self control.
Various texts on meditation refer to the monkey mind that, like an inquisitive monkey, can’t keep still and needs to be trained. Obviously an experienced teacher and some considerable time and effort are needed to reach a reasonable level of mastery.

A faster, but less effective method than meditation, is to set clear objectives and a deadline.
Yes, good old goal setting works. It helps if the logical reason for doing the task is clearly thought through.
Then, if possible, try to get the emotional situation in perspective. Is there something holding you back, some fear stopping you completing the task?
With the use of both logic and emotion a strong “Why” can be established.

Take my situation for example, my wife should feel pleased if she knows I have got this blog done already and taken full advantage of the time waiting. I also will have trained my monkey and focused, even with the distractions around.

This may not be the longest blog that I have written, but it is food for thought, and anyway here comes my wife…