I am sure we all know that we worry about a lot of things. Worry comes from our thoughts and our minds. The thoughts can be good or bad. The point is how do we manage that? How do we deal with that? We don’t always worry, that is true. But when we think about that, we don’t think about how it will affect our life or people’s lives around us. The process of thinking is to find a solution, a strategy, an idea or a plan to deal with a specific issue or problem.
We can choose to think, to feel or not. The mind behaves in a conscious and unconscious manner. Since all of this happens in our brain, we feel the information that we receive in our body that leads us to the mind to think or not. So, the mind recognizes what is good or not, perceives what is good or not and then judges based on the choice that we make. The mind is like the pocket where we keep a lot of our emotions, worries, feelings, fights. There is a lot going on in our head or something. That nothing can also mean something. Okay, I don’t want to go through a lot of science and psychology details! But just to give you an overview of how I see everything in the mind.
Why do we think?
We must survive, right? Because we live, the brain is living too and should function for us to live. We think because we want to understand the purpose of life, we want to make better decisions in our life, work or in our family. We want to flourish, and succeed and we can’t do that without thinking.
You wake up in the morning, make a schedule, plans, list of groceries, projects, vacations plans and so on. We must think about what we should eat, what we should do with money, where we will go for vacations with kids or not. This is all part of daily life.
How do we think?- Meditation?
The way we think through the mind is to reflect, cogitate and have an opinion on those plans to have a final thought. Some people may have a different way of processing their thinking and thoughts. Also, the goal is not always the same because most people want to reach the goals so fast that they choose the wrong ways, the wrong process, the wrong thinking path.
The process of thinking may include:
Taking notes: People write journals to keep their thoughts, their ideas to reflect on them and then try to add sub-notes, ideas, that come with that thought. They may highlight the problem and make not for solutions or different solutions that may help to reach out to the solution. However, be aware, the journal may be more than that, it depends on the person. In the journal, someone can add her own experiences also, that of course come from what he or she worried about and what the person found a way out. The notes can be taken in a separate notebook to just reflect on ideas that can give strategies to move forward.
Instead of taking notes, people may choose to just sit and think in a calm place. They just want to have a pause for a moment and process the issue and information they want to work on. At that time, questions may arise like:
What am I going to do?
What if I take this step and it does not work?
Is it even worth it to work with that person or to buy this material?
Am I going to gain something from that?
A lot of questions, with or without answers may arise. Even though the goal is to have all the answers to those questions! Quite impossible, trust me!
My experience
Let me share my experience with you. I went day and day, moving to month, thinking about how I should change the situation in my home, and never got an answer. What I did during those days and months was to think, and think and think, and react in a certain way, which did not help me or lead me nowhere. Let me now tell you why.
When you think too much, you tend to use more of your energy to think instead of finding the solution.
The more you think, the more you reflect on other subjects and that may lead to many choices. That is not necessarily bad. But many people can agree with me that when they think too much, they begin to worry too much if the subject of their thinking has an outcome. And of course, that practice may lead to other mental or physical problems like depression or anxiety. Trust me, you don’t want to go that way.
You need to learn how to think, learn how to listen to your mind. That does not mean you have to read your mind but understanding how the brain functions is essential. The brain uses outside information and when we capture those, we may link it to our situation. As you may think, people outside are saying that “we need to enjoy our life and live the best we can because we never know what will happen and when”. Does that mean you just live without making any plans, or taking care of yourself when you eat or buying things without paying attention to your expenses? No.
Listen, you can choose what you want to keep in mind. You need to be smart and mindful in your thinking. That will help you to be calm instead of being agitated and worried. Being mindful takes the time to reflect and that gives you clarity in your thoughts.
