Do You Need All Your Thoughts?

Many thoughts pass through the mind every day, but do we need them all? We are only aware of some of these thoughts. They enter our minds, stay for a little while, and go away.

• Do you remember what you thought a few minutes ago?
• Do you know how many thoughts pass through your mind in 24 hours?
• How many of these thoughts originate in your mind, and how many come from the outside?
• Did it occur to you that sometimes, the thoughts you think are other people’s thoughts, but you believe they are your own?

Thinking is useful in every area of life, but people go too far with it. It has turned into slavery. Instead of thinking about what you want, when you want, you think all the time, every hour of the day.

Every word you hear and everything you see brings thoughts to your mind. The mind is always busy, thinking meaningless thoughts as a reaction to external stimuli.

You don’t have to keep thinking when you don’t need to.

Thoughts come and go whenever they want, distracting the attention, spoiling concentration, and keeping the mind in a state of endless mental activity. It is like a machine that is never switched off.

Many of these thoughts are negative, causing anxiety and worries and wasting one’s time and energy.

Instead of using thoughts to help in your affairs, you are being used by thoughts.

Nonstop Thinking Wastes Your Time

Nonstop thinking wastes your time and energy without giving you anything in return. Endless thinking produces noise in the mind, preventing you from experiencing real inner peace.

• Are you able to stop thinking negative thoughts?
• Are you able to stop all those thoughts that keep moving your attention from one thing to another?
• Do you keep worrying and expect the worst?
• Does your mind keep busy with what someone said about you?
• Do you keep thinking how life is bad for you because someone at work got promoted, and you were not?
• Do you keep thinking about other matters while studying, talking with someone, driving your car, or traveling by bus or train?

All this happens due to the lack of ability to control the thinking process. This can be changed. You can learn to control your attention and thoughts.

When Thinking Stops You Experience Peace and Happiness

You deserve to give your mind some rest, at least for a few moments during the day. You can learn to resist the temptation to be constantly thinking.

When thoughts stop for a little while, you don’t lose consciousness! You become more conscious and more aware. You become more alive.

The mind is afraid to stop thinking, fearful of what will happen if it becomes quiet. When the mind becomes quiet, peace and happiness well up from the inside.

When the quantity of thoughts decreases, there is no vacuum. Instead of the mind’s nonstop activity, there will be inner peace and happiness. You can experience them even amid activity, at work, at home, and everywhere else.

An Exercise

Here is a basic exercise that will help you learn about the process of thinking:

• Stop what you are doing and watch your thoughts for ten minutes. You don’t have to be alone in practicing this exercise. You can practice it at work, in a park, at home, or wherever you are, but not while driving.
• For this exercise, you don’t need to relax your body, sit in a certain pose, or breathe in a special way.
• All you have to do is try to be aware of your thoughts and find out where they came from and how.
• Don’t analyze your thoughts, just watch the process of thinking.
• Pay attention to how thoughts arise in your mind and how they change or are replaced by other thoughts.

You will be surprised to discover that many arise as a reaction to events, environment, or other people’s words or thoughts. Some thoughts arise automatically, triggered by certain people, events, or other external stimuli.

After going through this exercise, ask yourself:

1. How did I feel during the exercise?
2. Did I intentionally choose the thoughts that entered your mind?
3. Did I experience some inner peace while doing this exercise?

I don’t want to provide any answers here. Just ask the questions and answer them. You need to find your own answers.

This exercise will give some overview of how your mind works.