"Not to be able to stop thinking is a dreadful affliction, but we don't realize this because almost everyone is suffering from it."~Eckhart Tolle
So while I'm not advocating for shutting your mind off completely, and there are certainly times when thinking is vital (I completely agree with the expression "think before you speak" in most cases), I think that Eckhart Tolle raises an excellent point when he equates our inability to dissociate from our thinking as a sort of disease. It seems as though so few people are happy living in the present. In fact, most of us spend half of our time anticipating and worrying about the future or dwelling on and lamenting the past, that we fail to just be in a thinkless state of present moment happiness. This concept is also explored in Daniel Gilbert's Stumbling on Happiness. He examines the idea that children and some people who have frontal lobe injuries and lack the ability to fathom the future can be identified as some of the happiest people alive. IAM thinking that it is really sad that most of us experience our happiest times in the past (as children), or that those people who have suffered some sort of trauma have this ability to be happy because they cannot logistically conceptualize time. A great majority of our population, on the other hand, uses our minds as weapons that poison our being with negative thoughts and apprehension about a future that hasn't yet happened or punishment for a past that cannot be changed. In his book The Power of Now, Tolle also raises the profound thought that the past doesn't become the past until it is done being the present, and the future too will someday be the present. Therefore, if you really consider it, we are always living in the now. (Trippy--I know!)
As a teacher, I often use the phrase "we'll cross that bridge when we get there". I generally used this term because children/students are curious beings (which again is something that I value--thinking can be a wonderful process), and I use this expression to evade their incessant questions about things that I a) don't have the answer to or b) I'm not in the mood to address at the time. However, in retrospect, I feel that maybe I am doing them a favor and that I should examine this concept in my own life a little bit more. If we spend our time worrying about what is to come, we miss what is happening now.
Of course all of this concepts sound simple, and I don't think that IAM thinking about anything overly original. Yet, I can't help but feel that the simplest advice always sounds better coming from another person, and maybe we could all use this reminder.
So IAM thinking that we all need to take a break and give our minds a rest every now and then. We need to just be instead of think and do. We need to really relax, enjoy, appreciate, and cherish the moment for what it is and not for what it will be or for what it has been.
It is time that I take my own advice here and practice what I preach. As usual, I have 50 million more things to add, but I am going to quiet my mind and "veg out" for a bit...I suggest you do the same at different points throughout your day/week/month/year/life.
This is what IAM thinking...what about you?!
(If you don't respond, I will know that you have taken my advice).
So while I'm not advocating for shutting your mind off completely, and there are certainly times when thinking is vital (I completely agree with the expression "think before you speak" in most cases), I think that Eckhart Tolle raises an excellent point when he equates our inability to dissociate from our thinking as a sort of disease. It seems as though so few people are happy living in the present. In fact, most of us spend half of our time anticipating and worrying about the future or dwelling on and lamenting the past, that we fail to just be in a thinkless state of present moment happiness. This concept is also explored in Daniel Gilbert's Stumbling on Happiness. He examines the idea that children and some people who have frontal lobe injuries and lack the ability to fathom the future can be identified as some of the happiest people alive. IAM thinking that it is really sad that most of us experience our happiest times in the past (as children), or that those people who have suffered some sort of trauma have this ability to be happy because they cannot logistically conceptualize time. A great majority of our population, on the other hand, uses our minds as weapons that poison our being with negative thoughts and apprehension about a future that hasn't yet happened or punishment for a past that cannot be changed. In his book The Power of Now, Tolle also raises the profound thought that the past doesn't become the past until it is done being the present, and the future too will someday be the present. Therefore, if you really consider it, we are always living in the now. (Trippy--I know!)
As a teacher, I often use the phrase "we'll cross that bridge when we get there". I generally used this term because children/students are curious beings (which again is something that I value--thinking can be a wonderful process), and I use this expression to evade their incessant questions about things that I a) don't have the answer to or b) I'm not in the mood to address at the time. However, in retrospect, I feel that maybe I am doing them a favor and that I should examine this concept in my own life a little bit more. If we spend our time worrying about what is to come, we miss what is happening now.
Of course all of this concepts sound simple, and I don't think that IAM thinking about anything overly original. Yet, I can't help but feel that the simplest advice always sounds better coming from another person, and maybe we could all use this reminder.
So IAM thinking that we all need to take a break and give our minds a rest every now and then. We need to just be instead of think and do. We need to really relax, enjoy, appreciate, and cherish the moment for what it is and not for what it will be or for what it has been.
It is time that I take my own advice here and practice what I preach. As usual, I have 50 million more things to add, but I am going to quiet my mind and "veg out" for a bit...I suggest you do the same at different points throughout your day/week/month/year/life.
This is what IAM thinking...what about you?!
(If you don't respond, I will know that you have taken my advice).
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