April 19, 2022.
Have you ever had a thought stuck on replay that you couldn’t shake off? Or maybe you are trying to figure out how to stop thinking certain thoughts. There is a way to stop thinking certain thoughts and here’s how it went for me. In high school, I had a recurring thought run through my head for some time. Before you judge me, I will mention that I watched a lot of action movies growing up and that informed my wild imagination.
Here it goes:
A man was standing under an avocado tree. An avocado started falling directly above the man’s head. Noticing this and wanting to seem cool, he backflips catching the avocado but steps on a banana when his feet touched the ground. The man slips and instantly lands on his butt. Every time this thought played in my mind, I would chuckle. It’s your typical stunt gone wrong kind of meme. Unfortunately this humor got me in trouble one day. The class was dead silent and my brain decided its time to play that one thought. I instantly burst into laughter to the teacher’s surprise. Any sort of explanation I made sounded like I was making fun of the teacher and the lesson so I gave up. Eventually I stopped laughing at this thought.
Remembering this story this morning, I realized something. Not all thoughts that enter your mind are yours. They become yours when you engage with them. The moment I stopped laughing at this thought, it stopped coming into my head as often until I eventually forgot about it. Thoughts play in our heads constantly and I’m sure you’ve had a few “where did that come from” moments. I honestly do not know where this avocado thought came from, but I was able to slowly reduce its occurrence by being unresponsive to it. The trick is indifference and not resistance. Next time you see or hear something in your head. Don’t react or ask yourself why you are thinking the thought. Just observe and continue on with your day and this can help you with learning how to stop thinking certain thoughts. There are many other ways, but this is one that worked for me.
Question of the day:
- Which thoughts are mine, which aren’t?
Comment your thoughts and share with a friend who might benefit from reading this!