Like to share a thought...

or actually, an excerpt about thoughts.



So I am reading this book, a book that I have been reading since I was on the plane heading to Hawaii back in October. I really have not liked this book. That is of course why it's taken me so long to read the thing! I am only a little over half-way. It was just so hard for me to get into. I wasn't connecting with it that's for sure. I shoulda quit a long time ago, but I didn't and I'm starting to be glad I didn't. It's just today that I decided to give it a another try. Anyways, here is a little blurb from it. It's so incredibly simple but I like simple but true aha! moments...

There is so much about my fate that I cannot control, but other things do fall under my jurisdiction. There are certain lottery tickets I can buy, thereby increasing my odds of finding contentment. I can decided how I spend my time, whom I interact with, whom I share my body and life and money and energy with. I can select what I eat and read and study. I can choose how I'm going to regard unfortunate circumstances in my life- whether I will see them as curses or opportunities (and on occasions when I can't rise to the most optomistic viewpoint, because I am feeling too damn sorry for myself, I can choose to keep trying to change my outlook). I can choose my words and the tone of my voice in which I speak to others. And most of all, I can choose my thoughts.

...You need to select your thoughts the same way you select what clothes you're gonna wear every day. This is a power you can cultivate. If you want to control things in your life so bad, work on the mind. That's the only thing you should be trying to control. Drop everything else but that. Because if you can't learn to master your thinking, you're in deep trouble forever...

...So I've starting being vigilant about watching my thoughts all day, and monitoring them. I repeat this vow about 700 times a day: "I will not harbor unhealthy thoughts anymore."

...A harbor, of course, is a place of refuge, a port of entry. I pictured the harbor of my mind. The harbor of my mind is an open bay, the only access to the island of my Self. And now- let the word go out across the seven seas- there are much, much stricter laws on the books about who may enter this harbor. You may not come here anymore with your hard and abusive thoughts, with your plague ships of thoughts, with your slave ships of thoughts- all these will be turned away... This is a peaceful harbor, the entryway to a fine and proud island that is only now beginning to cultivate tranquillity. If you can abide by these new laws, my dear thoughts, then you are welcome in my mind- otherwise, I shall turn you all back toward the sea from whence you came. That is my mission, and it will never end.

I read the first part of this to a girl having a meltdown earlier today at work. This definately pertained to her current situation. I felt so proud for finding something applicable in her time of need, thinking surely it would inspire and help in the moment atleast. After I finished, I looked at her, she looked at me, then she burst into tears again. It all went right over her head! So much for that!