Here is a hack for you to become excellent at managing your unhelpful thoughts
Thoughts are like gremlins….hear me out…
What are the 3 rules of how to take care of Gremlins?
- Don’t get them wet or they’ll multiply into less cute, more annoying versions of themselves
- Don’t feed them after midnight or they will turn into evil creatures
- Bright light neutralises them
Much like gremlins, Thought is this creative tool of imagination, it’s fun, something to play with, something to keep you company and can be a good companion as long as you stick to the rules…
1/ Don’t get them wet
If you get a thought wet, if you really start entertaining it, obsess about it, believe it to be true. it will multiply. When we dwell on a thought, we make it real, it stops being just a playful fragment of our imagination and it becomes these multiple weird and slightly off versions of themselves.
It might start with “oh I wonder if there is enough money to pay the bills this month” and suddenly it multiplies into “will I be able to pay rent” “maybe I’ll end up homeless” “what if I never earn money ever again”. They don’t always turn dark but they expand, take more space than they need to and much like the multiplying gremlins become very disruptive and make it impossible to be productive or just get on with our days.
2/ Don’t feed them after midnight
Have you noticed how thoughts feel so much more threatening, real and scary when we entertain them when we are tired, hungry, in a low state of mind? Now let’s be clear on something. it’s not that we can control when we are having these thoughts, but knowing that our ability to resolve problems with perspective and a fresh outlook is limited when we our thinking is off, can allow us to keep thoughts at arms length in these moments and maybe go back to them when the sun rises again, when our moods lift and our mind clears.
3/ Brightlight neutralises them
Now, here is the golden rule, the one that makes the other two almost irrelevant, when we really manage to get a grasp at it. Much like gremlins, thoughts don’t like bright lights. Thoughts are nothing but our imagination taking place in the moment, they are powered by our creativity, power of assumption and deduction. That is what they always are, although we sometimes believe they are something other than imagination. We take them as truth. When you look directly at them, it’s like shining a bright light onto a movie screen. The movie won’t disappear but you can barely see it anymore, it dissolves in the light. Movies are like thoughts, they are games of light and shadow, and the more light the less shadow.
So give that a try, for a whole week try to respect these 3 simple rules and see how you feel by the end of it:
- Not getting them wet : don’t hold onto them
- Not feeding them after midnight: try not to entertain them and pay attention to them when you’re already a bit down
- Most importantly remember that at any moment you hold the key to neutralising them. You can shine light onto them and see them for what they are. The creative power of thought comes to form, light and shadow, they have no substance of their own, no life of their own. If you look straight at them and see them for what they are, they will disappear.