This was a useful reminder for me and perhaps it will be for you as well. I love this idea that I heard recently, “we don’t have to jump on every train of thought.”
According to google the tendencies of our mind are powerful by sheer number. From the web:
Tendencies of the mind
It was found that the average person has about 12,000 to 60,000 thoughts per day. Of those thousands of thoughts, 80% were negative, and 95% were exactly the same repetitive thoughts as the day before.
Wow… those are a lot of thoughts –– no wonder I’m tired. My mind seems to always be working … running from thought to thought. On top of that, these thoughts lead to a trail of distractions that impact us all, taking us off of one “train” and shifting us to another often before we realized what happened. Did we even have time to grab our bags so you speak before we relocated our thoughts and actions? (Research shows it takes 2-5 minutes to get refocused after we get off track.)
And then we take this to a new level and we come head to head with do I even want to be on the train I find myself on? Why do I even care what he or she thinks or why am I even looking at those (cars… clothes… shoes) when I’m already stretched on my budget. Heck… how did I even get this thought into my head that I should search this?
An important reminder today to guard your thought life. It’s the most powerful part of our days and being on the trains that take us to beautiful destinations and lead us to places of growth are two terrific places to start.