If we really think about it, almost all of our problems are the result of our thoughts.
We have thoughts about situations that make us unhappy.
We have thoughts about people that make us dislike them.
We have thoughts about our loved ones that make us resentful of them.
We have so many thoughts, and we are miserable.
And what is our solution to all these thoughts and the problems they bring?
We think about them.
We wash blood with blood and wonder why we aren’t getting clean.
We try to use the thing that created the problem to try and fix the problem, and it doesn’t work.
What happens when we simply step back and let things be as they are, without the expectations and stories?
What happens when we let our thoughts just be thoughts?
We cannot think our way out of nearly as many things as we think we can.
People often tell me that they shouldn’t be angry or that they have no reason to be jealous. They explain how they don’t even understand why they dislike someone or why they are unhappy in a situation. We break down how it is really their thoughts about these things that are causing them distress and suffering, and they immediately start to think about why this is.
This is often a way to avoid having to simply sit with the experience and the dissatisfaction that arises. Thoughts provide us with a layer of separation from the unpleasantness, but they cannot solve it.
Right now: I am tired, I am easily distracted and I am struggling to finish this. My thoughts are trying to put me in opposition to this, to put me in opposition to what is. I can accept how I feel and just finish writing this, or I can think about it. I can think about how I should have gone to bed earlier (but I am at the office late on Mondays), how I wish I could take a nap today (Tuesdays are pretty much all day), or about how I will have time tomorrow.
None of that helps. It just puts me in further opposition to what is actually happening, and it solves nothing, If I let it run unchecked, it will keep piling on, but no solution will emerge because there is nothing wrong, this is simply the ways things are.
Blood cannot wash away blood.
Just accept what is.
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