Our Thoughts Mattter

For those of us who enjoy and practice mental/spiritual study, we know that our thoughts matter. We know that our thoughts will either infect or enhance our lives, often through our own bodies. If, for instance, I manage to really upset myself through some frame of mind, I can fairly count on a siege of pain showing up in one shoulder before long. This is the physical place in me where troubled thoughts land! On the other hand, when my heart is uplifted in joy, my body assumes a lightness and nimbleness as a wonderful gift. Thoughts do matter.

 Our greatest power...

Since we know that our greatest power is most likely contained in our ability to think, wouldn’t it be smart to check out what is going on in our minds? Are we wasting our intelligent energies by just letting our minds “go” by letting errant ideas whiz unchecked through our thoughts? Now that we know the toll that mindless, hateful or violent thoughts can take on our bodies and our very lives, should we not make sure that what we allow residence in our minds is worthy of us?

 A good, productive day...
 
It takes practice but we may be sure that if we awaken to the expectation of a good, productive day, we will soon be ringed with joyous memories and possibilities for what the day can become. We are the guardians of our minds, and we are the ones who decide upon the qualities of our thoughts!


Yes, we… and only we…can!


http://More Essays About Everything is now available on Amazon

You may also enjoy "On Celebrations of Life." 

On Old Friends

 I have been around long enough now to have created a history of my own. I have lived through many events, long enough to have gained a thing called perspective, something that most young people don’t yet know about. The teenager whose girl friend leaves him thinks he will never get over it and never love again. I know different. I know that it won’t be too long before another flashing smile will catch his eye. He just does not yet know that pain does heal and memories dim.

 Time, people and circumstances come and go...

Time, people and circumstances come and go, but not in a meaningless stream. There are those times, those people and those circumstances that make an impact on the heart and memory that can never be replaced. Old friends are like that. I always look forward to what new introductions can bring…such as a new baby or a new job…but when I am looking for assurances and a place to lay back, I go to old friends.

A good, reliable friend...

Some of the wonderful oldies are no longer with me in the flesh, but our times and exploits together are a part of the growing up that has made me who I am. I think of a good, reliable friend (still with me, blessedly) who has walked with me through many of the highs and lows of my life…deaths, losses, divorce…always bringing her gift of non-judgmentalness. At one time when I was very unsure of myself and my choices, I turned to her tentatively, probably looking for approval, and her steady tone told me, “I love you, and whatever you do is ok with me.” Nothing replaces good underpinnings like that.

Mental underpinnings....

The mind holds old friends for us as well, if we will think back a bit. No doubt there are ways of thinking and behaving that may no longer serve us; hopefully these we will have jettisoned, but values we have learned and practiced remain as mental underpinnings. When did we discover that others are as deserving of the good things of life as we are? What wise person showed us that an adversarial stance accomplishes only disagreement and inevitable push-back?

Old friends of the mind.....

 Of course there are always newer and faster ways to accomplish our desires, but do they sometimes leave out the humility and humanity that are vital and precious to us? It is very easy in the world of new means to overlay the old importances as no longer meaningful. If we fall heir to this we have ceased to be as picky as we should be about the care of old friends of the mind. We live in the midst of thunder every day, loud and noisy ideas that vie for our attention and would make irrelevant that which went before, but maybe not always worthy of too much attention. T.S. Eliot wrote that “we shall not cease from exploration, and at the end of our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time”…old friends made new again.