The power of a thought

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The great philosopher Decartes famously declared, “I think therefore I am.”

Many times throughout our early married life my wife would catch me staring at a mark on the ceiling or some other random thing and inquire what I was thinking about. The answer baffled her completely, I generally wasn’t thinking about anything in particular. It could be as random as, I need to paint that, is it a dog or does look more like a bear?

The interpretation of our philosopher friend’s statement has been wide ranging over the years, for me it is simply an expression of existence.

We all think, all of the time. It may not be profound or helpful but even if it is simply a processing of the vision before our eyes our brains are in action. We process an inordinately large amount of data every minute of the day and filter out masses of it without ever realising.

I have explored the power of a song to transport us in a previous blog, but today it is happening again. Louis Armstrong is singing about a street in Paris, and although I have no connection to the city other than a desire to one day see it, the song takes me instantly to a calm place.

It is a strong memory from a busy time in my life where I sat on a rock overlooking a perfect, calm, warm and sunny bay with a Belgian lager in my hand and peace flooding my being. This song takes me there in an instant as soon as the first note plays. The words and descriptions of the song are superceded by the memory link.

Regardless what you think of Jesus, He did speak a lot of sense. I was reading this morning where He speaks about what comes out of us being worse than what goes in. Food or drink in and of themselves are not bad, it is my attitude towards them that makes them harmful. The thoughts that we have towards anything are the damaging factor.

I could give a million examples here; a beer is just a measure of liquid, but a gallon of it makes us do crazy stuff, a lifetime of it destroys us. A good burger is a really delicious thing, but without balance and a controlled attitude they can kill you. I could go on!

Every person who is sitting in jail today (not the innocent ones) had a moment where a thought arose in their minds. That initial idea which kick- started a chain of events that ended in robbery, rape, murder, drug smuggling etc. Some ideas arise out of desperate circumstances, others ruminate for many years before action follows. Regardless of the timescale involved the process is the same. The idea appears, we either dismiss it or allow it a space, we plant it, feed and water it. We investigate possibilities and perhaps join chat rooms, we rationalise that we are not alone or the first to have this thought (normalisation) slowly it becomes a reality waiting to happen.

Everything that ever saw the light of day, good and bad, began as a thought.

I am sure at some point you have been in a dark street or park and just frozen, what was that, who is there, is that wolf? No, it isn’t, it is just your mind running through every scary scenario possible.

I have experienced the destructive nature of thoughts and their power to cripple any movement. Similarly I have soared to the sublime heights on high thoughts (not for a while though, but will again) and been filled with wonder and amazement.

We all need to take responsibility for what takes place within our own heads, passivity is not an option as it leads to chaos. This is a lesson that I myself take squarely on my ample chin.

An ancient writer put it like this and I can’t improve on it “tie up the loose ends of your mind and be controlled.”

 

 

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