Be Sensitive to Thought

We spend a lot of time in our minds through thought. We think about the future, the past, more about the future. . . ‘that dirty carpet’, ‘the outfit I want to wear’, ‘have I remembered to buy more dog food?’ . . . .We waste most of it however; dwindling in the past and imagining or worrying about the future.

Keeping our minds in the present is quite difficult and when we manage to attain it. . . . what then?

Well after today I would suggest that if something rather unique pops up in your day. . . just focus on that one thing! I’ve been having quite a bit on my mind lately regarding some decisions I have to make. I know what I want the outcome to be, but not yet finding the answers on how to achieve it. So I have put my intent forward and trying not to spend too much time worrying about ‘How’ all of this is going to happen. Usually if I find my thoughts to be in the future, I would rather define how I want it to be. . . If I noticed anything from the past reveal itself again, unless it was acknowledging a lesson learned, I would immediately discard it.

But today I managed to let all of that be of little importance to me. I woke up with a dream I still had fresh in my mind about how some friends and I went on a trip to Japan without any travelling expenses. I grabbed my phone as I woke up in bed and paid my first visit to Twitter.
My eyes were scanning over the first couple of tweets and the first one I stopped at was a tweet by @RubyGold posting a link to an article where Japan will be covering travel costs for 10 000 tourist to their country. I was wondering ‘what the hell just happened here’? .... I had a feeling that this was no coincidence even though the possibility of it meaning that I might go to Japan, had no appeal to me!

I experienced a little bit of excitement as to how freaky this whole dream-tweet-thing was. I had not read anything about Japan recently which could explain why they would feature in my dream. I tried to recall if I had any discussions lately regarding the country, but there was nothing that came to mind! As I read the article @RubyGold posted, I realised that the last time I heard anything about Japan was with the tsunamis!

My day started and as reality kicked in my mind got lost in it’s thought processes being here, there. . . .a little way back then and dancing around in the future. I became upset at certain present circumstances and still worried about how to move forward to achieving my goals. I became aware of where my thoughts were and would put them to rest, bringing my thoughts back to the tweet and my dream. . .

It all came up in a discussion again later the evening with my two best friends on how sensitive we should actually be towards our thoughts. We were sharing stories on how some thoughts would somehow manifest themselves. I recalled how a customer’s name would pop up in my mind and within an hour or two, maybe a day or so, they would call me regarding a project or placing an order. I wasn’t wondering how they ‘were’ or thinking ‘that I should call them’, they just randomly came to mind! A couple of examples from my friends were given how some thoughts even had some impact on the outcome of a situation or putting certain things into motion.

And I wondered how all of this could be connected. . . the same as I wondered about how my dream and the tweet were connected? Science could probably relate it all to energy, but I don’t have a master in Physics so I seriously don’t have the time to figure that out! There has to be something that could explain all of this. . . Once I got back home something dawned on me and for the first time I had some understanding of what change can be brought into your life by being ‘present’ in your thoughts more often.

I mean let’s face it! There has to be more to this whole thing of being in the present moment with your thoughts right? Surely telling your past and future thoughts to ‘hush it’ and appreciating what is around you or currently that which is happening to you can not be all that there is to all of this? That just sounds lame. . . . There is a lot more to it!

I am certain that you have noticed when not allowing any memories from the past or thoughts about the future to cloud your judgement, many solutions or possibilities become clearer to you? The more time you spend thinking of the now the easier you realise what needs to be done! All that is left is to figure out how to get there. . . What became clear to me was how staying present more often, had set a lot of things in motion. Choices made in those moments of clarity by being present (even if perhaps of little value back then), have affected a lot of things currently happening in my life. Things that most probably would not have been happening right now should I have kept on racing between the future and the past and not have stayed with the now. I realised that the first domino has already been tipped over and for the first time I had some belief in what people close to me have said is about to happen.

I realised as I thought back on each instance how a decision made with no influence of ‘what if’s’ or ‘what have’s’ has made a contribution or created a possibility of moving towards my goal without me even noticing it. I might still have quite a distance to go and no GPS to guide me, but I understand how being present with the moment and your thoughts can be of extreme value to you.

So try it for yourself! Even if you just start by becoming aware of where your mind spends most of its time it is a great start! It can reveal a whole lot to you in an instant and you’ll feel a whole lot better than being concerned with what has been or what if tomorrow does not work out. . .