Our mind can hold a lot of different thoughts in a day. In fact, these ‘noisy thoughts’ are what keep us busy day in and day out. We are driven by our thoughts and often they seem too big, too heavy for comfort.
Whatever we have today, pleasant or not, is the end result of previous actions triggered by the thoughts we entertain in our mind. Often, our thoughts even color certain circumstances. A bad fix gets even worse if we think quite negatively about it. So when we think of our lives being messy, if we focus on that, it’ll probably get messier.
It’s all in the mind, they say. But it’s not just a test of your outlook on life: of the bottle being half empty or half full. Whether you like it or not, your thoughts, including your insecurities and fears, attract more of the same, until they rule your life.
And let’s face it: we can’t keep happy thoughts for long. It’s a rare gift to be able keep thinking pleasant thoughts for long in this harried world, with mass media bombarding us with unpleasant images and texts. Indeed, if we were gifted enough to exclusively think happy thoughts despite the negativity, we’d all be flying to Never Land, wouldn’t we?
Thus, in this day and age, quietude has become a personal treasure we should nurture. Quiet thoughts – neither happy nor sad – in this noisy world may seem like a ripple-less area in the middle of a choppy sea, but they’re not impossible to achieve.
Let’s do this: lie comfortably in a quiet place for one minute. Let’s not think about work or family; about what we have or have not; about what should have, could have and would have; not even about the best days of our lives because they’ll just make us feel sad that they’re difficult to have again.
If nature provides the best cures for physical ailments, it works even better at clearing up our cluttered thoughts. Think of a rainbow trout in a clear stream, a golden field of barley combed by the breeze, a butterfly on a dewy bloom, the Sun mellowed by light clouds, white sand and turquoise shallows in the tropics.
Let your mind find a good retreat from the busy world. Nature offers countless quiet images to unburden the mind. They’re beautiful, unobtrusive, and demand nothing from us, except that we let them be.
The closest thing to any thought about nature that works just as well, is perhaps the image of a calm face in a busy crowd. Let that be your face, even just for a minute.
A lovely, quick retreat on this busy morning! Thank you.
Pat