Thought boxes

 

A point I’ve been focusing on recently has to do with not letting the thoughts out of the box. The box I’m referring to is like a folder or box (as I view it) with a pre-programmed playout of emotion that reads like the layout of the roller coaster ride from hell that will just keep going round and round until I shut it down.

 The way it works is like this: an enticing thought with a polarized definition pops up from the depths of the solar plexus area of my mind. If I entertain that thought, even for a moment, it slips upwards and out of the box to once again begin the creation cycle of energy/emotion leading to other thoughts with more emotional definitions attached to them and so on until the energy/emotion has run its course and the ride comes to a stop until the next time. Thankfully, there is a way to stop the cycle before that first thought gets out of the box.

 This particular pre-programed energetic/emotional experience that I’m speaking involves the automated system of my mind consciousness system enticing my attention/focus to look ‘out there’ at possible future playouts and/or past what-if scenarios for definitive answers, which just do not exist. What does exist, though, is the present/here of right now — as in me directing myself to remain here. The key for me is to breathe.

 As soon as the thought box or folder emerges and that thought begins to slide upwards, instead of entertaining it even for a moment, I am able to see in an instant the contents of the box, as a knowing of what is in the box, as well as the pre-programmed playouts. In that same moment, I recall my commitment to stand as the directive principle, remain here, focus on breathing and not accept/allow my attention/focus to be enticed thoughts.

 It works and I’ve been extending this same practice to many other pre-programmed boxes or folders of thoughts regardless of the emotional experience playout being positive or negative. And while many of the underlying, subliminal polarized definitions still remain, I’m making progress at whittling them down by living words such as stability, persistence and support.