Most of us pay very little attention to our thoughts and are oblivious to their origin, their purpose, how their content was formed, whether they are true, where they begin and where they end and how much control we have over them. We only occasionally question them when they appear to have an extreme negative impact upon us and even then we only try and change them for a better version. We are conditioned from a young age to believe that the thoughts that appear are our own, true and should be believed.

The reality is very little is known about thoughts, even by Neuroscientists; they are still unsure as to their origin. They seem to appear from nowhere and go back to nowhere. Most scientists when they try to define thoughts fall short. So thinking remains a mystery.

There are multiple types of thoughts and some of us do more of one type than another, but they all come together to create our reality. We all have different thoughts, therefore we can conclude that we all experience a different reality. Most of us believe our thoughts to be facts, so perhaps we can see how wars, divorces, suicides and other seemingly tragic human events can happen.

“The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.”

Albert Einstein

Thoughts are powerful and we define ourselves through these unquestioned thoughts which can lead us to believe that there is something wrong with us and our life and that one has to change something or someone else has to change in order for us to feel ok. Interestingly most of our thoughts are limiting, driven by fear about the past / future and almost always negative. These thoughts create stress and suffering. Life doesn’t need to be difficult – it’s our thinking that makes it complicated. We suffer when our thoughts argue with the reality of what is happening. So without the thought that there is a problem, is there really a problem?

Much of the spiritual world tells us to silence the mind and get rid of all thoughts, but this is impossible for us to do and trying to achieve a quiet mind often creates the opposite effect. It seems to give our mind and thoughts more energy. We cannot rid ourselves or let go of these thoughts; they come and go regardless of whether we want them to or not, but by questioning them skillfully, realising we don’t need to believe them and then learning to leave them alone, we can reduce their potency and over time their intensity and frequency will reduce. THoughts will still appear and we will still notice them, but we will no longer need to attach to them so can just allow them to pass back to whencever they came. But be aware, thoughts will constantly tempt us to re engage.

Not all thinking is bad – thinking in moderation can definitely be useful, but the key is not to let your thoughts control you. Through excessive thinking you can lose touch with reality. As previously mentioned, our thoughts are rarely objective reality and most likely to be old conditioned habits. We don’t really have any new thoughts – they’re mostly a recycled, repeating pattern from childhood. Also many of humanity’s thoughts are the same. We all suffer from similar negative or defensive thinking.