Most tornado deaths are the result of flying debris.
It’s not the twister itself that kills people, it’s all the giant shards of wood, chunks of metal and slabs of concrete that are swirling around at two hundred miles an hour. That’s what we really have to watch out for.
Interestingly enough, our brains work in the same way. The tornado that is the human mind constantly churns out all kinds of irrational, bizarre and hostile thoughts. In fact, sometimes there is no darker place than our own mind.
And yet, it is our guilt about those thoughts that is far more damaging than the thoughts themselves. It’s mental debris. The extra level of suffering we layer on top of our pain.
For example, perhaps there is someone whom we wish pain or misfortune. Or a business competitor that we irrationally hate. Or even colleague that we sexually fantasize about in our private moments. That’s okay. These thoughts and feelings don’t make us sick and horrible people. They don’t signify that something is wrong with us.
But there’s no reason to add an extra layer of debris by beating ourselves up for having them in the first place.
As my therapist once told me, the movies inside our heads are badly written, poorly directed and cheaply produced.
Next time you notice worrisome thoughts and feelings feeding into the stream, start by not making it worse for yourself. Accept that your thoughts have zero mass, and unless put into action, have zero force. They simply float away like weather patterns.
Remember, nothing causes more emotional distress than the thoughts you think about the thoughts you think.
Learn to manage the debris of your nagging mind.
Reduce the cause of your own future suffering.
LET ME ASK YA THIS…
What kinds of things do you do to cope that actually make things worse in the long run?* * * *
Scott Ginsberg
That Guy with the Nametag
Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.
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