It's Just A Thought
October 16, 2023
Author: Sree Panicker
Editor: KayLynn Young
There are many things in our life that come and go — people, places, and tangible things make up our life and our experience living it. We hold onto past memories and reminisce or daydream about what the future holds. But, throughout all of the massive ups and downs that we experience in our lives, the sole constants we have are the thoughts that we tie to those experiences. Nearly every memory we hold of the life we’ve lived is simply a manifestation of the thoughts and emotions we’ve constructed within our mind. Our perception makes up everything about who we are and what we see, and we treat it as law.
Rightfully so, there are many things that we rely on our thoughts for. Our innermost thoughts help us make rational decisions, realize our hopes and dreams, and ultimately get to know ourselves and those around us better. Yet, the aforementioned silver lining of these thoughts, is that they are perpetual. With every thought we have, there is another one that immediately follows, and at times it is impossible to discern between what is and isn’t valid. The constant influx of thoughts that pour into our heads provides the perfect environment for mental illnesses like anxiety to proliferate and spread through our mind, leaving us in an endless web of ‘what ifs’ and ‘if onlys’.
Our thoughts are the truest way in which we can connect to ourselves and find our inner monologue, but that doesn’t necessarily mean we have to forgo all of our autonomy to them. When we surrender to our thoughts, we let ourselves get controlled by all the unnecessary attachments and judgements that coincide with overthinking. This is only a result of our humanity — with the eternal nature of our thoughts comes the intense emotions that we associate with them. We are simply byproducts of evolution carrying the burden of being complex beings, a unique problem that us humans experience; a problem that nothing could possibly prepare us for.
Filtering out the noise that we constantly carry in our heads can seem like a daunting, and even impossible, task. But in the same way that we feel our thoughts dictate our actions, the way we act can dictate our thoughts. By practicing mindfulness, we can relate to our thoughts in an alternative way. Mindfulness involves being rooted in the present moment, and taking a moment to consciously be aware of the here and now. Focusing on the present allows us to diminish the power that we give to our perception. We are better able to recognize that our thoughts are transient — they come and go at a moment’s notice. When we exclusively focus on our internal thoughts, it can be easy to get trapped in an endless replay of the past and endless possibilities of our future.
Yet, it is possible to tune out all this noise by using the methods of mindfulness. This can be achieved through focusing on your breath, really grounding yourself with the smell of the crisp autumn air, or simply just watching the leaves change colors. The more we do this, the more we will realize that the way we’ve portrayed the world in our heads isn’t exactly how it actually is. Ultimately, practicing mindfulness is not some secret formula that will remove all the anxious thoughts in your head and give you immediate answers to solve the insecurities of your life. Rather, it is a conscious choice we can decide to make every single day, and a helpful reminder to embrace the present. In doing so, we can reduce the power we give to our thoughts and simply just be.
