Thought a Thought
Inspired by a conversation on Eckhart Tolle’s The Power of Now.
Thought a Thought
The other day
I thought a thought
A thought I thought I never thought
and then I thought, on second thought,
I think I think that thought
a lot.
It’s a thought that I’ve thought
a thousand times
It’s a thought that’s been thought
by a thousand people
with a thousand lives
Then I thought
How can the same thought
be thought
by a thousand minds?
So to think about this thought
I’m putting it in rhymes.
6200 thoughts we have in a day
That’s what they say
7.9 billion people on the planet
thinking so many thoughts
we can’t even stand it
Clear your mind
Get out of your head
Meditate, dance
It’s all been said!
Because one bad thought
Can make everything worse:
Obsession, rumination
Humanity’s curse
Are we meant to be prisoners
to our very own brain?
Everyone feels it
but not…everyone’s insane
We can only work so hard to control
where our mind goes
Surrender, release, let it go…
Easy to say
much harder to do
For me it’s a battle
I don’t know about you
But just when I think
I’ve got a good grip
A volcano erupts
and good grief do I slip
Down the spiral I go
Inexplicably low
It’s dark, bleak
Colder than snow
Too blurry to describe
but if you’ve been there, you know
And then I’m back up!
It’s suddenly better
At times, it simply
depends on the weather
More often than not
it starts with a thought
One leads to the next
and in a web I am caught
Our thoughts can become traps
and we try so hard to escape them
treating the chatter like absolute mayhem
I believe there’s a world in which we can thank them
For the right string of thoughts
can feel like vacation
‘Be present in this moment,’
that’s what the gurus say
‘Just focus on your breath
and all those pesky thoughts will melt away’
Now I get it –
I really do understand
Presence is important
and meditation is my jam!
But to control our thoughts completely
gives me hesitation
That’s an extreme
that bears examination
Because without a free flow, there would be no conversation
no room for contemplation
Neither stories – nor imagination
The truth is –
We need intellectual stimulation
We demonize our thoughts
but they are not wrong
Without the words that we think
we couldn’t write song
we couldn’t tell jokes
and we couldn’t read books
But, to be fair, we would still have tunes and odors
and looks
Senses.
They help.
Tune in
Check out
Don’t think so much
that you no longer feel
because that which we sense
is all that is real
A thought is imaginary:
a thing yet born
Yet with those very thoughts
our reality is formed
We are thinking creatures
blessed by the magic of language
If we try to suppress it
we are bound to live in anguish
So feel enough to be present
and think enough to progress
When inspiration strikes,
please let your thoughts digress!
Write the silly story
Craft the work of art
Solve the current problem
Let yourself be smart
Then when the idea has run its course
let yourself jump off the horse
Feet on the ground
still now
take in the sound
of silence
Let your thoughts in
use them to create
Because with every thought that we think
we are shaping our fate
Then when the fragrance is smelled
the sweet tea sipped
the puppy’s fur stroked
let your mind be stripped
enjoy it
completely
We can think
and we can sense
Two things can be true
To balance these wisely:
that’s all we can do
So what is this thought
I thought I never thought
that turns out we all think quite a lot?
I thought so much about it
I think that I…forgot!
Power Move: If you find yourself overthinking or slipping down a spiral of negative thoughts, tune into your senses. Put one hand on your heart, close your eyes, and notice each of your five senses:
What does the room smell like?
What sounds do you hear?
What do you see, even with your eyes closed?
How do your clothes feel on your skin?
What taste lingers in your mouth?