I’m trying to recall where I read or heard this wisdom, but wherever it was, it came to me relatively recently.

 

Perhaps while listening to one of Deborah King’s teachings. I expect that was it, but I’m not 100% sure. (I read so much stuff every week that I don’t always recall where I first encounter an idea.)

 

A Little Background

 

I have been aware for many years that I oversee my own thoughts, that my mind isn’t a runaway train that takes me on excursions I have no intention of taking.

 

But sometimes it feels like it.

 

Sometimes it seems my stream of consciousness can take me half a dozen places per minute until my mind lands on something that it decides to stick with for a while.

 

And sometimes the things it wants to stick with simply aren’t good for me.

 

When Negative or Upsetting Topics Occur to me

 

I can get stuck on negative topics — dirty tactic politics, a slight, regrets, people whose habits grate on me, and other low-vibration subjects that can derail my usually-chipper mood and attitude.

 

For example,  when the immediate past president was in office, I was nearly always apoplectic:  livid, stressed out, and enormously worried about what was happening to my country and far too many countrymen who seemed to have suddenly taken an Ignorance Oath (“I will ignore and crucify, if I can,  anyone who doesn’t love our president and his brilliant policies as much as I do.”).

 

Of course, in doing so,  I realized I was giving away my power by giving that bastard and his brown shirts so much of my time and energy, but I felt stuck in outrage mode, churning, churning, churning inside.

 

And whenever I think about the January 6th insurrection and how long it’s taking for justice to arrest, convict, and jail the perpetrators’ odious Fuhrer and his enablers in Congress, I can get that way again.  But I don’t want to!  I want to learn patience and the discipline of letting go of my expectations. Expectations are what cause my distress: my insistence on making sure that justice will prevail. “A failed coup that is not severely punished becomes a dress rehearsal for one that will.”

 

All during the DJT administration, I tried meditating and observing as my thoughts came and went, like clouds, but that didn’t do the job.  They were still up there,  grey and foreboding. I knew that my votes against him both times and that my frequent correspondence with my Congress critters were far more likely to reap the results I wanted, but those activities didn’t seem to be enough. I wanted immediate, uncompromising JUSTICE and I wanted it NOW!

 

But recently I learned another technique that works like a charm for me.  Maybe it will for you, too.

 

“Hello and Goodbye!”

 

When an unwelcome or negative thought begins to set itself up in my brain,  I turn my head to the right and say, “Hello!”  and then I turn my head immediately to the left in a forceful,  “eviction-minded” gesture and add, “and goodbye!”  — and I send it right out the virtual/imagined door and close it immediately.

 

For some reason, this works! My mind is freed immediately to choose another pursuit. 99.999 percent of the time it picks something far more pleasant. When it doesn’t, I just repeat the process: “Hello! — and Goodbye!” and close the door with utmost resolve, like sending an intruder packing, or someone who has stayed too long to remain joyfully and wholeheartedly welcome in my sanctuary.

 

I dismiss the thought as if it’s the end of a school day.  Class is out. New worlds to explore.   No more heavy lifting.

 

So the thought simply doesn’t hang around. It utterly disappears! It realizes it’s not welcome. It knows I’m utterly finished entertaining it.

 

Give it a try and see if it works for you.

 

Your brain works for you.  You are its master. It is in service to you.  Let it know what you’re willing to ponder and what you’ve pondered for far too long which has resulted in no immediate or satisfactory answer. Tell the things without satisfactory answers goodbye. Free up your mind to ponder things that will elevate your spirit and give you hope and passion for tomorrow. Those are the things worth thinking about.

 

Although I’m not religious, I think the following sums up very nicely what I’m trying to convey in my last paragraph:

“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever things are true, whatever things are honest, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” Philippians 4:8