| I think you're making some serious progress! You've been a member that I've kept my eye on for a while now for a few reasons; you've got very strong opinions on things, you are not quick to change your mind about those opinions and you are willing to defend them and stick to your guns. These can all be good traits in my opinion (I share them myself), yet they are the same characteristics that cause people to get stuck in cyclical thought patterns.
When we spend too much time analyzing things and we get stuck into a cycle, then form an opinion that loops back in on itself in a manner that causes us to say "I'm the problem", that causes us to get stuck on that thought and think it over and over each time we cycle through. This then intensifies whatever thought we repeat, magnifying the intensity of the feelings it causes, until eventually those feelings are expressed in a manner that affect the physical reality that we experience, in order to cause some release, or some new experience that we can use to get us out of that loop.
Does that make sense?
I know that is fairly deep psychology in some people's opinions, yet in reality it comes down to some very very basic principles that are clearly defined in just about any material that describes how the mind works, or how to change your feelings/thoughts. What we think, we create. We are the makers of our own reality and whatever thought we maintain firmly enough, our subconscious mind will over time find ways to create physical "proof" that we are "right". If you haven't done so yet, take the time to watch The Science of Getting Rich by Bob Proctor and read Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, they give explicit, yet very easy to understand explanations, as well as concrete methods for ending these destructive cycles and creating CONSTRUCTIVE ones in order to replace them!
I'm sure you're familiar with the often quoted "definition" of Insanity - it's not the real definition, yet I think it's far more apt, as I have a great deal of experience with this myself. Insanity is doing/thinking the same thing over and over again, while expecting a different result to occur. What I started thinking, is that true sanity then means that when you want a different result that you're used to getting from a given situation or thought pattern, you have to try doing something different than you've done before, otherwise you will obviously get the same result you've gotten in the past, thus making you insane.
Thus, next time you find yourself in a situation that you've been in before, find yourself thinking a thought that you're used to thinking, etc; STOP...take a moment...then think of something that you've never done before and regardless of what your brain may be telling you to do, do something that is different for once! Even if it's scary, even if it is really fucking hard, even if you think that it will turn out poorly; if you know you normally get shitty results you don't like, what's the worst that could happen? You get a different set of shitty results? Oh well, still not what you wanted, but at least you didn't repeat the same usual cycle and get that pattern even further ingrained in your mind and behaviours! It's like that often recited quote from Edison and how he figured out 10,000 different ways how not to make a lightbulb, yet he focused on the 1 way that he was successful; don't focus on doing 1 wrong way when there are so many right ways. Break your cycles and try something new until you find a right way and then you can find another right way and another! _________________ "The 'Brick Walls' are there to allow you to prove how badly you want something!" ~ Randy Pausch
~ Rye
|