What if you viewed your thoughts as if they were books on a shelf?
You might have a standard favorite to get you through a situation. You choose it over and over, quote from it, memorize it, point it out to others.
It becomes so familiar and close to you that it turns itself into fact in your head…and then you behave or speak from the space that has chosen this thought as a truth, worthy of reacting from.
The next time, before you make your final selection, imagine what might happen if you stopped yourself long enough, before pulling that worn out book off the shelf as your own, to check out some of the other available titles.
It doesn’t mean you can’t put those books back on the shelf and go back to your favorite, once you’ve had time to consider the others.
But you’ve opened your mind by considering other possible choices. And if you DO choose another one from which to respond, you might just find yourself better READ (i.e. understood)!
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Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom. ~ Viktor Frankl
Think before acting. It could work.
It’s soooo freaking hard to do, though!!! 🙂