Runaway brain. Thoughts, good or bad take over my brain sometimes. I love those little tickers you click to count something. Push the button and it adds one to the total. I wonder if I could set one of those up in my mind, to count my thoughts. CLick, click, click click. One of the first things I would measure is when does it slow down. And then I would want a clicker for both kinds of thoughts, one for positive and one for negative.
How many negative thoughts have I had over the years? And more importantly, what do they do to my thinking? And much more important is the recognition of negative thoughts and turning the brain clicks into a positive outcome.
To do this, I have to own the thoughts and their source. Recognize the emotion that caused the thought. Starting with the emotion is easier I think. I can name the emotion, therefore I can identify and clarify it. I can face it and deal with it. I can accept it or reject it, or deflect it. There is so much more I can do with my emotions, they don’t have to control me.
Thoughts are fleeting, here for a nanosecond, then gone. Emotions linger. I can care for my brain by recognizing how emotional I am and living off the fuel of those emotions. I think many of us think of emotions as our behaviors. Someone is crying, oh, they are so emotional. Someone is yelling, oh man, check out the drama.
No, those are responses or worse, reactions to emotions. I get bad news on my laptop email. I fling my laptop across the room. What happened there. A thought, an emotion, a response, no check that, a stupid reaction.
And my brain after that episode? A mess. So this is why I start with the emotion. It can be captured. Maybe that’s why the brain people are always asking, what do you feel?
Want to care for your Brain Box? What do you feel? What are you’re emotions telling you?