Sorting Our Thoughts

The nature of the heart is to beat. The nature of the lungs is to breathe. The nature of the mind is to think. The difficulty with thinking lies in the fact that not all thoughts are helpful. Therefore, we need to sort through them. We need to choose which ones are helpful and which ones are not. 

We all have unhelpful thoughts. Remember, that's the job of the mind. It thinks! We can't blame it for having thoughts that aren't great. It's just trying to do its job. What we need to do is to ignore the thoughts that are unhelpful and only act up on the thoughts that are helpful. 

We likely waffle between opposite thoughts on a regular basis. Here is an example:

"I don't want to practice at all."
"I'm going to practice right now." 

Neither of these thoughts dictates what happens next. Only our actions dictate what happens. Either we follow through on the first thought or the second. This is the important part. It's here that we do the sorting.

Think of your mind as having an "unhelpful" bucket. Toss the I don't want to practice in the "unhelpful" bucket. Then, act on I'm going to practice right now. 

Not all thoughts require action. This is important. We can choose which thoughts we want to act on and which ones we don't. Sort through your thoughts. Only act on the ones that take you in the good direction.