A friend mentioned the other day that she felt like he had two dozen trains running through her head at one time, even though there was only one set of tracks. She thought she was unique in that respect, but I think she just vocalized the reality of most people’s regular mental state. Someone else I know said that he felt like he was having bare-knuckle fist fights in his head pretty much all the time.
The problem seems not so much to be that all of us have a slew of ideas running through our heads. It's certainly possible to entertain a variety of ideas, and even to consider opposing points of view. However, the feeling that the ideas are out of control, running wild in the streets as it were, makes us want to shut down the whole thought process -- to impose a curfew on our brains, so to speak!
How do we get to a place where we are able to enjoy our ability to think, to imagine, and to plan? How do we keep from wanting to turn off the power to our brains for the sake of our serenity? And how do we prevent the trains from crashing and ruining our chances to be productive?
The answer begins with identification of the thoughts, with naming them and thus controlling them. The process of naming these thoughts and conversations is immensely rewarding, but there are two major caveats:
(1) You have to be willing to do the work, committing to making it a daily practice; and
(2) You have to learn to do the work.
Reading this blog post probably means that you've resonated with the idea that your thoughts might have something to do with feeling "stuck" or unfulfilled. It also might mean that you're contemplating doing something about it. But if you actually are willing to move past thinking about it and actually doing something about it, give us a call!