More than words

lsproule@thereview.ca
Maybe you have seen these: they are magnetic words and they can fill up most of the space on your refrigerator door.
While visiting someone recently, she confessed to having a illuminating moment: she removed all the words she didn’t like: dead, dismal, sad, angry, frustrated, horrible . . . you get the idea.
She only wanted to see positive, uplifting words like happy, inspire, moving, exercise, great, satisfied. Enough with the miserable words, she figured.
I have to say: even typing positive words seems to be a zippier process than forcing out words like: dreary, discouraging and dilapidated. (What is with the dreadful “d” syndrome, anyway?)
Purging nasty words ties in with a popular sentiment these days: You are what you think. It is all part of the quantum physics notion that we can alter our universe by what we think about -- by what we put out there (in the universe).
I believe that, to a point. But my mind gets easily tangled in the task of not thinking about something which means, ultimately . . . that I am thinking about it. Darn it! I re-start my thinking but find inevitably find myself headed down the same wormhole.
The truth is, of course, that we do control our own thoughts and another tangled thought for me is: do our thoughts control our feelings or do our feelings control our thoughts?
I know that I can feel that everything is hopeless but a piece of music can replace worry with hope -- in an instant.
On the other hand, if I think something through, I realize what needs to be done and feel the power of self and hope return. Then I put on some upbeat music or turn my attention to something I enjoy doing. Life is good again.
The purging of words from our vocabulary might be a good thing. I remember working in a stressful place (unlike the nirvana of these busy newspaper offices) where everyone swore frequently, enthusiastically and bilingually. It was catching. And the days seemed fraught with difficulty, tension and tensions about to explode. We created that together. We came up with the idea of paying one cent for every swear word to raise funds for charity and raise awareness of the blue cloud in our workspace. The swearing diminished and we started having fun again. We created that together, too.
I don’t think we can ever eliminate all the bad words or the unpleasantness from life. But we can pay attention to what we think about. And we can forgive ourselves when we find that we are sliding around in the darkness. Sometimes we forget that opening the door even a crack will let the sunlight in.
And one more thought on controlling your thoughts: do something.
Thinking only goes so far. You have to take some kind of action.
And you must remember that what you think is also a product of your past experiences, making it an even bigger challenge to change the way you think.
I can feel another circular thought coming on but I refuse to go there.
I am ending here with the hope that I have given you something fruitful to think about.