Choose your train carefully

A man was on a train.

He looked out of the window as the train passed through the station.

What an ugly place he thought.

The train carried on.

The surroundings were gloomy and miserable.

"I don’t like this journey at all. This isn’t where we should be going," he said to his friend.

His friend looked at him in confusion: ‘You are the driver. There is no one else. ”

Thoughts come into our consciousness. If we fuel the thought with energy and emotion, it quickly leads to another, creating a chain of thoughts and taking us even deeper into the emotional response. Often we can get stuck on these thought-trains as they take us off to some destination, getting angrier or more anxious without even realising we are the driver.

We are surrounded by images and messages that prompt thoughts. Living, working, walking around, shopping - we can’t control what we are exposed to. And these messages are usually designed to provoke an emotional response in order to gain our attention. This is what is called ‘Stickiness’. Often the result is envy, anxiety and insecurity.

What we can do is notice our thoughts. Observe . Don’t try to stop them. Just notice them and their accompanying emotion. If the emotion is good then stick with the thought. If it is not then change trains.