The Grasshopper chimed in with this on my morning walk: “Use your mind; don’t let it use you.”

It got me to “think about” the difference between planning and thinking.

Planning takes discernment – something our minds are quite capable of doing, along with sorting, labeling, and assembling data.

Thinking, on the other hand, is a road to nowhere that has us traveling around in circles.

Thinking thinks us; planning is us using our thinker.

Thinking is an internal voice that’s always blabbing trying to convince you that it’s you. It isn’t. It’s a bunch of thought loops on parade. The minute you engage with one of these thought loops, you have extracted yourself from who you really are and start believing you are who you “think” you are.

A question I often ask is: “Have you ever won an argument with your mind?” The answer is always “No,” yet we engage in this practice daily. You are arguing with a conditioned thought loop. It’s as silly as arguing with a tape recording of your voice.

Start to notice the difference between you using your mind and your mind using you. When you notice you’re in a thought loop, it’s the real you who does the noticing and it’s alerting you that you’re about to enter into another empty, seemingly endless diatribe.

Noticing that you’re in a thought loop creates spaces in your thinking – spaces that can let something new come through, like the idea of using your mind, not letting it use you.

All the best,

John

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