Why trying to think your way out of your problems won’t get you far…
When I heard a similar statement for the first time I thought it was the stupidest thing I had ever heard.
Nonetheless, at the time, I had tried thinking, tried different approaches, strategies, and ways of thinking and I still felt STUCK. So eventually I had to admit that it wasn’t getting me anywhere, at least not more than temporarily, and I was forced to try something else.
I wasn’t listening to the messages from my emotions, nor was I in touch with my intuition, although I thought I was. I relied primarily on my logical thinking and I took a form of pride in it because it is considered “good” to be a “rational person”.
However, it isn’t very rational to only rely on logic. Emotions and intuition exist for a reason. When I was ignoring them they controlled ME MORE than if I actually would have listened to them.
What do emotions and intuition have that thinking hasn’t?
They are a more accurate and valid means of evaluation when it comes to NEW experiences and therefore, more accurate when it comes to the present moment.
Thinking, as Jiddu Krishnamurti put it, only functions in relation to the past. Thinking always compares information WITH something in its frame of reference. That frame of reference always consists of past events. Past events are stored in our brains and nervous systems as memories and they give rise to emotions and what we may think is intuition. But, we also have a current of “truth” which everyone experiences in a different way. This truth communicates to us via our emotions and intuition in a different way than that which comes from our conditioning.
This “truth” is the voice of your authentic self. How do we come to hear it?
If we are alert and attentive we can notice what exact interpretations give rise to our perceptions, and with practice, we can learn to hear this inner “truth”. Then we actually live in the NOW instead of being tossed around as often by our unconscious interpretations and trying to control our lives by thinking. (And ironically, your thinking capacities will improve in the process...)
What if, by attempting to control, you’re actually just repeating what you know instead of allowing new experiences, that might be even better than what you already know, to come to you? I am not saying that this is easy if you're new to it, that's why my latest newsletter on LinkedIn deals with what to do when you’re stuck and have tried thinking your way out of it. There I share the 7 steps that I wish I had available to me when I was locked into thinking mode and couldn't find a way out of it.
How open are you to investigating this approach if you haven’t tried it before? What’s the best thing that could happen?