“Thoughts are like bubbles in the sea – you you may cup your hands and hold some underwater, but eventually they rise to the surface. Practices such as counting your breaths or reciting a particular prayer or mantra create a moment-to-moment concentration on one idea to the exclusion of others. But if your attention wavers for an instant, the thoughts rise to the surface. Positive thinking strategies are, like methods for quieting the mind, based on wishful thinking rather than on a realistic understanding. You don’t have to control your thoughts; you just have to stop letting them control you.
There is another, more radical to the problem of the mind: LET IT BE. Make peace with and accept it as it is. No need to fix or quiet it or do anything else about it. The mind is like a barking dog. You don’t have to get rid of the dog. After all, dogs naturally bark. Focus instead on directing your attention to what you are doing and let the dog bark. Let your thoughts be whatever they are, positive or negative, and get on with life. Learn self-compassion; make peace with your mind.”
Dan Millman, in “Everyday Enlightenment”
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Jeff Maziarek, author of Spirituality Simplified and Codi’s Journey, launched Pondercentral.com in April 2007 as a Web-based forum for “PONDER on THIS,” a series of weekday inspirational email messages he began sending to subscribers in March 1999. A FREE service since its inception, “PONDER on THIS” provides subscribers with meaningful content to assist them on their individual paths of spiritual growth. In addition, it benefits subscribers, authors, and publishers by including links to Amazon.com where subscribers can learn more about the book being quoted, and also purchase it.
