I’ve been given some time to do quite a bit of thinking. I’ve started walking again and that’s helped with my train of thought. I’ve also been reading a lot and listening to audiobooks of what I’ve been reading. And while I can’t readily recall all the wisdom I’ve covered, I can’t but think it’s doing me some good.
Once I got through the last days of this past school year, a lot of thoughts came rushing into my mind. Without the daily planning and grading that school required, I found myself swimming in negative thinking about all that had recently transpired in my life. The word recently included most all of what had happened in the past year.
I found myself waking up first thing in the morning with a stampede of negative thoughts, mostly centered around all the “what-ifs” in life. That hamster wheel spun round and round and didn’t seem to know any end. I knew that my journal writing would certainly help and also started reading some of the books I’ve collected. I also started walking again in order to try to clear out all the negative thoughts my mind seemed to want to focus on in its waking hours.
I have four or five books I’m reading at any one time. This is due in large part to the fact my ADD brain finds it hard to focus on any one thing for very long. I’ll underline a lot in the books I’m reading. I’ll transfer some of the big take-aways onto the pages in my journal. I’ve also got an app on my phone that allows me to listen to some of the books while I’m walking. This has probably been the biggest help.
If I was to sit down and try to tell you what I’ve learned, I’m not so sure there would be a lot of cohesive thoughts I’d be able to relate. I’ve considered starting a daily blog here on WordPress to share some of the bigger concepts with hopes of cementing them in my brain and, of course, to share them with others.
I feel that our subconscious mind keeps track of a lot more than we give it credit for. I think that it one of the sources of the dreams that we have. But I also think that we as people can benefit from what we’ve been exposed to, even if we can’t readily remember it. That old hard-wiring in our brains doesn’t give up easily and it perhaps is only through rote repetition of key concepts that I’m ever going to make any headway into changing my way of thinking.
Patient progress, not perfection as I like to say.
David Lee
David Lee 