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Returning to the fold

By Elsabe Smit

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Published: 19Jan2009
Word count: 999
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I am fascinated by how the mind and brain works and how our thought processes are shaped. How do we grow new habits? How do we change our thought processes?

I read an analogy the other day that made a lot of sense to me.

The author compared our minds to a piece of paper that is folded. Try this: fold a piece of paper, then fold it again. Then put the piece of paper down. When you pick it up, the easiest fold to reach is the most recent one.

Our thoughts are the same. Whenever we have a new thought, our minds return to the most recent thought.

This is an incredibly powerful piece of information.

Here is another fact. Our minds and bodies are by default tuned to positive thoughts. One positive thought will counteract a number of negative thoughts.

What does all this mean?

It means we can control our thoughts. If we can do that, we control all the energy waves that emanate from us, and we control the energy that is returned to us.

This is such a simple, yet powerful tool.

Imagine a new colleague joins you at work. You see this person for the first time and notice her lovely eyes. That is the first fold in the paper. Then this person does not introduce herself to you, and her first words are an attack on everyone around her new desk for not clearing the desk drawers before she arrived. That is the second and most recent fold in the paper.

The person then starts to work at a desk five steps from your own desk. You still do not know her name. You have forgotten about her lovely eyes. You now think of her as "that rude woman at the next desk".

But is she really rude? Could it be that she was not so sure of herself, and that she regarded the new desk as a temporary space for a temporary position where she does not really want to be anyway, and that she was in fact voicing her frustration? Was that why she raised her voice and neglected to introduce herself? Could it be that it is only my perception that she is rude? And that thought then becomes the most recent fold in the paper.

When someone then enters the office and ask where Lynne's desk is, I have no idea who Lynne is. But if someone points at the desk of the new lady, my first thought is "they mean the rude lady" because that was the most recent thought in the paper of my mind.

I do not think "they mean the new lady with the beautiful eyes", because that thought has been covered with more recent thoughts, and my mind returns to the most recent thought on the topic.

Then you are away from work for a few days. When you return, the lady walks into the office, approaches your desk, holds out her hand and says "Hi. We have not been introduced yet. My name is Lynne." She smiles and you think "she has lovely eyes". That becomes the most recent thought.

I can still go back to the thought of "the rude new lady", but suddenly it is not that easy. My new thought is about "Lynne with the lovely eyes", and this thought feels much better.

Every time I now try to think about "the rude lady" I feel a physical reaction in my body that is not pleasant. However, when I think of Lynne with the lovely eyes, I feel a different, far more pleasant physical sensation

We do this every day without even being conscious of our thoughts.

The power of this is that when we become conscious of this process, we can immediately identify a thought that does not resonate with our selves. We can then stop and examine that thought, and replace it with another thought that does resonate with our selves.

Of course with the awareness of the power of our thoughts comes awareness of our selves.

We have all at some stage been involved in an argument where we said things in the heat of the moment and really felt good about winning the argument by being the most hurtful party, only to cringe the next day when we remember what we had said.

Have you ever been involved in some activities with people that at the time felt very good (often under the influence of alcohol and with youthful exuberance), like mercilessly teasing or even bullying other people? And the next day you are so embarrassed about your behaviour that you do not even want to associate with your friends, because they remind you of your moments of weakness.

When we become aware of our thoughts and how positive thoughts resonate with us while negative thoughts trigger feelings of discomfort, it becomes easier to immediately replace negative thoughts with positive thoughts.

Over time it becomes easier to ensure the most recent thought is one that resonates with us and reflects our true loving selves.

While we are in the habit of resonating negative thoughts without an awareness of the impact on our bodies, we feel that replacing those thoughts with positive thoughts is a bit of a strain. However, over a period of time, thinking the positive thoughts becomes practice, and we then try to avoid the negative thoughts.

This is like learning to play the piano. When you focus on the white keys, you manage to play reasonably well. However, when you really make an effort to use the black keys as well, suddenly there is a different, richer, more complete sound that you can control at will. When you reach this level of mastery, playing on the white keys only sounds hollow.

It is possible for us to master our thoughts. The negative thoughts will leave kicking and screaming, but they will leave, if that is what we want for ourselves.

Elsabe Smit is the author of the soul-touching collection of short stories, A Tapestry of Life and of the blog http://www.mypurpleblog.com , Spiritual interpretations of everyday life.

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