On listening or not to our heads

I want to be thought provoking, this is why I write others, to engage and inspire, yes? A great exercise in and of itself I often imagine.

Well a favorite commentator/writer had a piece on NPR yesterday, Andre Codrescu, entitled “An Argument For Living The Inner Life Without Your Own Thoughts” and it totally rang hilariously true for me. (Posted on January 29, 2013, 3 minutes long)

So, he doesn’t miss his thoughts, when he’s got the axe and he’s chopping away, realizing the “rhythmic exercise is a wonderful thought suppressant!” Opening his piece with that sage advice, “Keep your thoughts to yourself” inspired him to go a “step further and tell his thoughts to keep themselves to themselves!”

I adore this sentiment.The very idea that our thoughts may live somewhere else, a little world of there own and just pass on through our somatic space and that we might simply not appease or play in that field for a time, maybe a long time is liberating to say the least.

We have all become more aware of our mindstuff in this day, how exhilarating or toxic it feels depending on the day, how it affects our body and certainly our behavior and the mood of others once launched on the world.

A friend told me today, don’t have a conversation with someone whose not in the room, alluding again to that ping pong “dialogue” we take as truth when worried or unsure or simply eager to control how it all goes down for us. We make up so much stuff we ought to all be great fiction writers by now!

But what if we actually asked our thoughts to keep “themselves to themselves?”
It seems like a very tall order sometimes. But that walk, one step and then another and another, axe slinging, or any other activity does allow for this quality experience.
We are told to turn our attention away from the screen, get fresh air, “just be” all the time.

So ask yourself, what do you like to do to gently, but firmly ask your thoughts to keep themselves to themselves?
Don’t think too hard, just proceed and find peace in listening to yourself, not your head, just you being you, calming down as you move.

Thank you Andre for sharing your thoughts so I can quiet mine!