Here’s the deal with any thought or belief (they are the same thing, pretty much)… If it’s true, keep it. If it’s not, pitch it. It’s that simple. This comes from the incredibly powerful and yet simple work of Byron Katie. Check her out. I’ll be giving a very brief and spotty overview of what she calls The Work, but I am in no way trying to claim it as my own or even go through it with any thoroughness. You can refer to her website, which is full of incredible material. She even has a children’s book that is amazing.
When I ask if a thought is true, I don’t mean that you think it’s true. I don’t mean that it’s 99.999% true. I mean that it’s totally, absolutely 100% true and you know that it’s 100% true. If it’s causing you any lack of peace and you can’t know this, then pitch it!
When we take a close look at the things that we believe, it can be pretty shocking. Most of it is trash, to be honest. And other thoughts might seem innocent enough, but they are really causing us pain when we take a look. If you’d be more peaceful without a certain thought and you can’t know that it’s true, then pitch it! After that, only the bad feeling that the thought caused will remain, and you just feel it and let it go. It will eventually go away (see Feelings 101).
So if you don’t feel good, you might want to search your mind for what you are believing. Ask your self if it is true. Ask yourself if you can really know that it’s true. Ask yourself how you feel with this thought. Ask yourself how you would feel without this thought. At this point, you’ll know whether it’s worth keeping or not. We have high standards here at A Clean Mind – only true thoughts get to live in our heads. When in doubt, let it go. If it really is true, it won’t go anywhere anyway.
The other aspect to thoughts is that the constant voice in the head that has a conversation with itself all day long is not real thinking. Just let it go when you notice it. This is HUGE. So huge, in fact, that there’s an entire blog post written about it here. Definitely read this – it’ll help you to be at peace.