A question

[Din]

What is your relationship to your thoughts?

[Xmac]

We go out pretty regularly and we stopped fighting.

[Din]

hi xmac, glad to see you here

so, do you ever take your thoughts out for dinner?

and if so, what do you expect in return?

[catherine]

Wow, I took last night to sleep on that one, and I'm glad I did. I like Xmac's answer so much better than mine.

But, to answer the question, my thoughts are like my older brother. A bit authoritative, a bit of a tease, a bit of a pain in the neck, a bit of a friend, a place where I go to get some feedback and advice, always "attached" to me in spirit and biology but not always "with" me physically.

I tend to lean on him WAY too much, so this year I'm going to try to only call him up when I want to.

[Simplemind]

I have been in an unfulfilling relationship for a long time. It isn't thoughts.... it is me. They want an exclusive relationship and I want to play the field. I will always love what attracted me in the first place. Perhaps one day we can be friends but for now I need my space. It was probably very insensitive and immature of me but I just didn't want an argument so I un-friended them Facebook this morning.

[razz]

I test, evaluate and accept or reject them according to my beliefs and values. Then I may implement the desirable ones.

[Zigzagman]

Let the silence suck up the truth


Peace

[Jill Sanders]

Sometimes I just want to beat the little devils over the head and make them go away!!!!

[ke3]

I just want them to go away. I've tried every Cognitive Behavioral trick in a number of books, but my thoughts won't leave me alone. Probably because someone from my (extended) family voices them at me all the time; then I have to defend my non-thoughts which are really my thoughts. Religion has been the only thing that somehow frees me from the thoughts that mock and torment me; and right now, I'm having a hard time with religion. Christmas ruined Christianity for me. It does every year. When my kids are raised, I'm going to Vermont and living on/off the land. Oh, wait--I can't, because I have aging relatives here! (see a thread someone just posted about caregiving on the Family forum; she is me.)

So, my thoughts and I have a very bad relationship.

[happystuff]

For the most part, I like my thoughts and often learn from them. Even the not-so-good ones. (Of course, I realize that defining any thoughts as good or not-so-good is subjective, so those I call not-so-good are deemed so based on my own subjectivity. But since they are also my own thoughts, I'm okay with that!)