We tend to think about the same stuff over and over.

And over.

And over.

For lifetimes.

We have to. It's important.

Right?

There are problems to solve, hurts to soothe, wrongs to right.

There are elections and cheating and suffering and not enough money and sick bodies and addictions. There’s love that isn’t happening, things wrong with me, things wrong with others, no motivation, overwhelm, un-safety.  People are suffering; animals are suffering.

Wrongness is happening.

We need to think about it. We should think about it.

And thinking seems to fall into repetitive lifetime themes, doesn't it?

Whether it's abuse, health, sleep, purpose, security, relationships, looks, or enlightenment...

Thoughts gather into themed loops.

We all have our reliably favorite go-to's, that handful of topics we keep coming back to over and over.

They hurt like hell of course.

There’s no end to the misery our personal favorite loops set off in our particular lives.

And it’s not just that the themes repeat. It’s that they seem to entangle us. Like a thicket with no way out. Worries, judgments, fears, intense feelings.

Attention is repeatedly drawn to revisiting, to looking for possible solutions, to gathering the evidence which supposedly proves the rightness of wrongness.

Turns out we can focus on the wrongness of anything.

In fact thought actively searches for wrongness.

Kind of like Thought-Whack-a-Mole.

Focus. Repeat. Focus. Repeat. Focus. Repeat.

So is there any hope of not being pulled-in most of the time?

Well, entanglement is not likely to give up without a fight.

Because focus-on-problem is what makes the dream, this Me, this Self, seem real.

We define the Self via those thought loops.

We classify ourselves, define what we are, what we lack, what we like, what we need…

By what we think about.

That’s how it feels like we're solidly in the story. That's how it feels like we’re the one thinking thoughts, the one lacking this or that, the one having this or that problem.

Notice how central to everything that makes the SELF?

That is the trick.

That’s what all hurting, fear, problems and repetitive thought-swirl blizzards are for.

To occupy attention.

To draw attention away from noticing that the Self is just a story.

When we focus on the subject matter of thought, on the "what" of circumstances, hurting and other feelings, or on situations and problem solving, the fiction of Self remains unnoticed.

Conveniently.

Repetitively.

So if we’re tired of torture, we might finally consider that...

It doesn’t matter what we think about.

At all.

Because as we begin to see that those lifelong thought-loops are simply a trick of mind...

They stop being so important.

They lose a bit of their stickiness.

When we begin to see that problems, worries and judgments are here only to seemingly define a Self and to prove a solid Me...

Things get a tiny bit less solid.  Less entangling.  Less urgent.

The vortex can begin to lose a little of its not-really-there-but-seems-like-it-is power.

Which changes nothing real of course.  

But still feels a helluva lot better.

And that might be a refreshing fresh-breeze change.

Because thought storms sure do get old when they’re repeated over decades.