DAY 31 – KEY ASPECT: GETTING LOST IN THOSE SILENT WORDS

I am on a road that isn’t a road of asphalt or dirt. This road is a trail of the thoughts that wander and meander through my mind.

Thoughts can be similar to the roads and highways we drive and walk through. One road will take you to the next road which takes you to another road until you arrive at your destination. Similarly, one thought will take you to the next thought and then to another thought until you take action upon what you have been thinking.

Taking the same road to the same places and having the same thoughts that pertain to certain issues can be habit forming. Human beings have the tendency to repeat over and over again the everyday things that we do and this also applies to repeating in our minds a particular concept or idea that we come to believe in. The more times something is said silently to oneself, the more ingrained it becomes. After a period of years or decades a person’s beliefs seem so real that they take on a life of their own.

People have a tendency to become adamant about what they believe in because thinking the same thoughts hundreds, if not thousands, of times eventually makes them appear to have validity. When this happens people often do not put an effort into scrutinizing and re-evaluating what appears to make sense to determine if they actually have a beneficial or detrimental affect. With a steadfast attitude about an idea, ideology or action it does not allow new information to enter into the equation and we lose the ability to see a potentially better way of making life enhancing actions that affects oneself, others and the earth.

The problems people have in their personal life do not occur out of nowhere. There are specific thoughts that are associated with specific difficulties. Having poor relationships, engaging in violent acts, becoming verbally abusive, having drug and alcohol addictions, having low self-esteem, having an inflated sense of self-worth, doing poorly in school, not taking care of one’s health and many other personal difficulties develop when human beings get lost in those silent words that bring about their problems.

Societal issues also do not develop out of nowhere. Members of a specific nationality, religion, race, ethnicity and sexual orientation have certain problems that have built up over time, sometimes decades or even centuries. Specific thoughts about members of a group leads to specific actions on a societal level and both the thoughts and actions get passed down to the next generation. The succeeding generation then perpetuates the societal problems by adopting those specific ideas and ideologies that keep problems alive. Hatred and violence towards people who are different, wars between different groups, subjugation, mistreatment of women, poverty, economic difficulties, abuse of the earth and so many other societal issues stem from believing in ideas that are detrimental to living in a better world.

Life is not just about problems but also about the many good and beneficial things people do. People treat not only their loved ones with kindness, dignity and respect but also strangers from anywhere and everywhere on this planet. People come to the aid of others when someone is in a crisis and millions upon millions of people volunteer to help others in their daily living. From efforts to eliminate hunger to bringing people out of extreme poverty to helping animals to eliminating pollution to helping children thrive to giving assistance to the elderly to eliminating diseases to helping neighbors to rescuing people in life threatening situations and with so many other difficulties people around the planet show their genuine concern for their fellow human beings. The kindness and good that people do stem from the type of silent words associated with helping others that people say to themselves.

After contemplating about the thoughts that I have I now realize that too often the words I say silently to myself seem so real that I get lost in them to the detriment of my ability to objectively consider other contrary ideas. The beneficial actions that I take along with the actions detrimental to a better life and better world occur because of years of constantly saying certain words silently to myself.