Most of us are looking for inspiration because we have some kind of challenge or a problem to solve. We want to improve life or work in some manner. Yet we often get in our own way by spending much time and energy on cranking a handle that is not connected to what we want to change! 

For me, a huge step forwards has been to see that the only way we get to experience life is through our thinking (you can clearly see this in action when two people have different experiences of an identical situation).

Previous posts have touched on this in different ways, so here I’d like to share an analogy that I hope you find helpful. When you see it happening for yourself in real time, it can be life-changing. 

Imagine For A Moment That It Is Nighttime

Buildings always make noises at night – in mine there is the background hum of the refrigerator, the creaking of floorboards as the temperature cools, the breeze blowing around the eaves. Your home will have its own repertoire. 

Sounds as familiar as these don’t bother us; we can sleep peacefully through them. Yet it’s quite different when we hear a sudden sound. Then we wake with a start, instantly alert, listening for what may follow. We may run through a mental checklist to identify the cause. 

If we’re able to work out what caused the noise – perhaps it’s the new letterbox rattling in the wind or a noisy car in the street – we can relax. Because we know the reason for the noise, we can lie back and go to sleep again. 

But if we can’t come up with an explanation, we stay on edge. The noise represents a threat because we don’t know what it is. Most probably we get out of bed and look out of the windows. We listen carefully to see if the noise occurs again. We may tentatively check each room in turn. It’s only after a period of time, if all is quiet, that we allow ourselves to creep back to bed. Even then we do not sleep well. 

So How Does This Apply To Life? 

When you have a good experience, you don’t want to change it – you simply enjoy it! Just like a familiar background noise, you feel no need to trace the cause. You happily carry on with what you’re doing. 

It’s when you are confused, frustrated or unhappy that you want to improve things. This kind of experience is like a sudden noise in the night – you want to know the reason (or what to blame) so you can fix it. If you can’t find the cause, it’s disturbing. It can even feel threatening. 

But when you see that the experience you are having comes from your thinking, it’s like a sudden noise that you recognize. You no longer have to take it so seriously. And there is no work to do because you don’t have to go searching through the house to find the cause. 

Ultimately, the thoughts you think are just thoughts; with different thoughts the same situation looks and feels entirely different. You don’t have to suppress or control your thinking because new thoughts are always flowing. Fresh thoughts will naturally arrive unless you fixate on what you are already thinking

Of course, knowing this does not immediately make the experience go away (any more than a noise goes away just because you know what causes it). Yet you can be sure that as your thinking moves on – which it naturally does – so your experience will change for the better. 

Please don’t take my word for it – prove it for yourself! In your current situation, look for how your experience improves as your thinking changes.