Buckets of Thoughts
We all find ourselves unconsciously lost in thought from time to time. For some of us this may happen often, or perhaps it’s even our norm.
It might happen while we are talking with another person. Our conversation partner is speaking about this or that and we suddenly realize that in fact we haven’t been listening at all. We’re caught up in our own head, caught up with our own thoughts. We might be thinking about how we’re going to respond. Or maybe we’re wondering what the other person thinks of us at that moment. Or perhaps our mind is off on something entirely unrelated.
It might happen while we’re reading a book. We finish a page just to realize that we haven’t actually internalized anything that we “read” at all. Perhaps we’re thinking about something in the future with excitement or anxiety. Perhaps we’re thinking about something in the past with longing or regret.
We might find ourselves lost in thought while we’re working or running or cooking or driving or even while we’re experiencing something novel and exciting on vacation.
I caught myself in a Yoga class earlier this year, thinking in detail about how I was going to describe the class to someone else later that afternoon. What a waste of my attention. What a waste of life itself.
This isn’t to say that unconscious thought is inherently bad. Some of my best ideas have come to me while lost in thought on a run or in the shower.
I do think though that it’s important for us to think about the situations in which we desire to let our mind wander, and those in which we seek to remain as present as possible. It’s also important to reflect on the buckets of thought that we find ourselves regularly lost in…
A bucket of thoughts about the future.
A bucket of thoughts about the past.
A bucket of thoughts about our own self worth.
A bucket of thoughts about others with admiration or judgement or lust or resentment or respect.
Which of these thought buckets serve our goals and which are simply distractions?
Many of us are very intentional about how we choose to invest our time. Yet it is equally important to be intentional about how we choose to invest our attention.
Subscribe to My Blog: Three-Minute Reads, Every Three Days
Photo: Taken in Luang Prabang, Laos
