Thoughts and Feelings Offer Important Information

When it comes to making changes and improving our lives, the first thing we can do is start to pay careful attention to our internal and external world (see my earlier post on “Sharpening the Axe”). Likely, whatever we are currently noticing internally can be explained by the actions we are or are not taking throughout our days. 

Try treating all thoughts and emotions as information, rather than judging, fighting, or wishing they were not occurring. When we resist our thoughts, we miss out on an important opportunity to learn from what’s happening and we ultimately make them more fixed and intense. Instead, we should try to turn up curiosity and learn from what we notice, treating it as information that can lead to important change opportunities. 

If you are experiencing sadness or depression in your life, how might this be a logical consequence of how you are living? Are you lonely and isolated? Are you stagnant and passive? Do you move little and/or distract yourself constantly? Maybe your unhappiness is perfectly logical given how you are living. Treat it as a call to action to make changes, rather than trying to make it go away or seeing the feeling as something that is pathological or wrong with you.