“There is nothing good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”

Pursuing the kind of thinking that may make something (like the day ahead) good, my second thought is to borrow someone else’s thoughts. When we see any focus from someone else’s perspective, new possibilities emerge as we follow them to think down a different path.

This is one of the many reasons I love the “Thought for the day” that Caroline manages to find to enrich each blog. Suddenly, we see the topic through a different lens.

Here is Friday’s once more.

Thought for the day: "Tone is often the most important part of a conversation - and listening is so much more important than what you say." Hoda Kotb This added beautifully to Leah’s blog on Content and Tone. Leah asked about whether our mood affected how we listened. In a sense, that’s a tone of listening – which I’d never thought about. We have tone of voice – but maybe we can have a tone of listening too. If it’s a critical tone, do we then find fault with everything said no matter the other person’s intent?

I suggest that you want a new insight on any topic, theme, or focus – ask Auntie Google or Sister Alexa for a quote on the thought. You can almost guarantee that some wise person has invested the output of hours of many grey cells on thrashing through the different angles. This is one of several ways I get out of being stuck in my own thoughts – borrow someone else’s! Putting it to the test, I’ve just typed, “quote on anger” into Google. A series of images with quotes came up. The first that caught my eye was from Ralph Waldo Emerson. He said, “For every minute you remain angry, you give up sixty seconds of peace of mind.” Nice.

Another way to borrow someone else’s thoughts is to use your imagination and ask, “What would (name the person) think?” I wasted a few years bemoaning the thought that there were no more heroes anymore. Then, I changed my mind, and realised heroes are all around me. My Nan, my partner, and my piano teacher are three immediate examples.

My Nan’s heroic power was calm patience. She would have agreed with Thomas Jefferson’s assertion: “When angry count to ten before you speak; if very angry, count to one hundred!”  My partner’s heroic power is thoughtful kindness. On an almost daily basis she is thinking of something someone else would like – looking at the opportunity empathetically through their eyes. My piano teacher’s heroic power is joy. She radiates joy.  And the more I get to know her, I now realise she still radiates joy when Life is not so kind. Thus, if I were to ask myself, “What would D say about this?” the answer would always have a good dollop of joy mixed with it!

Who are the heroes through whose eyes you could look at your situation? What is their heroic power? What’s the quote that changes your mind?

Lex

A Moodscope member