Hi I'm Stephen Webb and welcome to the way I deal with my overwhelming thoughts and my busy mind that just doesn't seem to ever give me a break.
So this is the metaphor i use so imagine a nice country railway station that's nice and quiet and there's a single bench.
And you're sitting there on the bench.
And the trains keep coming and going.
And each of the trains.
Is a thought.
But you don't run the timetable.
The company runs the timetable which will be your subconscious mind.
The trains arrive.
On their own accord.
You don't choose them.
And once they're here,
Which is really important,
You cannot change them.
You cannot turn the red train into a green train because you don't want a red train.
But most of us are on board the train riding that journey going down the story whether it's a worry a story about something that happened last week or something that's going to be happening next week and anxiety.
And we get lost in the story before we even know it.
Then there's no way back to the bench.
But imagine if you could just sit on the bench and choose which trains to get on.
And just like that,
I don't have to go with every thought that pulls in.
Just practicing this and this is what meditation gives us to some degree.
But it always helps me with a real world metaphor.
So you can watch the trains pull in and you can watch them pull away similar to the clouds but i like trains because Not that I'm a fan of trains just.
.
.
Get all kinds of different trains and it just makes more sense sat on a bench.
I think what's really important.
Is how we influence the thoughts that are coming down the road.
So imagine a child.
The child ends up asking you what is your favorite color sweet when they got a packet of sweets of different colors and you say green and then he brings you a green one you're ah brilliant thank you so much you remember my colors green and you give it a real emotional weight and the child really remembers that and then 40 years on your child is still giving you the green sweet no matter what even if you said you don't like them you still so this is what happens with the mind The subconscious mind is listening and taking notes of the thoughts that you get on.
So if you've got a particular problem or a particular unfinished issue with a friend.
You will end up going around in your mind constantly.
And because if it's something that makes you angry or something that really is emotionally charged at the moment it will think that's really important.
The more emotion you give a thought the more important the subconscious mind thinks it is.
So therefore just like the trial giving the green tree it will give you more of them.
And if we give The positive,
The more calmer,
The nicer thoughts,
More emotion,
Which we don't normally give them as much emotion.
Because a calm emotion is not as emotive as an angry emotion.
And a fear.
And we have a natural negative bias of course we do because it's survival.
You're better off taking notice of.
Something that is going to come towards you with a threat or something that's going to come towards you giving you doughnuts.
It's just a simple reality.
What we can do is when we choose which train to get onto We're training the subconscious mind every single time that that thought is important.
And in time you cannot change a negative thought into a positive one.
But what you can do is train the subconscious minds the ones you want.
It's like telling the company that's running the timetable.
That if you don't get on any of the trains the company will stop sending those trains.
Or you would think so,
Wouldn't you?
And it takes time.
And that's why when someone says,
And I said it for years,
Just change a negative thought into a positive thought,
It's like no,
That's impossible.
Like changing the colour of the train.
And if you struggle with this,
I do have a meditation on here called a meditation to quiet an overthinking mind.
So finally it's putting it all together.
Just imagine sitting on a bench in a lovely quiet train station.
And just watching the thoughts roll in,
Watching the trains.
And choosing whether to get on and there's always a choice.
Always a choice.
But sometimes we don't think so.
The subconscious mind will take notice and will give you more of the thoughts that you give more emotion and weight to.
It doesn't mean the anger and the worry and the anxiety.
Are necessarily bad.
It just means sometimes they're really important because they're telling you something.
But very often we don't have to go on them all the time.
The same with the other things sometimes even positive thoughts desires sometimes can be overwhelming and we don't sometimes we give them a little bit too much weight.
So sit back,
Enjoy the bench,
Enjoy your thoughts.
And use this metaphor.
And don't forget I've got that meditation.
A meditation to quiet an overthinking mind.
Look after yourself.
Thank you for sitting with me.
See you next time.
