I’ve been having an interesting time pondering the idea of opinions. This exercise started with simply keeping my mouth shut as people were speaking to me. No opinions allowed! Not a problem, I love talking and asking questions and finding out about the other person.” Easy peasy, right?
Then we were challenged to not have any non-spoken opinions, or “thoughts”. Now that was harder. On average people think 6.5 thoughts per minute. Isn’t it natural to have thoughts, reactions, and questions regarding what people are saying? My mind is always inquisitively asking questions wondering and probably forming some type of opinion in my mind. As I began to analyze my opinions I learned a lot about myself.
To begin with, I am a very opinionated person. I like to think I am an open-minded, opinionated person; but, opinionated nonetheless. Sadly, as I began to analyze these thoughts; the opinions I had about myself were the MOST critical. I asked myself why am I so harshly critical of myself? I was constantly having that dialogue in my head that I am stupid, “I should have done ______ another way, I could have _______ better, I should have _______ sooner, why do you always________?” The list goes on and on. Critical things I think about myself I would never dare speak out loud to anyone, it would be so rude. So why do I think those things to myself?
The BIGGEST aha moment in this process came after listening to a podcast about wanting to manifest something better into our lives, but, how impossible the task is because we are holding on to the thoughts of yesterday. He said, “You cannot think about yesterday’s thoughts and hope to create a different tomorrow. For instance, I wake up in the morning with the fear of being late again. (I grew up in Hawaii, and “Hawaiian time” was the normal concept for me). I begin overthinking the steps to get out of the house. I get stressed ahead of time, makeup, and hair, don’t go my way. Yet, I leave the house 5 minutes earlier than necessary. All that stress for nothing. Ugh!
No opinions have really got me to think about the possibility of cleaning the mental slate every morning. Is it possible to let go of all preconceived ideas of how things are “supposed to go”? What if I wasn’t bound to concepts of the past?
Could that open the doors to many new and fresh possibilities for the future?
I will keep on pondering the idea of no opinion and see where that takes me. In the meantime, Cheers!
Thank you for sharing Terri. I look forward to reading the answers to your questions in future blogs!
Jj, thanks for reading and commenting. I do hope I can stay in “presence” more and more!!!
Loren, thank you for reading and commenting. I love the visual, “letting go of the red pencil.”
Wanda, Thank you for reading and commenting.
Thanks for commenting and taking the time to read this. You are always so encouraging! This is the first blog of mine that I read. Actually, the first time I was able to get to the blog section. Hope I can do this again. I am planning to go to the webinar tomorrow to figure all this out.
Terri, reading your blog I can see that no opinions land you in the present – ‘presence’ 🙂
Letting go of the red pencil is sometimes hard, Terri, yet it’s rewarding to know it’s one thing you are learning to do! 🙂
Terri, ““thoughts””, thank you for sharing.
Terri, Thank you so much for sharing all of this!!! This was so honest, and I know its something I do as well. Unintentionally, yet still so harsh, like you observed. Ever Vigilant.