In my mid twenties, I discovered the Brahma Kumaris spiritual community. And yes, I thought it may have been a cult, and no it wasn’t (phew!).
Together with a close girlfriend, we joined their positive thinking course program, and learnt all about how our thoughts are seperate to who we are, and how to identify different types of thoughts. It was a pivotal point in my life where I started to really understand the power of our thoughts and those learnings have stayed with me ever since.
According to BK, there are 4 types of thoughts:
- Positive thoughts
- Negative thoughts
- Waste thoughts
- Necessary thoughts
I’ll cover these off over a few posts in time. But today I’ll cover *waste thoughts*.
Lately (let’s face it – the past year), I’ve been thinking a lot of waste thoughts and have really worked on eliminating these as much as I can. So what are they?
Waste thoughts are:
- produced at untimely moments
- filling us with worry and anxiety
- not constructive
- unnecessary and useless
- quick and repetitive which lead you nowhere
- about things we cannot change
Thoughts that often refer to things from the past:
- If this hadn’t happened…
- Why did she / he have to say that to me?
About worries about the future:
- What will happen tomorrow?
- How will it happen?
- What will I do if I find myself on my own?
- If I had been there at the time, this disaster would not have happened
When I have a wasteful thought (and I’ve had plenty the past year…), I try hard to let it go. When I can’t let it go, I re-frame it and ask myself can I change it? If the answer is no, I let it go. If the thoughts stay and I become stuck, I reach out to my support crew (spiritual guide, kinesiologist, meditation practice, yoga practice, speak to a trusted friend etc or all of the above) and with their support, I let it go.
Do you recognise when you have waste thoughts? If you didn’t, maybe you will now.
📷 Rachel Peri
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