Building a Dam in Your Mind (Changing Your Thought Patterns *PART 2)

Let's use a hilltop as an illustration. When rain falls on a hill, the water drains off. How does it drain off? In rivulets or grooves in the ground. Initially, they are just small rivulets, but each time rain falls, the rivulets/grooves cut deeper and deeper. They can become deep chasms.

Now let's compare these rivulets/grooves with thought patterns in our minds. The longer we think along any given line, the stronger that thought pattern becomes. Every time we react in a certain way, we reinforce that thought pattern. This is how habits are formed.

If we want to get rid of rivulets on a hill, we could take a bulldozer and cover them up. We could also build a little dam where the rivulet/groove begins so that the next time it rains the rivulets will change course. While we can't cover up our thoughts with mental bulldozers, we can build a dam in our minds when certain thoughts begin. We can refuse to think them. We can say, "I will not allow myself to think that."

Building a dam in the mind, however, is not enough. That is, saying "no" is not sufficient by itself. We also need to provide a new course for our thinking. We should not suppress thoughts! We should redirect them. We should change negative thought patterns into positive thought patterns.