Happy day to you, everyone!
One of my intentions in my life is to avoid any unnecessary thinking. Perhaps you have a similar desire for yourself. Some thinking is necessary, of course, and some is both pleasurable and helpful. I prefer, however, that my mind not be cluttered with stuff that doesn’t need to be there. I would much rather it be filled with the experience of presence, and the various particular experiences that happen in presence (the sunshine in the trees, the breeze on my face, the company of the good people in my life…), and presence does not happen when there is no space for it in the mind.
Something I’ve learned to do over time in order to avoid unnecessary thinking is to maintain a good external organizational system: a system I can rely upon to capture the things I need to remember, so that I do not continually need to remind myself of them. I’ve seen for myself that if I do not have a place to put the various to-do’s that arise in life, the things I’ve realized that I need to purchase, events and happenings I need to remember, and other similar things, then the mind will continually rehearse these things in order to make sure that I remember them. If I have a system for organizing the bits of necessary information in life, however, then I do not need to remember them, and that makes it much easier to let go of the rehearsals when they arise.
Of course, it’s not enough to just have a good organizational system. You also have to trust yourself to use the system. If you have a good system, though, and you trust yourself to use it, then there’s never a reason to think about anything more than once.
And so you might consider the state of your own organizational systems, to see if they are strong and reliable enough to allow you to avoid unnecessary thinking. It’s well worth the effort to create and maintain such a system, in my experience. A calm and steady mind, a spacious mind that is present and capable of receiving moment by moment experience as it arises, is a most precious possession, and is the source of the deepest joy and contentment that I know.
Be well, friends, and have a beautiful day!
In peace,
David