It is Really Easy to Overlook This

It is really quite easy to sassy right past the primary significance of thinking. There are so many other "things" that need our full cognitive attention....such as, issues, problems, concerns, worries, hobbies, pets, events, relationships, emotions, promotions, demotions, addictions, births, deaths, travel, finances, planning, flowers, doubts, jobs, certainties.....and thousands of other stuff like that. Not to mention all the sneeky intrusive stuff on the side that lies in wait for just the right moment to jump in line and claim a few seconds or minutes of our brain time.

Rushing through a moment without so much as one concious notion that a moment is happening can lead to premature aging, i.e. what happened to the day, week, month, year or life. "I was so busy living that I forgot to notice the very thoughts that were producing the life." So, it just makes good sense to practic what I call "Cognitive Pausing".

Cognitive Pausing (CP) helps us slow down and think about what we are thinking about. In fact, CP can help us get in touch with the fact that we are, in fact, thinking. How many times have we heard, "Penny for your thoughts?" or "What are you thinking about?" only to be drawn up short and startled by the question; snapped back into the reality of the very thing that was pushing our wagon in the first place?

Life is a bouquet of thoughts, emotions and behaviors. You can't have one without the other. Thinking, however, is the godfather of the group. Behaviors and emotions are plenty important in life. We must not over look the fact that thinking is the genesis of both. Of course, there are times when body chemistry crashes the cognitive party and walks away with an emotion or two or three. My middle-aged female patient said, "I am PMS-ing! Don't tell me that it is all in my head and that my thinking is causing this!" I would not dare tell her anything of the sort because I do not believe EVERY EMOTION IS CAUSED BY THINKING..... BUT MOST ARE!