My favorite stories are about survival.
Like tales about the plague or hurricanes are just wonderful.
Surely there must be germs of experience in such doomsday revelations to help one through life’s most pressing challenges.
But the latest survival information I discovered is even more direct. A rather obscure article I read recently gave explicit instructions on imaging to deal with life problems. Evidently you can think your way into surviving anything by simply writing a thought, shredding it, and then discarding what you wrote!
Doesn’t that make some logical sense?
Presumably, the image of trashing a problem like the plague (after you reduce it to little paper bits) will make the whole thing go away. I’m sure they never thought of imaging in the days of death-by-plague, but we have definitely come a long way since then haven’t we?
Anyway, as instructed, I now spend 15 to 30 minutes a day writing down every thought and then shredding and discarding each thought, one by one.
The waste basket is full of bits of note paper .
And in the last few days noticeable patterns emerged.
PATTERNS:
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Reminders.
“Buy milk.”
“Get graduation cards for J and K.”
“Call Kit.”
(Do you see any correlation to eradicating a serious problem in such thoughts? Well I wrote them down anyway and did the dastardly shredding.)
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Questions.
“When will my friend be moving back to this area?”
“Should I order pot holders online?”
(So far there have been no subliminal answers. Maybe I am thinking of this exercise like it’s a Ouiga Board.)
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Wishes.
“I wish I had a dog.”
“Wish I didn’t have to cook dinner tonight.”
“I wish I was thin.”
(Now wouldn’t that be something if I could tear up the last wish and begin to lose weight? I did notice I skipped the after-lunch cookie today!)
CONCLUSIONS:
- This exercise is fun.
- I don’t think it has any intrinsic value but will let you know if I ever feel problem free.
- Maybe the exercise can be tailored to address specific problems. Like one day you shred only those thoughts that are about wishes.
- Or maybe it is like writing a letter to Santa, who will read the list and come forth with all the goodies
- I don’t see any signs that my expected longevity is extended.
- So much for shredding problems.
- And so much for survival.
And my last thought was/is in the Reminder category, “Don’t forget to buy a whole bunch of scratch pads because you are running out of shredding-paper.”
Now maybe THAT is a solveable problem except I shredded the reminder and will probably forget what I was trying to remember.
Virginia Views 