Thought energy and the magic faraway tree

Have you ever tried to observe a thought? Stood outside of it while thinking it and observed how it is charged with energy that seems to highjack us as soon as it anchors itself in our frontal lobes?

Up until today I thoughts mood swings are outside our control, determined by chemical and hormonal imbalances and the general state of our mental health. Something we just have to live with. Sometimes more, sometimes less, depending on the weather. Over time, I have slowly began to accept those waves and can swim through them in almost bored anticipation of the next. Yet while dodging another wave of emotion in between loading the washer and cooking dinner a question appeared in the back of my mind: Could it be the randomness of my thoughts that is causing this randomness of moods? I had to find out.

As soon as the next random thought popped into my head I pounced on it. I was right. The thought was full of energy. Like a virus it had a payload attached to it which my mind began to download as soon as the thought took hold in the forefront of my awareness. The payload then got executed like a program, playing once or in a loop, depending on my will to shift my focus. Once I realised what I was looking at I decided I wasn't interested and pressed the stop button.

And the emotions vanished.

How do we end up with random thoughts in the first place? In my case I guess its a mixture of boredom, lack of focus and self absorbence. For example, as soon as somebody is not acting in the way I want them to my imagination goes into overdrive. Instead of accepting that I'm not the centre of everybody's Universe at every given moment I worry about it. I obsess about the smallest gestures and remarks. Have I said something wrong? Doesn't he/she like me? Is it all over? Do I smell? The payload of these kind of thoughts is obvious.

So what has all this to do with the Magic Faraway Tree? Its the result of yet another random thought session. Once I made my observations I noticed how much these thoughts reminded me of the countries on top of the Faraway Tree. If you haven't ready the story, those magical, strange little places are build upon clouds and could easily carry you away and trap you for a long while if you didn't get off in time. The countries could be anything from scary and dark to fun, games and icecream and would appear at the top of the tree at random. Just like my thoughts. In order to check out what country had landed you could climb up the ladder and stick your head through the cloud. If it was a scary place you wouldn't want to go there.

Since random thoughts play out like programs on holodecks (or countries on top of trees) that can loop if you don't "get off it" (carry you away and trapp you - in anxiety or depression, or indeed happyness) maybe it would be wise in the future not to jump in feet first when those thoughts start spinning round my head. Maybe I can find a way to stop myself and decide whether I want to visit or not and press the stop button in time if I download a virus by accident. And maybe then I will finally have the time and focus to read the Magic Faraway Tree again.