What happens when you start pouring dirt into a clean jar of water? Gradually the water becomes dirty and the water is no longer clean.
If we left the dirty water to sit there, would it become clean on it’s own? Of course not. If left, it would remain dirty and probably start to fester over time. If we want the water to become clean again, we would need to either tip out the water and dirt and refill or we would need to begin pouring in clean water and filter out the dirty water until it becomes clean again.
This is much like the way our minds work.
If we want to feel, think, act and respond in healthy ways then we need to filter our minds with the good stuff. A filter acts to prevent dirt going back into the water, by trapping the dirt and only letting the clean water to pass through.
Like expecting the dirty water to become pure again on it’s own, it’s just as impossible to have a healthy mind if it’s still filled with unhealthy thoughts and beliefs.
And the only way for our thoughts and beliefs to change is if we are constantly filtering the bad for the good. Like the water filter, we need to create a filter which traps our unhealthy, faulty beliefs and thoughts and prevent them from settling into our minds.
It is a daily practice, that carried out repetitively becomes an automatic habit.
You’ll notice too that once you clear your mind and develop positive healthy beliefs and thoughts, when anything that upsets this comes into your mind, your filter system will automatically deal with this ‘foreign’ belief or thought and discard it quickly.
I find the dirty water analogy a great way to help people understand that we can develop more healthy thoughts and beliefs in line with how we want to think and feel, if we practice filtering our minds so that we’re consciously replacing the bad with the good.
Particularly for people who’ve suffered through a traumatic event over a long period of time, their minds have been filled with negative thoughts and beliefs as a result of their experiences. But this can be turned around by deliberating filtering our minds with more healthy beliefs and thoughts.
It is a process. Depending on the duration and severity of the traumatic event, it may take a short period of time or it may take longer, much like filtering a dirty pool til it comes clean as opposed to a bucket of dirty water.
Begin actively filtering what goes in to your mind.
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