Every waking moment I listen to the radio. The station I play is my personal random thinking. I will write about one example.
I help manage an apartment building. When I went into one of the laundry rooms because the door was left open, there was a puddle of water in front of the dryer. My radio played, “Who would leave a puddle of water and not wipe it up? There are paper towels and other items to clean up messes which makes it easy for anyone to clean up. People are not considerate.” This is only a condensed version of the long song that was playing in my mind.
I cleaned up the area so no one would slip, but I was still reacting while I did it. Later that day I spoke to a team member about it. He told me he had investigated the situation and discovered there is a leak in the ceiling and that is why there was puddle on the floor. He was in the process of finding a bucket to contain the leak when I happened across the situation.
Wow! I wasted a lot of energy listening to my incorrect song and placing blame all around. Incorrect songs such as this play in my mind often, whether I am aware of them or not. I am still learning to catch them before blaming others and putting grit in my relationships.
In reading some of the books written by Richard W. Wetherill, one of the statements I remember is, “The way to reduce emotion is to avoid rebelling against whatever is happening.” (How to Solve Problems & Prevent Trouble, Chapter 3, Page 60)
At first when I decided to be consciously aware of my random music, I was overwhelmed and shocked to learn how much of my thinking was full of blame, criticizing and just plain meanness. The more I look to the reality when I hear this music playing, the more my thoughts automatically go to simply finding out what the requirements of the situation are and filling those needs. I now have more stress-free days which are most welcomed.
I cannot help what comes into my mind, but I can make a right decision to handle it harmlessly – and when I do this, my relationships no longer suffer as a result.
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