{"id":161,"date":"2011-01-31T06:55:09","date_gmt":"2011-01-31T06:55:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/lettinggo\/2011\/01\/free-yourself-from-useless-thinking.html"},"modified":"2011-01-31T06:55:09","modified_gmt":"2011-01-31T06:55:09","slug":"free-yourself-from-useless-thinking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2011\/01\/free-yourself-from-useless-thinking.html","title":{"rendered":"Free Yourself From Useless Thinking"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>QUESTION<\/b><\/p>\n<div><b><br \/><\/b><\/div>\n<div>I am easily taken over by re-running unpleasant events in my mind. If I say something stupid to someone, I&#8217;ll hear it in my mind for days afterwards. I know this is crazy, but I just can&#8217;t seem to help myself!<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p><!--more--><br \/>\n<b>ANSWER<\/b><\/p>\n<div><b><br \/><\/b><\/div>\n<div>With each mental replay of an unpleasant scene, you go deeper and deeper into thought, desperately trying to find a way to escape what seems an intolerable situation. What you don&#8217;t see happening to you is that the more you think, the more you sink! Exactly the opposite of what you think you&#8217;re accomplishing. And the deeper you sink in thought, the less you&#8217;re able to see what the rest of you is doing. Driving recklessly, speeding, missing the exit you want &#8212; these, and other equally dangerous stunts, are only a few of the foolish things that happen to you while driving under the influence of a stream of self-compromising, self-wrecking thoughts. Your life, in moments such as these, is actually out of your hands. It belongs to your thinking. <i>The relief you seek can never be a creation of thought. <\/i>Your awakened awareness is all that is needed to be free of useless thinking. Drop any thought or action that creates conflict in the present moment for the promise of a better feeling to come. Your True Nature is <i>now. There is no later. <\/i>You can&#8217;t be divided and be content. Choose to be whole. Begin by consciously refusing to compromise yourself.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>QUESTION I am easily taken over by re-running unpleasant events in my mind. If I say something stupid to someone, I&#8217;ll hear it in my mind for days afterwards. I know this is crazy, but I just can&#8217;t seem to help myself!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":232,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,6],"tags":[412,154,15,411],"class_list":["post-161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-enlightenment-self-realization","category-new-beginnings-fresh-start","tag-embarrassment","tag-feeling-stuck","tag-freedom","tag-nagging-thoughts-and-feelings"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Free Yourself From Useless Thinking - Letting Go with Guy Finley<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2011\/01\/free-yourself-from-useless-thinking.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Free Yourself From Useless Thinking - Letting Go with Guy Finley\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"QUESTION I am easily taken over by re-running unpleasant events in my mind. 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His ideas cut straight to the heart of our most important personal and social issues - relationships, success, addiction, stress, peace, happiness, freedom - and lead the way to a higher life. Finley is the Founder and Director of Life of Learning Foundation, a nonprofit Center for Spiritual Discovery. He is the acclaimed author of \"The Secret of Letting Go\" and more than 45 other books and audio programs that have sold over two million copies in 26 languages worldwide. His work is widely endorsed by doctors, business professionals, celebrities, and religious leaders of all denominations. Through Life of Learning Foundation, Guy has presented over 5,000 unique self-realization seminars to thousands of grateful students throughout North America and Europe over the past 20 years and has been a guest on over 700 television and radio shows, including national appearances on ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, and NPR. The Foundation's popular Key Lesson e-mails featuring inspirational quotes by Guy are read each week by a hundred thousand subscribers in 142 countries. Guy speaks four times each week on inner-life principles at Life of Learning Foundation's home in Merlin, Oregon. These meetings are ongoing and open to the public. 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