May 5, 20221 min read

Don't Believe Everything You Hear

Listen up: We are not meant to take all our thoughts seriously. Many of them are based on untruths, things our parents or other adults believed were true that weren’t when we learned them and still aren’t—that one race, ethnicity or religion is better than another, that children should be seen and not heard. Not true then, not true now. Other thoughts were true in the childhood you lived and now aren’t—that people can’t be trusted or that it’s better to pretend you’re happy than to complain. Actually, there are many people in our lives now (but, still, perhaps not our parents) who can be trusted and you can now complain to your heart’s content without being sent to your room or being spanked.

Thoughts are meant to be carefully examined, just like the people we encounter. Be curious about your thoughts. Get in the habit of asking yourself if a thought has validity behind it and value for you. Stop repeating lies to yourself that were said decades ago: you’re stupid or lazy, no good in sports, need to get over your shyness, won’t ever succeed, aren’t smart enough, or are too fat. In the same way that someone saying something doesn’t make it true, neither does having a particular thought. Think about everything you believe, but don’t believe everything you think.