Oh, and what a powerful one it is!

I came across a small, weathered booklet titled Only a Thought while sorting through my late Mother’s “stuff” the other day. I was finally getting to that chore now, even though she had been gone for several years. Some things do take time.

It was simple. Unassuming. An almost easy-to-dismiss booklet, but the title stopped me because I talk about thought a lot in my coaching. Was there something new here?

As I continued to read, it quietly pointed to something profound.

One line stood out to me like a sore thumb:

“In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength.” — Isaiah 30:15

Isn’t that interesting?

Not in busyness.
Not in control.
Not in trying harder.

In quietness.

Full disclosure here. I grew up going to a Lutheran Church. Read the Bible regularly, and didn’t see lines like that. I only saw the be good or else lines. New eyes, I suppose?

The author tells a story about an ordinary day that nearly turned miserable. Too much to do. Too many demands. Self-pity creeping in. The mind replaying grievances like a record with the needle stuck.

And then she notices.

It wasn’t the tomatoes.
It wasn’t the chores.
It wasn’t the people around her.

It was her thoughts.

Just thoughts.

And when her thoughts changed, so did her day.

Only a Thought You Say?

From the Three Principles understanding, this is not a religious idea. It’s not even a new idea.

It’s a description of how life works.

Sydney Banks said:

“The only experience human beings can ever have is their own thinking coming into their consciousness.”

That is radical.

Every feeling.
Every mood.
Every irritation.
Every moment of peace.

Thought, appearing real.

The old proverb the author quoted made me smile:

“You can’t keep a bird from landing on your head, but you can keep it from building a nest in your hair.”

Thoughts will land. That is not the problem.

But when we believe them, rehearse them, defend them, polish them, that’s when they start building a nest.

And nests get heavier the more we add to them.

As You Think, So Are You

The booklet quotes Scripture:

“As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” — Proverbs 23:7

Syd said something strikingly similar:

“You are one thought away from happiness.”

Not one achievement.
Not one breakthrough.
Not one solved problem.

One thought.

Or more accurately, one quiet mind away from seeing that your current thought is not the truth.

It’s a passing cloud.

We don’t have to wrestle clouds.

Watch Your Thoughts?

The booklet encourages watching your thoughts. Guarding them. Replacing the wrong ones.

That’s a noble attempt and a misunderstanding.

Here is the deeper freedom.

We don’t have to fight our thinking.

We don’t have to manage it.

We don’t have to wrestle the devil, tame our ego, or install better mental software.

When the mind settles, thinking settles.

And what remains is clarity.

Isaiah again:

“Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee.”

Whether we call that God, Universal Mind, wisdom, or simply the intelligence behind life, the pointing is the same.

Peace is not manufactured.
It is revealed when the noise quiets.

In Quietness

Have you noticed this?

When we stop arguing with our thoughts, even for a moment, something shifts.

The urgency drops.

The story softens.

Perspective returns.

In quietness and confidence shall be our strength.

Not confidence born of control.

Confidence born of seeing that thought is fluid.

Confidence born of knowing that low moods are temporary weather systems in the sky of consciousness.

Confidence born of realizing that no thought, no matter how convincing, has power when we don’t give it.

The Power Behind the Thought

Here’s where it gets even more beautiful.

Thought itself isn’t the villain.

Thought is creative power.

It is how we experience life. It’s also how we turn stone wheels into comfort zones on the highway.

It is how we love.
How we imagine.
How we build.
How we forgive.

It is the brush that paints our moment-to-moment reality.

The problem is not thought.

The problem is forgetting that it is only thought.

Syd said:

“If the only thing people learned was not to be afraid of their experience, that alone would change the world.”

Because what are we afraid of?

Our own thinking.

Only a Thought

That phrase can feel dismissive. I have heard some coaches use it that way. “Oh, it’s only your thinking.”

But it is not small.

It is enormous.

Only a thought created the argument.
Only a thought created the hurt.
Only a thought created the anxiety.

And only a thought dissolves them.

When we see this, we stop trying to fix life.

We get curious about our state of mind instead.

We begin to value quiet.

We begin to notice the sweet spot.

And from there, life flows with far less effort.

We are not a little train engine trying to convince ourselves, “I think I can.”

We are powered by something far deeper than personal will.

Our thoughts are powerful.

But the intelligence behind them is even greater.

And in quietness, we can feel it.

Much Love,

If you’re curious about what it looks like to observe the mind directly, Jon Kabat-Zinn offers a thoughtful reflection on noticing wanting, resisting, and the ‘story of me.’ Even a small shift in awareness changes everything.

Jon Kabat-Zinn is Professor of Medicine Emeritus and creator of the Stress Reduction Clinic and the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.

Link to Video: Mindfulness Dissolves Thoughts — Attention Is What’s Left Over