The reason people with ADD have thoughts that follow one another more quickly is because they ask themselves questions in much faster succession.

Thoughts are extremely useful because they can tell you something about the energy states of individual parts of your body.

To understand thoughts, you always need to add a dimension—such as quantity or time. I like to use time.

For example: you have anxious thoughts after a surgery. That’s because your body is communicating to you that its state has changed while you were unconscious. Bodies are extremely good at this, and they don’t take “no” for an answer. After you wake up, they immediately start talking to you. In this example, the thought comes after the thing that has happened.

Another example: you have very dark thoughts—the darkest you can imagine. These thoughts reflect the overall state your body is in. So, in a sense, they also come afterward, or they reflect the state you are in now.

If I sit here and deliberately start thinking those same exact darkest thoughts you can imagine, that is not the same thing. So in situations where two things are exactly the same (the same thoughts), they still aren’t the same. Fun fact: this goes wrong in a lot of science too—two identical measurements are not necessarily the same thing. The exact same thought can either be a reflection of past or present energy states, or it can be a freshly started, new thought.

How I use thoughts

I mostly use time. Is this thought about the current state of an internal organ or body part? Or did I start this thought myself, without prior influence from my body? These things can also co-exist.

Another very good way is to add dimensions like subject, pacing, and quantity.

Subject: What are my thoughts about?
Pacing: I think X now. Three seconds later, I think Y. How much time is there between thoughts? People with ADD, for example, have faster pacing. There is nothing wrong with that. You can mix in moments of silence.
Quantity and time: If I have a million thoughts, at which part of the day do I think about which thoughts?

* Why There Is No Difference Between Mental and Physical Health

Why two identical thoughts are not the same

Thoughts that reflect a past or present energy state are not the same as those exact thoughts when you start them anew.

I have many dark thoughts—the darkest you can imagine. These thoughts can tell me a lot about the state my whole body is in, about the state I am in.

This is not the same as starting a new thought. Even if I think those exact same dark things, the experience is different when my starting point—the state of my body—is different.

So having dark thoughts when you are in bad shape is not the same as having those very same thoughts when you are in good shape.

Why There Is No Difference Between Mental and Physical Health

Thoughts are extremely useful because they tell you something about the energy states of different parts of your body.

To understand thoughts properly, you always need to add at least one extra dimension—such as time or quantity. I personally like to use time.

Consider this example: you experience anxious thoughts after surgery. That happens because your body is communicating to you that its internal state changed while you were unconscious. Bodies are exceptionally good at this kind of communication—and they don’t take “no” for an answer. The moment you wake up, they start talking to you. In this case, the thought comes after the event that caused it.

Another example: you have very dark thoughts—the darkest you can imagine. These thoughts often reflect the overall state your body is in at that moment. In that sense, they also come afterward: they are not random, but a mirror of your current condition.

Now here is where it gets interesting. If I sit down and deliberately start thinking those exact same dark thoughts, something changes. Even though the thoughts themselves are identical, the situation is not. Two things can look exactly the same and still not be the same thing. This goes wrong in science quite often too: two identical measurements are not necessarily identical events.

The very same thought can either be:

  • a reflection of a past or present energy state of your body, or

  • a newly initiated thought, started deliberately, without bodily pressure.

They may look identical on the surface, but they come from entirely different places.

How I use thoughts

I mostly use time as my main dimension. I ask myself:
Is this thought reflecting the current state of a specific body part or internal system?
Or did I start this thought myself, without any prior influence from my body?

Often, these two things can coexist.

Other helpful dimensions are subject, pacing, and quantity.

  • Subject: What are my thoughts actually about?

  • Pacing: I think X now. Three seconds later, I think Y. How much time passes between thoughts? People with ADD, for example, often have faster pacing. There is nothing wrong with that—you can always mix in moments of silence.

  • Quantity and time: If I have a million thoughts, when do I think which thoughts? Morning thoughts are often very different from evening thoughts.

Once you start looking at thoughts this way, the line between mental and physical health disappears. Thoughts are not “just in your head.” They are signals, timing markers, reflections, and sometimes deliberate creations—deeply connected to the state of your body as a whole.