Why I like to recycle old thoughts

By thinking about the same thoughts over and over again, it reflects back how you have changed over time, since you look at the same thoughts differently. And about some things, you will think the same.

1# The problem

Thoughts are a reflection of the inner state of your whole body. You have to take my word that this is true. There rarely is something wrong with thoughts themselves, no matter how dark and negative the thought is. That doesn’t mean that you don’t have a problem: if you have thoughts about suicide, this still means that something is up in the connection with your body and the outside world.

My worry is that there are a lot of people at home who basically have to get dragged out of their homes, since their whole bodies need human contact, their whole bodies need sunlight, and their whole bodies need movement.

Sad thoughts are just showing what is happening within the body. If you get those confused, you won’t get outside anymore: you get trapped in your small little world of thoughts.

2# The solution

You can solve a lot of things yourself. Go outside, get a job, enjoy contact with others, and let life take care of the rest. But you can’t solve everything yourself. We also have to look out for each other a little bit more.

3# Things that always work

Working out

Eating clean

Try to get the emotion out of your system, and translate it into art. A poem. A painting. Try to literally capture that horrible emotion and translate it into something different. I have no clue why, but it works very well. It frees you from that emotion. I feel it going from my stomach to the paper, as strange as that sounds.

You can only help someone if you show them the difference.

I was extremely strict with myself for years. I wouldn’t even allow myself to sit still: if I did, I had to be doing something. Otherwise, I wasn’t making progress, I wasn’t working. I always had to be doing something, moving forward, making progress, keeping up with everything else.

It took me 37 years to realize that that voice was the problem: the idea of how life was supposed to be lived. Only when I saw other people and realized that it wasn’t necessary at all—that you can simply be kind to yourself and love all of your thoughts—did it finally click.

The line between being healthy and fit and being far too hard on yourself is razor-thin. You can drive people completely crazy with a certain idea. The culture of achievement is probably the best example of this.

So now I divide my day like this: first, I am strict with myself and focus on achievement. But from the afternoon onward, I am only kind to myself, and I love myself. Otherwise, it just doesn’t work.

Again: if you have strict ideas about what life is supposed to be, then every second you spend doing nothing is a wasted second. You’re lazy, you’re not making progress. And that’s nonsense. You can also look at it this way: everything is always okay, and I’ll see what happens.

There is nothing that I love to do more than thinking. Exploring different thoughts within myself. Seeing them pass by. Getting obsessed by them. It's really one of the biggest wonders in this universe, how thoughts work. I enjoy it every day.

You can't fathom how precious life is. Your life. That you are alive. It's not communicable in words.

I know for sure that our thoughts are a reflection of the state of our whole body. Then the question is: are thoughts also a reflection of the whole galaxy? Or does the galaxy see itself through us?