Just a Thought.

Walking into the gym at 4:30 PM.
Horrible.
There’s no one person or reason for this horribleness, it’s just an accumulative jumble of overwhelming stimuli.

The guy on the treadmill wearing a weighted vest, why does that annoy me?

The girl with the tripod videoing herself doing squats. Is she really going to rest her equipment on the free bench next to her?

The group of 3-4 high school/college boys eating scoops of pre-workout. Low key bros, please don’t spill that stuff on the floor.

The old guy hogging the leg extension machine, sitting with his towel around his neck, staring off into space. Look, I am not saying he’s got all the time in the world, but he’s putting up a strong argument for it.

The “rapper” who is reciting the lyrics to his favorite song.

“You a clone, you a Meseek
You a house N………., I’m a Roadrunner, meep-meep
Think I work at Best Buy with the squad how I be geeked”

Also, he’s white.

These people shouldn’t even be allowed in my head, but I see them, feel them, (smell them) and all of them together just stresses me out.
Do I want to walk with a weighted vest on? No.
Do I want to film myself lifting? No.
Do I want the leg-extension machine? Yeah, but I can work around it.

Kids, group-lifts, and eating supps.- I literally sold supplements for years.
Rapper guy? I’ll just leave him alone, society will take care of him.
So, why do I care?

Ego.

OK, short answer. But it’s true.

But why does my ego need to judge others?

Because I am deeply insecure.

OK, so then, why can’t I just be better and stop the judgement?

Because the judgement is intended to get my attention, to categorize and then distance or draw close to traits I find more or less favorable.

But, why am I drawn to some people and avoid others?

Values, genetical influence, upbringing and modeled behaviors, among a few things.

But in reality, the why the judgement/thoughts exist isn’t important. In the current moment, I am experiencing and noticing thoughts. Simple as that.

If I didn’t know any better, I would believe that these thoughts were me and I would let them hijack me. I mean, they came from my head, so they must be true, right?

Nah. Thoughts are just thoughts. You can recognize them and let them pass. You don’t have to do anything with the thoughts other than stop yourself from trying to fix, alter, or argue them. Let them exist.

If you have a friend who gives bad advice, but he’s consistently trying to help you out with his short-sided view, is it better to argue him, or let him share and you decide not to take the advice?

You can choose to indulge thoughts if you want. And the thoughts you have in life will always be very compelling. Why? Because your mind is trying to get you to act in some way, and it uses thoughts to influence you to do so.

What if I mean-mugged the guy on the treadmill, just to let him know I didn’t approve. What if I chose to tell him how stupid he looks. What if I thought about him long after I left the gym and then decided the entire gym is stupid and people are stupid. Is that really better than just letting the thought exist when I first see him and continuing to redirect my attention to the task at hand?

From where I stand, it takes less energy to let go of something, than to hold on to it.

Thoughts aren’t what define you, your actions are. You can think one thing and act another. So, the person you are is determined by your actions and these are under your control.