Monday Mindfulness Minute: Watch out for the cancers of the Mind

While the slight gossip, minor pet peeve, or small comparison may seem like benign thoughts with no impact, they metastasize quicker than we realize. Similar to the danger of cancer lurking below the surface, these visceral thoughts are dangerous because they are mostly unseen.

"I can't believe they drive that car. I have a college degree and work hard, and I still can't afford it. Their parents probably pay for it..."

"Robert? Oh yeah, he is completely clueless and has no idea that everybody talks about him behind his back."

"I just don't understand why it always has to rain on the weekends!! There are 5 other days in the week, and it always chooses to rain when we have plans outside."

These are thoughts that can cycle through our minds in a single day/hour/minute. These thoughts of comparison, criticism, and complaining ultimately become seeds that we plant in our psyche. We add water to these seeds when we talk about them with friends, and we add sunlight when we occupy ourselves with these types of thoughts each day. Before we know it, these thoughts grow into weeds that suffocate our perspective, and we start to see life through the lens of comparison, criticism, and complaining.

Instead of seeds or weeds, Jay Shetty (in his book Think Like a Monk) refers to these types of thoughts as the "3 cancers of the mind." So, what's the prognosis for our "disease of the mind"? The outlook is positive! Better yet, we can see positive results without the grueling challenges of having cancer in our physical body.

So what should we do to start weeding out these limiting thoughts? It comes down to three simple steps (which Jay provides in Think Like a Monk).

Spot

Because they are so common to our everyday thought structure, the hardest step is noticing the limiting thoughts when they arise. I recommend writing the 3 cancers of the mind on a few notecards and taping them in places you will see them. This should hopefully raise your awareness to spot the thought when it arises or when you start talking about it.

Stop

Once you see the limiting thought or find yourself in a conversation with a family member or co-worker about it, just stop. Literally. Our attention is like lighter fluid to the flame of these limiting thoughts. If we starve them of our attention, they will eventually subside.

Swap

After you've seen the limiting thought and stopped it, a good next step early in the process is to swap it with a more abundant thought. Replace the thought of comparison with a thought of acceptance, the thought of criticism with a thought of gratitude, and the thought of complaining with a thought of appreciation.

What's so fun about this process is that as we start noticing and swapping out thoughts, our world will actually start to look differently. Remember, "if you want to change your world, change the way you look at it." A kinder, happier, more pleasant world is only a thought away.