Dear Seeker,

"Choose awareness of your thoughts over being absorbed in the sensations they produce as they carry you along to get what they want."

~ Guy Finley

Excerpted from "The Essential Laws of Fearless Living" (p. 18)

Special exercise: Pop thought

Ever find that you have trouble getting started on, or finishing, certain tasks? Writing a letter, cleaning out the garage, doing your taxes... you set out to get going and what happens? You hear the thought, "make a sandwich" -- so you head to the kitchen. Or, "I wonder whatever happened to Melissa Gilbert from Little House on the Prairie" -- so you google her... and an hour later you're still wandering aimlessly on the Internet! There is a definite relationship between attention, intention, desire, and resistance that we know very little about. The only way to learn more about these states is to purposefully disturb their regular routine, and then observe what happens. The next time you set out to do something and a thought pops up to distract you, choose to "pop the thought" instead, just as you would pop a balloon to deflate it. Watch as more distracting thoughts steadily bubble up from your mind and just continue to pop them, refusing to be diverted from your task. The more you practice "popping thought" the more you strengthen your attention, which is what helps you to choose the life you want to live.