The mind is no pond.
The mind is a river.
Constantly moving and circling and crashing…
If we want to keep certain thoughts at the top of our mind, we need to make a deliberate effort to paddle those thoughts forward—to the forefront—or else they will slowly drift downstream and into the darker parts of our conscious/ subconscious mind.
There is no thought that just floats unmoving in the forefront—especially no thought that we WANT to keep at the forefront.
Those thoughts need to be paddled, brought forward intentionally through effort, and done so regularly as the stream is always flowing.
And while the stream may present some good at the forefront, it also presents a ton of crap, too. Especially for those who dump toxic, wasteful, comparative junk into the rivers of their mind via media, news, and gossip.
So, just because you’ve had a great thought once—or a thousand times for that matter—don’t assume that it’s “in your mind” and that it can be checked off your list.
Nope.
It, too, will drift downstream—from top of mind to bottom of the subconscious, like water running down a mountain, as all thoughts do—and continue to do so until you choose to paddle it back forward.
So, if you want to have gratitude, optimism, and love, for example, at the forefront of your mind as you go about your days… you’ll need to plan the padding of those thoughts into your days, too.
And every day you don’t paddle, the further downstream those thoughts will go.
P.s. For paddle inspiration, bookmark this page. I post 2-5 quotes daily for my own mind’s sake.