Bipolar Disorder and Purple Elephants
Published: Sun, 06/06/10
Hi ,
How are you today?
I hope you're doing well.
I know you probably think I'm crazy
because of today's title:
Bipolar Disorder and Purple Elephants.
But I'm not.
Just hear me out.
There is a lesson to be learned from
purple elephants, really there is.
Ok, here goes.
This guy comes up to me at the gym the
other day and we start talking.
Now, he has his own business and he's
pretty successful, so I have a tendency to
listen to what he has to say, figuring he
knows what he's talking about when he
talks about business.
But he tells me he wants to teach me a
life lesson.
Yep.
That was my first thought.
Uh-oh.
Yeah, right.
This guy is my age, right?
What is he going to teach me about life?
So he says, "Don't think about purple elephants."
I thought, "What???"
He says, "No matter what I say or do, don't
think about purple elephants."
He goes on, "Don't think about purple elephants
running through this gym, don't think about
purple elephants jumping over your head,
don't think about purple elephants crawling
on the floor... just do NOT think about purple
elephants at all!"
I'm thinking at this point that this guy is out
of his mind, you know?
But guess what I'm thinking about?
You got it! Purple elephants!
And he's just standing there staring at me.
Doesn't say a word, just stands there and stares
at me.
Like, a whole minute goes by...
And he's staring at me...
And I can't stop thinking about purple
elephants.
So finally I give up.
And I ask him to tell me what the thing is
about purple elephants (and to wipe that smile
off his face, by the way!)
He says that our subconscious mind has no
filter on it. It lets everything in it, whether it is
real or not. I told you NOT to think about purple
elephants and no matter how much you tried
not to think about them, you thought about
them anyway!
Now, here's the bipolar lesson I want you to
take away from this.
In my courses/systems, I teach that we have
choices in how we react to things that happen
to us - we can choose to react to them in a
negative way or a positive way.
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In the purple elephant story, it seemed like I
didn't have any choice in how I reacted to the
thoughts he "put in my mind" at all, though,
did it?
Ah, but here's the thing: I DID have a choice!
I did NOT have to thing about purple elephants at
all, did I?
I could have made a CHOICE to think about
something else.
But it was like a trick was played on me, wasn't it?
Like I wasn't expecting what he was doing to me.
So my mind didn't know how to react.
But if you know what's coming, you can make a
CHOICE in how you're going to react.
You can make good choices.
I could have chosen to think about something else.
And the next time something negative comes
against you, you can choose to think about something
else, too - something positive!
It's your choice.
Just do NOT think about purple elephants! LOL
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Well, I have to go!
Your Friend,
Dave
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