The Art of Not Thinking

Simple Complexity — The Dichotomous Nature of Our Reality

I've just finished the painting I used in the header picture above (you can click on it to see the whole image). It's a new style I'm dappling in.

When I stepped back from the painting — after I had downed my brush — the first thing that smacked me was the complexity of the background.

When I do my backgrounds it's just mindless doodling, so, it takes me a while (and some physical distance) to actually ‘see' what I've created. In this case, I knew immediately what this represented.

You are looking at the physical representation of what's going on in my head…lol. This is what my binary code looks like all fleshed out.

Seriously, this is what it feels like to be Virgonian me. It's frightening and beautiful at the same time.

To Think or Not to Think

Thinking can also be both exquisite and terrifying simultaneously.

‘Thoughts create things' and there is so much man-made beauty in the world — there is also much insidious creation. Then there is also the fact that overthinking everything can lead to anxiety, stress and dis-ease.

I read somewhere that the more in the NOW you are, the less you age. You become, essentially, timeless (if you haven't read any of Eckhart Tolle's books yet on present moment awareness, I suggest you get cracking!).

There is nothing that ages us more than thinking too much. This can also be translated as worry.

To worry is to future project a negative outcome, did you know that?

Read related article: 6 Essential Steps to Manage Stress

Pearls of Wisdom

A friend of mine told me the other day that she devotes time every day to thinking and then, after the allocated time, she tries to just be thoughtless (as in being present with what she's doing and not being a frivolous fool).

I breathed a sigh of relief as I am very guilty of staring at my wall, sometimes for an hour before I ‘catch' myself!

I've come to realize that it is perfectly okay to zone out in this way. After all, that's what meditation is. Read related article: 5 Easy Steps to Meditating (No Lotus Position Required)

Meditation is just the ability to stop the monkey mind from swinging about the jelly-brain jungle. Read related article: How to Stop Monkey Mind Manifesting

In Conclusion…

Thinking is clearly essential to our existence and creative expansion but the art of not thinking can prolong our corporeal sojourn. I want you to not think about that (only joking).

Go stare at a wall (or a flower, or the cloudy sky, or the stars 😉 ).

Cherie Roe Dirksen is a self-empowerment author, multi-media artist and musician from South Africa.

To date, she has published 3 self-help and motivational books and brings out weekly inspirational blogs at her site www.cherieroedirksen.com. Get stuck into finding your passion, purpose and joy by downloading some of those books gratis when you click HERE.

Her ambition is to help you to connect with your innate gift of creativity and living the life you came here to experience by taking responsibility for your actions and becoming the co-creator of your reality. You can follow Cherie on Facebook (The Art of Empowerment — for article updates). She has an official art Facebook page (Cherie Roe Dirksen – for new art updates). You can also check out her Facebook band page at Templeton Universe.

Cherie posts a new article on CLN every Thursday. To view her articles, click HERE.

This article (The Art of Not Thinking) was originally written for and published by Conscious Life News and is published here under a Creative Commons license with attribution to the author Cherie Roe Dirksen and ConsciousLifeNews.com. It may be re-posted freely with proper attribution, author bio, and this Copyright/Creative Commons