thought girdling

Usually I plant trees, but this weekend, I killed them.  On purpose.

Not the belong-there stalwarts, but the invasive bullies—aggressive intruders that silently strangle the surrounding native species.  I used a method called girdling: stripping away a band of bark to sever the tree’s nutrient highway.  No bark, no passage.  No passage, no nourishment.  The sun-generated sugars can't get from the leaves to the roots.  Denied sustenance, the trees die.

It struck me how metaphoric girdling is.  Those Blip-Causers in our own lives — the intractable opinions, the practiced anger, the well-fed grievances — thrive only because we keep feeding them.  When we stop feeding our pain, our complaints, our anger, they can no longer thrive. 

It's neuroplasticity in a nutshell, the brain's ability to change and adapt to experience.  When we change the experience — practice gratitude, stop bemoaning, look for stuff to love — we build up a whole new set of pathways to sustain something different.  Mindful pathways deliver much more deliciousness!

What unhelpful thoughts can you girdle this week?  It could be a great visualization, you with your girdling instrument, stopping the flow of negative thinking.  (No bark, no passage!)