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I was honoured to be the after-dinner speaker at a Probus group last week. Professionals and businessmen (no women) with an average age of about 80, all with keen and thankfully open minds as I showed them the power of thought. I told a story from Jack Pransky’s book “Somebody Should Have Told Us”, in which he has no ride home from work (a 30 minute journey in rural Vermont in the 1970s) whilst his car is being repaired. Having hitch-­‐ hiked many times previously, he easily found a lift but they could only take him part of the way. It was a beautiful autumn day and he stood enjoying the clean air, stunning scenery and warm sunshine. He had been feeling fantastic until unannounced, the thought popped into his head that he really had to get home and there had been no cars for over 10 minutes. Instantly, he began to feel anxious and agitated. What if he couldn’t get home? What if...

He had enough knowledge to know that this feeling would not change how quickly he got home, so he went back to enjoying the autumn sunshine. Another 5 minutes passed and the thought that he really must get home returned, again causing him to worry before he stopped and went back to being content in the warm sunshine.

He surprised himself at just how many times in the space of a few minutes his feelings changed. They changed every time he had a different thought.

We will always get unproductive or distracting thoughts. We can do nothing about that. But these thoughts will pass on their own, unless we do something with them or make something of them. It is not our thoughts that get us into trouble; it is our thoughts about our thoughts that are the problem.