Tuesday, May 27, 2014

The Shelf Theory



Our lives are filled with problems. As soon as one ends, another begins. Sometimes on a really bad day, they even overlap. Usually we're overwhelmed with yesterday's problems and in fear of tomorrow's. The mind becomes a mud puddle of stress and it truly becomes hard to ever enjoy life.

There has to become some method to be able to shield yourself from yesterday's problems, delay tomorrow's problems until tomorrow and have an up-beat and iron clad system for coping with today's problems, and then maybe, just maybe life will be fun again.

Well, the shelf theory gives the brain a visual of how this can happen. Under the premises that the mind can truly only handle one problem at a time efficiently, we're going to envision many boxes on a shelf, all titled with a different problem. Each and every problem sits in a box on a shelf, much like our collection of books in our library. The key here is that the problems are not sitting in our mind, they're in the boxes on the shelf.

When the time comes and you can work on a problem, pull the box off the shelf and give it 100% of you efforts. Not only will the problem be handled much more efficiently, but it will also receive the time and concentration it deserves. When you have worked as much as you want, put the problem back into the box and put the box back on the shelf.

Now this may seem like a simpleton exercise, but true success is not difficult, it is only the ability to control your emotions. In order to be efficient in solving problems, you need to dedicate yourself to one problem at a time. In order to be efficient at happiness, you can't have a brain swimming in a mud puddle of problems. You're not solving any problems while at the movies, but many people can't enjoy the movie because they are constantly thinking of their problems. You can't solve your problems when you are visiting friends, but many people can't enjoy themselves while visiting friends because of "all their problems".

Learn how to "put them in a box on the shelf", and you'll find that life becomes much simpler.

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