A Bouncer For Your Mind
A bouncer is someone who prevents troublemakers from entering a building or may eject them from the premises. What if we all created our own imaginary bouncer or security guard to protect our minds from troublemaking thoughts? Since our thoughts and emotions have a powerful effect on our mental and physical health, maybe our bouncer could help prevent negative ones from entering or completely eject them from our minds.
Sometimes our negative thoughts come so fast, they feel like arrows shooting at you and you need to hold up a shield to protect yourself. Other times they may be flying at you like tennis balls shooting out of a tennis ball launcher as you try to hit them away.
Let’s practice kicking out those negative thoughts and welcoming in only the positive and encouraging ones. Picture someone very strong and tall with huge muscles, arms crossed with a serious “Don’t mess with me!” look on their face. This person is standing between you and any negative thought that could come your way.
You have finals coming up or a stressful project at work and this thought comes to the door of your mind: “I can’t handle this, this is too hard, it will never be done on time, I might fail, I’m not good enough, this is too stressful.” Bouncer to that thought: “Screw that, get the heck out of here!” Drop kick, boom, out you go! Instead, welcome in: “You got this, one day at a time, it will get done and you’re doing your best. Whatever happens, you will be on the other side and everything will be alright.”
Training your brain and strengthening your mind takes time and effort. Having strong mental health can improve your physical health and strong physical health can improve your mental health too. Your imaginary bouncer can help you to be mindful and alert when the negative thoughts approach. Stand tall, kick them out, hit them flying like a rocket over the net like a tennis ball or way out of the park like a baseball. You got this!