How Many Shoulds Do You Have?

Is your life filled with “shoulds”? I should do this. I should do that.

How many of these do you have right now? A lot?

If your thoughts are filled with “shoulds”, how does it feel to have them there?

Lurking in your consciousness. Always present. Taunting. Tempting you to do them because…well…you should. But you never do.

So what happens instead? They occupy your brain space. Precious space that could be dedicated to more productive lines of thinking. They occupy your feelings space. Yanking you away from positive feelings and to those feelings of lacking, that you should be doing all these things but feeling bad that you aren’t. Maybe even feeling overwhelmed by how many things you should be doing?

Well, what “should” you do about this?

If your consciousness is filled just so, how might we rid ourselves of these thoughts?

Two ideas for you:

What is causing them to stay with us? For each “should” you have, what makes it persist? Why does it stay as a thought?

What would make each “should” a “will not” or “will”? Substitute either phrase in place of “should” and see how each feels. The substitution of “should” raises the stakes on decision! How does it feel to make a definitive call either way?

Take a moment to try both. Write down all your “shoulds” and then reflect on both of these ideas. No need to overthink. Write down your reflections, and then take a step back.

When you consider the answers, what comes up for you now? What happens to these “shoulds”? Do some or all drop away?

And if they are disappearing, how does it feel within you to have a clearing mind of these kinds of thoughts?