Flipping thoughts - thought flipping

art experiments

This is going to be a somewhat random blog post into my thought processes! If you follow me on Facebook you might remember me posting about how I had to finish a picture before I could move onto my next project.


I also said that the same followed for books and Netflix... That is all fine and good, but some series can go on for 8 seasons and that’s like entering another world for a substantial time.


Anyway, my Netflix addiction is not quite the issue, it’s more about the thought that I have to do something without fully questioning i

So I decided to flip the thought and mix things up a bit. I COULD watch other things! I stopped watching Teen Wolf and started watching The Order. I could work on other projects! It was pretty liberating and energetically freeing. I could focus on where/what I most wanted without feeling obligated to carry on with something past the initial sense of enjoyment.


This initial thought flip proved so successful that I decided to flip lots of thoughts around, especially those ones that began ‘I always do this...’ or ‘I’m this sort of person’ or ‘I would never do that’.


It’s been actually very revealing on a personal level. A lot of thoughts can be quite negative or limiting and simply changing the script around helps to allow for something new to come in.

I normally tell myself I don’t have time to meditate

For example you might think to yourself ‘I always have a biscuit with my cup of tea’ you could flip it and say to yourself ‘I never have a biscuit with my tea’. (Notice the extremely safe example I am using!) How does this new statement make you feel? You might feel angry, you might feel disappointed... I just think it’s interesting to notice your level of attachment/alignment to the statements and then work with it.


You don’t have to act on every flip. You might need a little time to renegotiate. Eg ‘I sometimes have a biscuit with my cup of tea.’


Am I writing bollocks here? Anyway, it’s what I have been doing and finding the results interesting. It’s like trying a new version of yourself on for size. You don’t have to keep the new thought, just see how it feels.

It’s been pretty good on an artistic front too as it has got me experimenting more. Instead of telling myself that I don’t do geometrics or I only do certain animals, I have been trying all sorts of things.


Another positive is that it makes it easier for you to control your thoughts and challenge repetitive behaviours. At work I had been going over the road to the Co Op to buy a bottle of water and feeling pretty bad about a regular plastic habit.


I had tried refilling it and then carrying it to work but it was too heavy, especially when carrying new stock into work. The reusable ones I had seen looked too small - I like to make lots of cups of tea in the shop!


I found a cheap reusable plastic bottle in B and M though and although it’s a little leaky (!) it does the job just right and will save plenty of plastic from a one off job. Hurrah!


The same goes for my cards that I sell. I am no longer going to use cello wrap and this took a bit of thought flipping to go from ‘cards need to wrapped in cello’ to ‘actually they don’t need it all, it’s just what we are used to.’


So there you go. Phew! Hope this hasn’t scared you off and that you actually find it just a little bit useful! Please give it a go and let me know how you get on!

Bamboo mug for tea!

My naked cards