Do we “Store” Thought?
Do we "Store" Thought?
The deeper power of Thought is in seeing more about the fact that no matter how long we have unwittingly used our thinking to create unhappiness and amplify the difficulties in our lives, we can always (yes, always) think again. - Michael Neill from blog Jan 12/2026
What is "stored thought", actually?
It doesn't really exist. We do make rules or decisions in real time - it's part of our connection to wisdom. The innate intelligence resident in all of us. It helps us in the moment.
The only problem is that if a new rule or decision is effective, we often keep using it long after it is no longer needed. The creative solution to get through, whatever needed to be gotten through, becomes a rule about life from now on.
Part of this function lies within the spinal cord. Dorsal horn of the spinal cord, to be specific. And the spinothalamic tract. It compares the emotional "feel" of a current environment to the new (now old) rule.
But...some really important distinctions get missed.
Our nervous system doesn't compare the environment or circumstances outside of us to the past circumstances. It can't do that.
Our nervous system doesn't even know what is actually going on outside of us.
It relies on us to tell it.
What it does do is gather data from our senses. That data goes through a bunch of filters, deletions, and wholesale fabrications. If the system "thinks" that the data (not the actual outside world) matches a "rule" (not the actual past), it alerts us.
How does it alert us?
By a feeling.
It might be a sense of tension. It might be a startle response. I have felt physically nauseous because a woman's voice sounded sufficiently similar to my mother’s when she's angry. I had made an unconscious contract with life and myself to alert me in the event of the feeling of that voice.
The distinction here, though, isn't the voice itself. That's outside me. That's neutral. It's a person's voice. A person I don't know. I'm simply comparing a current feeling to a past feeling I made a rule about.
There's nothing stored. There's no "program" as it were.
It's so much simpler than that.
We are designed to use the power of thought to create our worlds. We shape our reality with it.
It's a lot easier to change our world than to change our behaviour or thinking within a world that we set up to begin with.
Our system is also constantly asking us, "Do you still want to run this?" When we react as if it's real and take it seriously, we are unwittingly confirming and reinforcing "yes, I need this".
When we see the whole thing for what it is, our use of Thought in the moment, it all dissolves, including the "decision" or contract. The less we do and the more we simply notice or recognize. Over time, we stop reacting, naturally. With ease.
It's like recognizing a cloud and then living life versus recognizing a cloud and then trying to make it go away somehow. Left alone, clouds dissolve back into water vapour.
Left alone, our unreal creations of thinking dissolve back into formless energy.
No matter how long we've been running that "rule". No matter in what situation we decided it was a good idea for the moment. No matter.
Nothing need be done but understanding how we work and recognition in the moment.
This is actually fantastic news! We have much, much, much more freedom inherently than we could dream up.
If you'd like to explore this more, notice as you go about your day. What unconscious rules have you created that are no longer needed? You'll know by the feel. Then simply recognize it as something you don't need anymore and get on with living, and see what happens.
With Love,
Sara Joy
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