The taxonomy of thoughts
As a botanist, part of my job is to identify plants that other people or myself have either collected or photographed. When there is one dry plant specimen laying on your desk, this feels like a simple task. All you need to do is to look at the important characters and match it to a plant species that has already (in most instances) been named and described. The more dried plants and photographs that start to pile up on your desk and in your inbox, the more overwhelming this task starts to feel.
I recently allowed an epic pile of dry plant specimens to build up on my desk. The higher the pile got, the more impossible the task of identifying even one of those specimens felt.
I stayed up one night, unable to fall asleep, wondering where I would even start. With so many other thoughts running a mock in my mind, unrelated to plants and especially unrelated to sleep…I realized how similar plants were to thoughts.
Each thought has a name and a description and a relationship to other thoughts. One thought, laying on your desk, feels like a simple task; however, when you let these thoughts pile up, it can become very overwhelming.
To be able to identify a plant specimen, it is usually helpful when there is a flower or fruit present. It is also very important to know where exactly the specimen was collected. This is true for thoughts too…it is helpful to know the flower or fruit of a thought (the product of your thought; how does your thought make you feel). It is also especially important to know where your thought comes from; a conversation, an experience?
When you are able to classify your thought, you are able to name it and to file it away.
