Imagine yourself in a swimming pool holding a beach ball.

This pool is a metaphor of your mind, and the ball represents your thoughts.

Now, in your mind picture yourself trying to push the beach ball underwater.

The ball will come back to surafe regardless of how long you’ll hold it there. It’s the law of physics. Besides that, holding this ball there requires focus and effort.

When we try to stop our thoughts, it’s just like trying to hold that ball underwater. They keep popping back, no matter what we do.

The point of this story is simple: you can't control your thoughts. If your strategy to deal with situations in life was by suppresing thoughts and feelings—it's not your fault this didn't work.

When you stop engaging with the ball, and just observe it — you'll see that it peacefully floats around on a surface. Now you can finally enjoy swimming instead of standing there, pushing this ball down.

Sometimes the best way to change our emotional state is to stop focusing on thoughts at all. They will come—but if they’re floating around freely, they’re also free to go.