Did you know that not all thoughts are true? We have many thoughts and feelings during the day. While we should pay attention to all of them as important information, we get to decide what we believe and what we pay attention to…just like the driver of a bus chooses which information is useful and which is a distraction. Use this great metaphor to explain to your child how they get to be in the driver’s seat. Learning some mastery over our mind gives us HOPE!
The Passengers on the Bus metaphor describes the ways internal experiences seemingly drive our lives. The metaphor can be used to demonstrate the possibility of a life in which such experiences do not determine decisions; rather, they are accepted and sit in the mind temporarily like passengers on a bus.
Passengers on a Bus Metaphor
You are the driver of a bus, the bus symbolizes your mind, and your thoughts are represented by passengers. On your journey, some passengers sit quietly while others make critical and distracting comments, or shout directions as you drive.
You can choose how you react to the passengers just as you can decide how to respond to critical thoughts. You can allow those passengers to shout and chatter noisily, while still keeping your attention focused on the journey towards your goal.
If you or your child get stuck on negative thoughts ask, “Which passenger is being intrusive and distracting?”
The language of today’s post was directly adapted from:
