In ancient Greece (469 - 399 BC) Socrates was widely lauded for his wisdom. One day the great philosopher came upon an acquaintance that ran up to him excitedly and said
"Socrates, do you know what I just heard about one of your students?"
"Wait a moment," Socrates replied. "Before you tell me I'd like you to pass a little test. It's called the Triple Filter Test."
"Triple filter?"
"That's right," Socrates continued. "Before you talk to me about my student let's take a moment to filter what you're going to say. The first filter is Truth. Have you made absolutely sure that what you are about to tell me is true?"
"No," the man said, "actually I just heard about it and..."
"All right," said Socrates. "So you don't really know if it's true or not. Now let's try the second filter, the filter of Goodness. Is what you are about to tell me about my student something good?"
"No, on the contrary..."
"So," Socrates continued, "you want to tell me something bad about him, even though you're not certain it's true?"
The man shrugged, a little embarrassed.
Socrates continued. "You may still pass the test though, because there is a third filter - the filter of Usefulness. Is what you want to tell me about my student going to be useful to me?"
"No, not really"
"Well," concluded Socrates, "if what you want to tell me is neither true nor Good nor even useful, why tell it to me at all?"
The man was defeated and ashamed.
This is the reason Socrates was a great philosopher and held in such high esteem.
Okay, this is nice and very intelligent…but if it’s very tricky and almost impossible, don’t you think? But still I do think that it’s something we should take into consideration before gossiping about someone or something we are not really sure…
Anyway, I found another good way to use this Triple Filter Test as it’s helped me a lot recently.
Some neuroscientist believe that we have thousand of thoughts running through our heads, most of them are just the same ones being recycled, and have no purpose at all. In fact, it might often be the case that we wake up and start the day with some niggly thought that keeps nagging us during the day, and stops us enjoying what we do, or appreciate good things that the day could be offering us, but nothing else...
These niggly thoughts can be about anything, or anyone, they could be real or imagined. We might think that the day we have ahead will be difficult, something we have planned may not succeed, the bus might be late…some co-workers may disagree with our ideas, or don’t like us, or we don’t like them…or we've just have started a new job and don’t like it too much…and the list can go on, and these thoughts can be taken on our lives…they can get bigger and bigger, louder and louder in our heads until we totally forget about the beautiful world going around us…just because we are obsessed with the thoughts!!!
And what’s more, we can’t find the way to switch them off, or get the volume control to turn the noise down, or change the channel to listen something different…
Well let’s use this technique…the T.U.G. technique…very similar to Socrate’s one...hehe
So, it works very similar to the story above…every time we become aware of thoughts that we've had before, which bother us, make you feel irritated or sad, cause we think negatively about a situation or person, STOP and let's ask ourselves these three questions:
Is what I am thinking TRUE? ( and if you answer YES, ask yourself "How do I know it is true?" - we may not know but just assume we know!!)
Is what I am thinking USEFUL? (does it help me clarify something or just confuse me more?)
Do those thoughts make me feel GOOD? (in myself, about myself, about others, about the situation)
If the answer to ANY of the above questions is NO, then think about something else that does make you feel good.
The trick to the technique is to stop ourselves the SECOND we realize about these thoughts, analize them and don’t let them to take control. And of course, sometimes we do have thoughts that keep coming back time and time again – but never let them run away with themselves.
So, let’s keep on TUGging (I don’t even know if this word exists..hehe) at those niggling thoughts, and start choosing the ones we want to have which are true, very useful and make you feel really good…which I know it’s like an Utopia but it really helps…believe me…
For those who don’t know me, I’m a very nervous person…I’m always worried about the present and the future…in my personal and emotional life, and also at work…I can hardly manage not to be worried about other people or things…and that’s not healthy, it is very stressful…and most of times nothing happens…it’s just me and all those ugly thoughts inside my head that confuse me…
Very long but hope it helps you some time!!!
