I love to watch young children learning how to do gymnastics. They are so agile, bendable, and flexible. They seem to have boundless energy. Mental gymnastics are the opposite. They make us rigid and inflexible. They get us stuck in a groove of thoughts. They play over and over, causing emotional fatigue.

Rehearsing our past or what might be is futile. They wear us out. Part of Strong’s definition for futile is: fruitless, empty, hollow, ineffective, lacking substance, void of results, and worthless. The word always makes me think of a rodent in a wheel.

When I was young I had a white rat with red eyes. Her name was Queenie. She spent inordinate amounts of time running on her wheel. Then she would stop and just swing slowly to a standstill. 

That is what happens with mental gymnastics ~ we come to a standstill ~ accomplishing nothing for our expended mental energy. Let’s review: all thoughts precede actions or inaction. Mental gymnastics end with inaction ~ passivity, apathy, or procrastination.