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# I burnt myself and it taught me all sorts
- URL: https://www.gilespcroft.com/i-burnt-myself-and-it-taught-me-all-sorts/
- Published: 2026-09-02T06:00:22.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-02T06:00:22.000Z
- Description: What this slowly blistering, pebble-sized burn on my hand reveals about all our struggles 😫
- Author: Giles P Croft
- Tags: Metaphor, Trauma, Thought realisation, Stress, Resilience, Relationships, Real stories, Quick insight, Psychology, Procrastination, Principles, Presence, Pain, Mental Health, MECHANICS, Grief, Attention, Alcohol, #1:1 CTA

> *“Yeah, steam's invisible!”*

It's my wife. Partly empathising with me; partly chastising me for being such a total idiot.

The kettle's too close to the teabags and today, half asleep, I absent-mindedly reached across a plume of super-heated, just-boiled kettle-steam and received the ultimate wake-up call.

🔥

***OWWWWWWW!!!**

The speed with which I reacted was eye-opening in itself. Our evolved reflexes are primary and we're so attuned to removing ourselves from damaging physical stimuli, it's quite amazing.

**And yet…**

Even though mind and body are all part of the same [self-healing system](https://www.gilespcroft.com/mental-immune-system/), we've somehow de-volved, or lost the reflex of doing this with damaging *psychological* stimuli (if we ever had it in the first place).

So often a painful mental stimulus enters our consciousness, and what do we do – say *Owwwwwww!!!* and remove ourselves from it, immediately?

🤔

No, we welcome it in, treat it as gospel, give it the royal treatment, examine it from every angle, add more fuel to the fire with layered meaning and consequence, and then find ourselves wondering…

- where this [mental health diagnosis](https://www.gilespcroft.com/diagnoses-the-power-and-the-peril/) we've been given came from?
- why we have trouble trusting others and having [fruitful relationships](https://www.gilespcroft.com/are-you-having-a-relationship-in-your-head/)?
- why we comfort eat, or [drink so much](https://www.gilespcroft.com/abstainiversary/)?
- why we feel [immobilised by decisions](https://www.gilespcroft.com/tag/procrastination/)?
- why we [lose our rag](https://www.gilespcroft.com/tag/anger/) at the drop of a hat?
- why [we can't focus](https://www.gilespcroft.com/in-praise-of-boredom/) for more than 5 seconds at a time?

And ***all*** of it can be traced back, ultimately, to this one thing:

💭

****Our relationship to our thinking**

(#justsayin’)

We might not have a built-in reflex to let painful *thoughts* go that's quite as effective as the *physical* one, but the signal's there nonetheless – consistently, reliably.

All we need to do is stay attuned to our feelings, and when we sense the pain or heaviness of the mind jumping on that [train of thought](https://www.gilespcroft.com/trains-of-thought/)… get off.

Drop it like the [burning object it is](https://www.gilespcroft.com/putting-your-hand-back-in-the-fire/) and let the healing commence.

❤️‍🔥

Giles

Time to CHANGE **your* relationship to your thinking? 

[![CTA Image](https://storage.ghost.io/c/9b/f3/9bf3d316-7d32-494b-814f-a7d94d6358c3/content/images/2026/01/GPC-mugshot-at-desk_800px.jpg)](https://www.gilespcroft.com/individuals) 

Struggling with one of those bullet-points above? Had enough of reading and now ready to sort the problem out once and for all, with 1:1 support?

I help you get the change you need, in a way that's just right for you.

[Apply now ](https://www.gilespcroft.com/individuals) 

### Related

[When you’re readyHealing doesn’t always mean an end to experiencing past traumas. It \*does\* mean that experience changes 💗![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/9b/f3/9bf3d316-7d32-494b-814f-a7d94d6358c3/content/images/icon/DR_Lockup-Black-3-3c99453e-a6f4-42fe-9eab-196b387e1dc1.png)The Daily RemindersGiles P Croft![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/9b/f3/9bf3d316-7d32-494b-814f-a7d94d6358c3/content/images/thumbnail/2025-12-19-When-you-re-ready-1-9077d015-a665-466a-9e4e-7a0bdbb53f95.jpg)](https://www.gilespcroft.com/when-youre-ready/)

It's not denial. It's a timing thing.