Very Orwellian in style these two words sum up something I’ve been thinking about for a while.

Stopthink covers most things in life (slightly depressingly), TV, Movies, most Books, Drugs, even people!
Stopthink is anything that distracts you from thinking about what is pertinent to your current situation; may that be your next big decision in your career, your relationship, or simply aiding you in hiding from the realisation that you’ve made a mistake somewhere along the line that you need to face up to and correct.

Startthink is a rare and wonderful thing, it’s anything that brings you to inspiration, realisation or any epiphany or idea in general.
What acts as startthink varies from person to person and time to time, for me 3 books spring to mind, “1984″, “The Diceman” and “The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles”, three people spring to mind, my father, Chris and Hedi, a wide panoply of places and no movies that I can think of.

Stopthink can be useful, don’t get me wrong, it’s not an entirely evil thing by any stretch of the imagination.
Distracting yourself from certain aspects of life, memories, people or events can be entirely beneficial when they become overwhelming.
But it’s far too easy to use stopthink as a crutch, as a magic carpet upon which you seem to escape your problems; its usefulness is always fleeting.