Thoughts Matter

I met someone recently who finds life a challenge. She is retired, successful and enjoys a lifestyle some would envy. When she feels happy – life is great. The rest of the time not so much. The only one thing blocking her are the thoughts she thinks. It struck me that she wasn’t alone, that there are many people who are controlled by their thoughts, and unconsciously accept them without question.

The thing about thoughts is that they are manipulative; they play with us, taunt us and have us believing all sorts of things about ourselves that just aren’t true.

Even worse, they have us doubting ourselves, disliking ourselves and dumping us into the realm of Not Good Enough.

This leads me to wonder why we listen to them at all.

The underlying problem with thoughts is that they form our reality, which sometimes ends up being harsh, unforgiving and sometimes cruel.

When I was young, the only thing I could control was my thoughts.

The one thing that could not be destroyed by others was my mind. So, a small part of me ‘the survivor in me’ thought about what was beautiful to me. I began to notice the colour of the trees, or the light in the sky. I would focus on that and see the beauty in it. Over time, that gave me something, it gave me hope, and eventually something truly remarkable happened.

I began to feel a little more positive, as though I did have some power after all.

That power led to the source of two powerful guiding lights that still hold true for me today.

My thoughts and my Angels.

My point is – If a small frightened child was able to do that, I think it’s possible for the rest of us.

Be aware that because we have upwards of 60,000 thoughts daily, it’s impossible to process every single one, but we can at least become aware of the ones that catch out attention.

Why?

Because these are the ones that are leading us through life.

Simply put, this is how it works: Before we do anything/take action in any way, we have a feeling about it, before we have that feeling we have a thought.

Nothing happens without the thought that precedes it.

Thoughts are things, and impact powerfully on how we see the world.

So why do we give so much power to them? Why do we believe every little idea that pops into our heads?

Because we are conditioned to. It has become a habit. Like cleaning our teeth before we go to work in the morning.

Simply put – we do it because we’ve always done it.

The reality is they’re making us miserable.

Because we believe them without question.

But

What if they were wrong?

What if they did more harm than good?

What if we could filter them, so we only kept the good ones?

You see, by accepting all the thoughts we have, we’re giving away our power to rubbish thinking. By believing everything that pops into our heads as if its gospel, is like believing that McDonalds every night is good for us.

It’s not.

We do have a choice about how we think, and one of the ways that works for me is to by checking in to see how a thought leaves me feeling.

If it lifts me, I’m in.

If if doesn’t I’m not.

Simple and effective.

Clearly, we can’t do it with every thought, but we can start to check in a little. Slowly but surely, the negative ones die away, and we are left with the ones that support and encourage us.

Sound easy?

It’s not.

But starting somewhere is at least starting

Again, the choice is yours.

If you would like to leave a comment, feel free to reach out.