Thoughts Are Things
Here's the thing about thoughts, they are things. We have all heard the saying "glass half full or half empty." Our thoughts lead each of us differently to a perspective. Science still can't say entirely from where" our minds or consciousness comes. We know a lot about the brain as a tool for processing, directing, and storing, similar to a computer hard drive, but the brain is not conscious thought. Neuroscience tells us that repetitive thoughts form neural pathways. The more reinforced a way of thinking, the stronger the neural pathway becomes, making true the phrase "neurons that fire together wire together" Much like in the way a stream is formed, the water trickles in a constant pattern or flow, creating crevices within the stream bed. So too are our habits and patterns formed by repetitive default learned behaviors or thinking.
We benefit from thought patterns established in a healthy way; Holistically, our physical health is stronger, our quality of life is richer, relationships flourish, and "the glass is half full." Of course, the opposite is true when those patterns create regular self-sabotage, with patterns of thought and a "glass half empty" The power of human intent, attitude, and emotional state generated through thinking directly influences every cell in the body. The happy news is that it's never too late to change things up; our brains can rewire (neuroplasticity) to change the path of thinking and change the synaptic wiring forming new neural pathways and new behaviors talking to our cells in a whole new way.
We only function with around 10% of our conscious mind often as a means of primitive survival, like the front line guard accessing as we go leaving us with approximately 90% running on autopilot programmed from unconsciously stored memories and behaviors built from previous learning and experiences. Much like a movie, our learned beliefs and behaviors play out the same old scene, and the movie's ending never changes. Autopilot or subconscious serves us better when coming from healthy thought patterns. An essential part of change challenges us to consider awareness of the generated quality of thinking and its origin. Everyone has an opinion, good, bad, wrong, or right, but where does the thought come from? The opinion is formed by that which aligns with our existing belief structure based on fear, hate, scarcity, hope, love, encouragement, strength, etc., not necessarily based on fact or knowledge. Formed beliefs come from all the things we've experienced within our lifetime, and with that, we have a world full of varying opinions, and of course, a variety does make the world go round.
Here's the thing though we have complete free will and the intelligence to be empowered by our thoughts. Although another's thoughts and opinions can often influence us, ultimately, it lands with each of us individually to consider the quality and power of our thoughts. Just because someone thinks or says it's so doesn't make it so. Every human being that we will ever interact with will come with their own set of learned behaviors, thoughts, beliefs, and perspectives, all based on their unique individual experience of life, culture, education, religion, family, etc. So, here's the thing, what do you want?
This is where your power truly lies. You can consciously choose to develop healthier thought forms that produce more beneficial outcomes.
Paying attention to how a thought feels in our body guides us in a potential direction for future ideas, choices, and outcomes. Not to be confused with emotion, thoughts generate the charge, which are the emotions or feelings that come with a thought-form. The feeling of anger is the emotion, the flow of charge generated by the thought of irritation. We have those emotions as a source of guidance. An example might be, "so and so has done this to me, and I feel angry." Before reacting, I notice the charge and how that feels " I don't like the way this anger feels in my stomach." I can now consciously choose to replace or reframe that thought with something more gentle or perpetuate the yuckiness of what doesn't feel good. Consider another less serving option; perhaps you choose to stay in the place of anger because it's serving in a secondary way that provides you with the illusion of feeling powerful, or in control, respected, valued, loved more, etc. Running on autopilot of the same mindset reinforces the same experiences and future outcomes. But with conscious awareness and intention, we generate new input and take an active role in bringing in more of what we want in life.
PAUSE, NOTICE, CHOOSE
You are the captain of your ship, and you have the opportunity to become a powerful creator of your possibility and reality. We all know the world is not perfect, and there will be influences, but the cool thing is that you get to choose how you participate. By practicing the awareness of thoughts as things and how they influence the quality of life, we can find an opportunity to transform intrusive, sabotaging thought patterns into new healthy behavior habits.
