What if I told you that you are what you think? What would some of those beliefs be? Just like our bodies are nourished by the food we eat, our brains are nourished by the thoughts we think.
This is not something we are taught in school. We go to school and learn about history, math, and science. But when it comes to learning about our own thinking, we get nothing. And how important is it to learn about what thoughts are going through our brains?
For many years I believed the thoughts in my head were just randomly there by some force of nature. Thoughts were just somehow put into my head, and I had no control over it. It was like the weather, I wished for perfect sunny days, but that was beyond my control. I wished for nice happy thoughts, but the result was not up to me.
I had no idea that I actually had the power of selecting what thoughts to allow into my brain. My mind is my sacred fortress, and I am very selective about the type of thoughts I allow in it.
This is not just about “think happy thoughts, think happy thoughts” and that will do it. I understand that I will have about 50% positive and 50% negative experiences in life. But as far as what I can control, I will feed my brain with the thoughts I choose.
There are times we come up with a thought, and constantly keep thinking about it over and over. We then compound that thought with our own made up story and make it much worse that it had to be. Rather than nipping it in the bud, we let it become some great big, out of control weed.
I want to offer you something else to try. What if you let that thought stay on your mind and be curious as to why it is there in the first place. Pretend as though your brain is showing you what it is thinking. And you are looking at those thoughts and curious as to how they got there. Maybe you had some use for them at some point. Could they have been a defense mechanism you developed long ago, but now, it is no longer useful? The key here is to be curious and compassionate with yourself instead of critical and judgemental.
Once you know what your brain is thinking, you can offer it a new thought to believe. You can say to yourself, “I know this thought worked for me before, but now I will benefit more from believing this ______” If you have never done this before it may seem strange. But all new things come with some strangeness in the beginning.
Something I’ve used many times since having my daughter is: “I may not know everything about motherhood, but I am doing a great job at it.” Just that simple statement made a huge difference in the type of mother I was showing up as. With this simple thought my brain would constantly look for ways to prove it (myself) right.🙂
Try and think of some thoughts that are no longer working in your life, and give this a try. You are an exceptional valuable human being, and you owe treating yourself in that manner.
