Thoughts
Countless people believe that thoughts are powerful. It has been said many times and numerous different ways that “your thoughts, lead to your actions, and your actions lead to the outcome”. In fact there are scores of books, movies and conventions that focus on positive thinking. Such pieces of works such as The Secret in both the book and movie form have been very popular. Even the works of Napoleon Hill are still quite popular today. On top of all this there is an association called The New Thought Movement. Clearly this is a popular topic and apparently an increasingly rising field. I feel that many of these books, workshops and educational pieces are wonderful and help bring about more awareness to people regarding the power of positive thinking. But do you do when you can’t control your thoughts? What are you supposed to do when you do everything you possibly can and the negative thinking or feeling still persists?
The general focus of all of the change your thinking stuff out there is on the serious importance of your thoughts. To which I say, great! The problem as I see it is this – most people, do not have the necessary tools, and skills to change how they think and what they think about. Nor does almost any of this mainstream information really help to address these issues. Ironically much of the information which as of late has become so popular, does very little to help people really change their thoughts and most certainly does not attempt to address anything at the root level of beliefs. Let me back up for a second and give a brief explanation of how the process of thinking works.
At the core level there are beliefs. Each and every one of us has strong beliefs about who we are, what we believe to be true about ourselves and consequently the way in which we view the world. Our beliefs directly affect the way with which we interact with others and ourselves. These beliefs affect our careers, relationships, health and directly tie into how and what we think. From our beliefs come our thoughts and from our thoughts come our actions. To take it one step further our actions bring upon our results. To summarize – our thoughts are much deeper than the simplistic surface ideas that they might appear to us, and actually tie into our core beliefs about ourselves and ultimately dictate our results in life.
For example: Let’s say that there is an individual named Sally who grew up being told that she “was going to be big boned, heavy and un athletic just like the rest of her family.” Due to this upbringing and belief chances are slim to none that Sally would ever participate in physical activities as a youngster. As she hit puberty naturally she would probably gain some additional weight plus an extra 10-15 lbs due to her life style, family atmosphere and deep rooted beliefs. As she got older and into high school the “thought” of playing a sport or participating in any type of a physical activity would never even occur to her. Sally would never think to join the track team, take a yoga class, or go for a run with her friends. By the time she gets to college Sally might be 30-70 lbs heavier than the average young lady and not feel very good about herself. Due to her beliefs and thought process she might not even entertain the idea of joining a gym, taking a spin class or hiring a fitness coach. As a result of her beliefs which lead to her thinking, (statistically speaking) Sally now has a much greater chance of type 2 diabetes, cancer, heart disease, osteopenia & osteoporosis, sleep apnea, a shorter life span, and an overall decline in her quality of life. And since exercise has been proven to increase a person’s overall happiness, ultimately Sally would experience less happiness and joy in her life.
All because of her thoughts….
Therefore is it then possible that your thoughts may be keeping you from achieving your utmost potential?