Choosing is the Difference: ReThink Your Thoughts, Habits and Emotions
Activated feeling triggers a learned line of thought.
Depending on the perceived value of the stimulated thought, (“What is my value?”… “Will this make me look intelligent?” …”Will I look stupid?”, etc.) the mind might send counter thoughts and counter measures in the form of positive thinking, thoughts of accomplishment and esteem, innovations and solutions. These might to push through the thought/feeling obstructions trying to halt the feelings of inadequacy, futility, etc.
Conversely, we may hear a tirade of just the opposite, and end up freezing our actions or going deeper into our cocoon. A habitual line of negative thinking may trigger additional thought/feeling receptors and activate compatible responses. This floods the new internal thought event with negativity, pessimism and failure until no other possibilities can be examined.
The mind gives up on creating new options and courses of action and goes into inactivity mode until another stimulation (usually in the form of a question or seeing the problem from a different angle) when the brain re-engages, developing more and more options for action. Your thinking has thrown the brain switch to the “Off” position. (See our last post “Power in Your Switch – Creative Questions That Strengthen the Mind”)
The consequences of belief (whichever “belief” you choose to focus on) will either shut down the positive, “can-do”, “go get ‘em”, “I can do this” beliefs or they will support them. You will either build momentum and supportive action or they power down and become stagnant.
When the habitual, limited thinking starts to suspend your productivity, you must marshal your resources and challenge EVERY ASPECT of the limiting belief. Whether it stems from sadness, fear, shame, doubt, guilt or pain, YOU must be vigilant in recognizing and re-thinking not only the thought but the connected emotion(s) as well!.
Whatever thoughts you have, which bring up feelings of inadequacy or potential failure, must be recognized and thoroughly examined for the confining elements of their energy. Once recognized and considered, new thoughts and feelings can be harvested to replace the undesirable consequences of the old thinking habits.
Thoughts, thought-habits and thought-patterns can generate a wide range of emotions. Emotions can generate many varied thoughts. Most of the time, you can expect that a particular way of thinking will bring up a predictable set of emotions. Conversely, allowing a particular set of emotions to control our thoughts will naturally bring up the destructive thinking habits that support those suffocating emotions.
No wonder you get in a funk and find it hard to escape! Your negative thought patterns and habits set you on a trajectory of losing… again, disappointment… again… one failure after another …again.
Your “Think” …drags down your “Feel” …impeding the “Do” (For more on Think – Feel – Do, click here!)
How you choose to respond to the thought /feeling input of your thought habits can change the course of your focus… your direction… your TRAJECTORY!
Same old responses get you the same old results. New, alternative responses get you new alternatives, new options and different, better, new results.
Look back, see where your thought habits have taken you. What they have provided you? What have they taken from you?
If You could SEE where your habitual thoughts might take you, you could decide if your thoughts are appropriate or if you need to change them. NEWS FLASH!! You CAN see the fruits of your thinking! It’s in the life you live, and feelings that surround you.
Here’s a Life Rule: You are free to change your thoughts.
Here’s another one: When you change your thoughts, you improve your trajectory!
Choose your thoughts and change your life.
If your habitual negative thoughts are deeply entrenched, it will take concentrated effort for you to overcome them. You’ll need to form different, productive, thought patterns. It’s not hard, but it requires discipline, diligence and determination.
Discipline, diligence and determination, coupled with the right tools, will reshape your outcomes and bring you more happiness. You’ll be back in harmony and integrity with yourself when your thought habits build you up rather than tear you down.
