Transforming Your Thoughts to Enhance the Quality of Your Life  

Last month’s column was titled: Thoughts, Words and Silence: Your Three Most Influential Assets. I spent the entire article on the topic of Silence because I felt its importance worthy of such coverage. In this months column I will discuss the power of our thoughts to transform not just our own life but the life of those around us.

Let’s take a close look at “thought”. Thought or the ability to think is what makes us human and more sophisticated than any other living species. We think therefore we are. It is a special privilege and a gift to have this ability bestowed upon us. It is sublime to look at the world around us and to acknowledge that everything we see of an industrial or manmade nature was preceded by a single thought. Pause for a moment and take notice of this incredible reality: the houses we live in; the highways we travel on; jet airplanes; automobiles; rockets to the moon; the idea that we could get to the moon in the first place! Irrigation; desalination; elevators; roller coasters; art; music; indoor plumbing; bottled water. The list goes on and on of the everyday things we take for granted that would not exist without the ability to first visualize and conceive of the possibility in the mind’s eye.

If we are capable of such inventions as the Golden Gate Bridge, the Panama Canal, planetary travel and instant worldwide communication through technology, what are we not capable of? Anything we don’t have, or don’t know we don’t have, has simply not been thought of yet and from this perspective, we are capable of everything. Our thoughts are powerful and just as we can use them to create life-changing inventions for mankind, we can also use them on a more personal level to transform our everyday lives.

Where do you spend your time in thought? Are your thoughts of fear? Worry? Degradation of self or others? Are your thoughts of lack or abundance? Do you view your world as a rich and wonderful place to be, or as a place of pain and suffering, as if life is simply something to endure? Or maybe you are so busy you “don’t have time to think” as we often hear people say.

Where we place our energy in thought is important to reflect upon because what we think about is what expands. If our thoughts are based in lack and limitations we will create a very different scenario than if our thoughts are rooted in love and abundance. Thankfully we have the ability to create rich and meaningful lives simply by changing the way we think.

Changing the way we think is not an easy task. Our conditioning runs deep but once we have the tools and determination, our desire to overcome and to realize our full potential can’t be held back. With intention, patience, practice and possibly some professional guidance, we have the power to make the shift toward a more productive way of thinking and thus, of living.

Thoughts are a tool and learning how to use them to your advantage is just like any craftsman and his tool: a carpenter can use his hammer to build a beautiful and solid foundation from which to grow or he/she can rip that very foundation from the ground. For some, the best place to become familiar with your tool of thought is by becoming aware of it, witnessing it, feeling it and by doing a practice called “acting as if.” This is where you act as if you’ve already made the changes you are wanting to make, even if inside you don’t yet believe it to be true. It is a reconditioning of your perceiving and after a period of time you’ll begin believing this to be true, just as you adopted the inappropriate idea that you were limited in some way.

Our thoughts affect not only our individual lives but also the totality of life around us. Seeing how we are all interconnected (plants, animals, man) and of the same biological makeup, then what we emit is what we collectively share. It is our responsibility and I believe deepest desire, to at least attempt to leave this world a better place than which we found it. To know we made a difference, that our presence in some way contributed to the betterment of our fellow man and future planet. Paying attention to the quality of our thoughts is the best place to begin in achieving this noble end.

 

“To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream, not only plan, but also believe.”…..Anatole France

 

Readers Inquiry:

Take a moment to ask yourself these questions:

1) In what way can I change my thoughts to improve my life?

2) In what way is my thinking holding me back from doing the things I really want to do?

3) Using my thoughts as a tool, how can I move from a place of fear to a place of trust?

4) How can I move from a place of lack to a place of abundance?

5) What would it feel like if I could transform disappointment into gratitude?

6) Hate into love?