Our thoughts are messages we send to our brain. “All physical reality is made up of vibrations of energy; even your thoughts are vibrations of energy. While it sounds like a concept or theory, this is a new reality that quantum physics has revealed to us. “Your thoughts have a powerful influence on your life.” (John Kehoe}
Neuroscience has also established that these thoughts (messages) we send to our brains are then delivered to our whole body. What the mind does, the body does!
Thinking (having freedom of choice) is a mental event, yet can cause physical changes to occur (muscles move in response to a thought). Thinking, therefore, can be said to make things happen, "mind moves matter"- (Saul McLeod, psychologist/researcher) Example: If you think you will have a bad night’s sleep tonight, you can’t lose weight, or you are a terrible public speaker, then there is a very good chance that those thoughts will become your reality. Again, what the mind does, the body does. What thoughts you believe to be true will more than likely come to fruition.
Where do our thoughts come from?
80-90 percent of the thoughts we have, we do not own….nor are they fact. They come about as a result of our experiences and dialogue with grandparents, parents, teachers, friends, etc. who we have encountered over our lifetime. It is how prejudices and ethnic biases are formed as they are passed down from one generation to the next. If you are bitten by a dog as a child, chances are that a fear of dogs may follow you until you experience otherwise. If your parent repeatedly tells you as a child that “you will never amount to anything” every time you misbehave or fail at a task…and you hear it often enough, then you begin to accept it as a fact. It becomes part of your belief system, not realizing the anxiety or stress you feel as an adult is a direct result of that belief or thought. And our body may well react to those beliefs by manifesting physical and emotional symptoms; thereby, creating detrimental effects on our emotional and physical well being.
How do we change the way we think?
By CHOICE! We can change the path we travel by changing how we react to our thoughts. But first we must develop an awareness of our thoughts, then choose to “let them be” without reacting to them. Mindfulness Meditation is a tool proven to be quite effective in meeting that challenge. We must learn that “thoughts are just thoughts and nothing more. We must learn that most of our thoughts really have no basis in fact…..that most of our thoughts (those messages we sent to our brain) are not truths.
If we keep thinking the same thoughts over and over again, they become a belief. It is then reflected in our behavior, in our moods, in our fears, our self-doubts, the amount of stress and anxiety we feel, etc. You may have heard the expression, “We are what we think” ….when in fact, we are what’s in our heart…and not what’s in our mind. Mindfulness Meditation can lead you on a path of awareness, self-discovery and change. Change in itself is never a problem…it’s our resistance to change that makes it so difficult. It’s our refusal to live in the present moment. Instead we get caught up in our experiences, regrets, traumas and beliefs of the past…or have a fear of what the future may bring (which we really have no control over).
We must learn to become aware of the messages we send to our brain and then change how we identify with them, how we react to them. Only you can make that choice “to change”. Only you can choose the path you wish to travel.
You only have control over three things in your life – the thoughts you think, the images you visualize, and the actions you take.” Jack Canfield