Your Thoughts Create Your Reality

Thoughts are the basic mindset of life

You hear it everywhere: you are what you think. And those thoughts become your beliefs, your values, and yes, your mindsets.

Depending on your thoughts or the situation, this can be good or bad. Running away from a growling animal chasing you is a smart thing. Jumping fearfully anytime you hear a dog bark; probably isn’t good for your blood pressure.

Nonetheless, you can’t argue with the fact that many of the great minds of our time agree that thoughts are the building blocks of life experiences. To put it simply, the circumstances of your life are reflections of the way you think.

The difficulty begins when you believe that material things can make you happier. You buy into the notion that bigger, newer, and shinier, expensive things can make your life better. Some people even feel that mind-numbing substances help them to forget their reality or more easily accept it.

The truth is that you can construct a better reality for yourself by producing a change from the inside. Your thoughts are the driving force behind why you feel and act the way you do. Once, you learn to control your thoughts, feelings, and actions, understanding the link between those three, you can begin living the life you want in the way you want it.

Three life-altering tips

Incorporate these three tips into your day to help you alter negative thought patterns to positive ones. Now, let’s begin.

1. Identify flawed thought patterns

Most of our beliefs and thoughts tend to be more on the negative side. This narrative has you feeling responsible for most of what is wrong in your life. Consequently, you feel powerless and out of control. These flawed thought patterns can lead to mental disorders like anxiety and depression.

Gregory Walton, an Associate Professor of Psychology, said, “The most proximate determinant of how people behave is how they understand things, and you can change that.”

Here are some of the more common negative patterns of thought many of us suffer from. Get a pen and paper and write down which of them you most relate to. Once you’ve identified them, you can start to transform them from the negative to the positive.

• Minimizing achievements and maximizing simple errors

• All-or-nothing opposite thinking

• Generalizing people and situations

• Filtering out positive statements and focusing only on the negative

• Mind Reading- Make negative interpretations of what others say

2. Encourage healthy practices

When you do something repeatedly, it becomes a habit. The more you do it, the more likely you’ll continue doing it in the future.

Thought patterns are the same way. The more you think in a particular way, the more you’ll likely continue thinking about it the same way, repeatedly. Soon enough, it’ll start to consume your day-to-day living.

The science behind it is that each thought ignites a chemical reaction in your brain. This reaction then triggers a certain emotion. As a result, your emotions send a signal to your body, and you react accordingly.

This cycle repeats itself until you realize you’re not living the life you want for yourself. You can’t even recognize who you are anymore. An apropos quote by John Frederick Demartini, is, “Your innermost dominant thoughts become your outermost tangible reality.”

It’s then that you should decide to make a change. Recondition yourself by recognizing negative thoughts and how they affect your emotions.

The act of thinking about your thoughts and understanding the patterns behind them is what psychologists refer to as metacognition. It’s one of the best ways to find out what’s causing your thought patterns.

As with most things, reconditioning your thoughts takes time. Ready yourself for a few bumps along the way, but stick with it.

You’ll soon realize; it’s the only way to become aware of the link between your thoughts, emotions, and behavior. Only then will you be able to reclaim control and live the life you deserve.

3. Pursue Cognitive-behavioral therapy

Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is an effective tool for dealing with certain mental disorders. This type of therapy focuses on the idea that our thoughts, behavior, and emotions are all linked.

The best thing about CBT is it’s all about your present, rather than focusing solely on past events. After all, it was James Allen who wrote, “You are today where your thoughts have brought you; you will be tomorrow where your thoughts take you.”

Through CBT, you learn how to challenge negative thoughts and behaviors. CBT is also unique in that it assigns practical work outside each session. It’s a great way to see first-hand how thoughts influence behavior and start to live intentionally.

Check out some of the most common CBT strategies:

• Exposure: Face your fears to confront and overcome stress and apprehension rather than avoiding them.

• Mindfulness: Focusing on the present moment through steady breathing and your five senses.

• Skills training: Practice skills to promote positive behavioral changes through role-playing, modeling, and mock scenarios.

The takeaway

Now, it’s time for a little challenge. Become more conscious of your thoughts, both the good and the bad.

Negative thoughts hold you back from living life to the fullest. They keep you chained in an exhausting loop of self-doubt, fear, and panic.

On the other hand, positive thoughts make you feel good about yourself. They uplift your mood, boost your motivation, and encourage you to work hard.

So, work on rewiring your brain to think happy, positive thoughts. Getting started may be tough in the beginning, but it’s worth it in the long run. Your future self will thank you.

My final thought

This may be counter-intuitive, but hear me out. I have a sunny disposition. I am a happy and positive thinker most of the time. But, occasionally, and in small doses, a little negativity can be useful if it prods you into positive action.

For example, you ask yourself why when you see others getting promotions, and you’re stuck in the same old place. That small dose of negativity can spur you on to learn a new skill or come up with the next great idea. Now, you too have earned the deserved promotion.  

Thanks for reading this post, please share it with your friends and family.

For other slants on this topic, read below.

When And How Thoughts Affect Your Reality

Acting The Way You Want To Feel

Acting The Way You Want To Feel

Why Acting How You Want to Feel is Important

We all want to maximize our potential in life, to achieve our goals, be happy and experience fulfillment. In the end, we all want our dreams to come true. The trick is how do we make this happen? There is plenty of information out there as regards to maximizing your potential, reaching your goals, or making your dreams come true. Which bit of information can you believe? Which one is right for you? Better yet, which one works?

One of the best ways to determine what will work for you is through trial and error. You certainly want a technique or program that will provide actual, tangible benefits when you put that information to work. One of the most effective self-improvement techniques out there is acting how you want to feel. Check out this post from the usual bliss ACT the way you want to FEEL.

This technique is based on the simple concept that just as thoughts influence actions, actions have the power to influence thoughts, and by extension feelings. Many of us go through life allowing feelings to dictate our actions. If we feel positive emotions, we take positive actions that achieve the positive results we desire. However, by feeling negative emotions, we take negative actions that cause negative consequences.

We’ve all heard about the power of positive thinking. If you think positively, then you get those powerful, positive results that allow you to reach your goals. The problem is that positive thinking cannot be faked. You can pretend to have a positive attitude. You may fool the outside world that you are actually positive. However, a fake positive attitude cannot fool the real judge – you. Unless you truly experience positive emotions, you will continue to take negative actions and produce negative results. It’s that simple. If you want to learn about the power of positive thoughts check out this post from Mindvalley The Power Of Positive Thoughts.

The theory of positive thinking has actually got the concept completely backward. It’s not positive thinking that’s powerful. It’s actually positive actions that are powerful. You see, when you act in a certain way, your actions have the ability to influence your thoughts. Even if the actions feel forced or awkward, they still have consequences. You still see results from those actions. These results reinforce the strength of those actions. As a result, your actions begin to have an effect on your outlook and your emotions. You begin to feel the way you’ve been acting.

What Does It Mean To Act How You Want to Feel?

Have you ever wondered why you feel the way that you feel sometimes? Have you ever done something and then, at a later time, or even immediately wondered why you acted the way you did? If your answer to either of these questions is yes, you’re not alone. We all, at one time, have regretted doing or not doing something, saying or not saying something. The thing is, there is absolutely no reason to have these regrets.

We all, at one time or another, have felt we were being held hostage by our feelings. Negative emotions, prevent us from fully enjoying all the wonderful things that life has to offer. These negative emotions can take many forms – shyness, fear, or lack of confidence to name a few. The thing that they all have in common is that they prevent us from getting those things that we really want.

The key to living a fuller and richer life, one free of those restricting negative emotions, is deceptively simple. It’s so simple that most people reject it out of hand as being too easy, too good to be true. That’s unfortunate because all you need to do to rid yourself of negative emotions is to begin acting how you want to feel.

Four Examples of Acting How You Want to Feel

While you might think that your actions follow your thoughts, just the opposite is true. This means that if you can act the way you want to feel, your feelings will follow suit.

Example 1 | Say that you’re shy. You find social situations awkward and uncomfortable. Because of this, you pass up opportunities to get together with other people. Many of these opportunities are events that you really want to attend. You like people and you want them to like you in return. It’s just that your shyness is like a barrier between you and the rest of the world.

All you need to do to eliminate this problem is begin acting confidently, even if you don’t feel confident inside. It’s initially difficult to do, but fairly quickly you find people responding positively to your confident attitude. You begin to enjoy socializing. Acting confident begins to make you feel less shy. Because you act with confidence, you begin to feel confident. All of this occurred because you began to act the way you really wanted to feel.

Example 2 | What does success look like? Very often success looks confident. This means that if you want to appear more successful, you need to act with more confidence. Walk like you own the world. Talk like your dreams are about to come true. When you start to act like you’re successful, you begin to adopt a more successful state of mind. You exude confidence and that confidence changes the way you think. Once you start acting successful, you’ll be surprised at the opportunities life presents to you – opportunities that you’re now mentally ready to take advantage of.

Example 3 | How do you begin to feel healthier? It’s easy. All you have to do is begin acting in a healthy manner. You see while our thoughts have the ability to influence our feeling the opposite is also true. Our actions can also influence our thoughts. So start taking healthy actions. Stop taking elevators. Use the stairs instead. Reject your urge to eat fast or processed food. Start eating fresh, low-fat foods. Soon, you’ll start seeing some amazing changes. You actually are going to start feeling healthier. Why? Because you are healthier. Take a look at my post on Food and Your Health.

Example 4 | If you’d like to feel more happiness in your life, start by simply finding those things that bring you joy, and do more of them! If bird-watching makes you happy – do some birdwatching and watch your feelings accompany your actions! The true key to happiness is allowing yourself the permission to be happy! So find what it is that makes your heart soar – and do it!

I choose happy, and being an introvert I choose unafraid. What will you choose for yourself?