What if I told you that your “thoughts” could kill you?
One of the most important tool to live a meaningful life that should be taught in school is how to manage your thoughts. How does a thought come in? Where does it come from? Are they always true?
Your thoughts manifest everything you do; whether you decide to go to school, break up with someone, what you dream, feel and do. All of these start with a thought regardless of who you are, where you are from or what you have done in the past.
Your thoughts and words can create the most meaningful friendships, kind words or amazing stories. They can also tell you what a terrible person you are or knock others down. It’s a matter of life and death that you learn that they are automatic and that your brain can master redirecting them into something that serves you better.
Imagine 100 people in a room all being served a bowl of macaroni and cheese. They fill out a survey when they are finished and 40% say it was exceptional, 30% it was good, 20% average and 10% ok. How can the same bowl of macaroni and cheese be so many things to so many people? It isn’t the macaroni’s fault. It’s just a bowl of food. In every circumstance (something that everyone would agree on like it’s hot, it’s Tuesday, it’s raining) – we get to choose how we feel about it. The challenge is practicing what you CHOOSE to think.
So, if someone doesn’t like something that you do or doesn’t feel as passionately about something as you do – it’s perfectly fine. It means nothing more than two people that ate the same bowl of macaroni and one person liked it and one person didn’t.
But if you are currently turning circumstances into something that has a negative meaning to you, it’s causing you to have a different feeling about it which makes you take a negative action and results in a negative ending.
While you are on your journey to any goal or on your meaningful life quest, you are going to face many, many circumstances that mean what you make it mean. Every circumstance is neutral. It has absolutely no meaning until you assign a meaning to it. It’s raining. So, we have to be careful of which circumstances, seeds or words to hold on to and which ones to let go.
You will always have people with different opinions and you grew up with your family and friends and have opinions of your own. It’s very tricky, because our belief systems are deep and some of the things we believe about ourselves were created years and years ago. For example, my dad used to make me eat all my tomatoes when I was a child and I hated them. To this day, I rarely will eat them regardless of what they taste like. What is something that you do as a result of an experience years ago.
From today on, never use your thoughts or words against yourself or against others. You are here on this planet. Your little sperm beat millions of others and then went nine months fighting to have this human experience. The fact that you are here says that you are a winner and that you have gifts to share with others.
Just because you hear something or see something, you have the power to create the story to what you want.
- A friendship has ended? You are grateful for the time you had together.
- It’s raining? Go to a movie or catch up on another project.
You can turn any situation around to something constructive, good and meaningful.
Think of a little child who hasn’t learned better and they say something to you like, “You look silly in those glasses!” Well, you don’t take offense – you laugh. You don’t believe it. It’s just an innocent child. At the same time, if a friend is upset with us and says, “You always ruin things!” Many of us might believe them and it creates a ripple of scarcity, fear and not wanting to put ourselves out there in the world.
Innocently, people say things like, “You look tired! You seem so stressed! You’re avoiding me.” These are opinions are based on their own set of fears, experiences and beliefs. We get to choose what we make that mean. We can filter out of all the things we see, hear or read and turn them into something with meaning.
To summarize
- Remember that every circumstance is neutral. It’s until you have a thought about it that you make it mean something. When you choose your thought you are now on the road to taking an action and that action will cause your result.
- Get into the habit of letting things go. There are little sayings I have when I have no idea what the other person is talking about or if they are full of crap. You can say, “Wow! Interesting.” “Thank you for sharing that.” …or something that doesn’t necessarily have meaning but gives closure to the conversation and you can move on.
- Use your self talk to calm and encourage yourself. “You can do it. I love what you did today!” Your opinion of yourself is the only one that truly matters because you know what your intent was. You know what you’ve done or haven’t done.
Your words and thoughts give you so much power and abundance when used correctly. They are truly one of the biggest keys to living a full and meaningful life.
Do you know I have a podcasts? Yes, it’s called, “Meaningful Life Quest” and I’d love for you to go and listen and give me a review in itunes so that others have more visibility too!
Have a great day,
Jen
