Tag Archives: Negative Thoughts

22

Success Isn’t Everything

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Success– the accomplishment of an aim or purpose.

success questionsSuccess is something all people aspire to. It is the signal that our efforts have allowed us to move forward to achieving the things we want in our lives.  Accomplishments could be personal or professional, but one of the best ways to guide yourself toward success is to ask yourself the right questions about how you are progressing each day.  This process is a shift in consciousness for most people. Either you are drifting on a river going where life takes you, or you are steering your raft toward your success.  The paddle you drive is the question you ask yourself.  It starts with a conscious awareness of your thoughts, emotions, words, and actions to pursue your desired purpose and issues that will take you there.

Why Questions Build Success

Questions are a tool that can change your whole focus in your day.  Asking the right questions will provide focus and direction for a day. There is a reason you should question yourself.  First, an item will immediately change your attention, and changing that focus to a goal will bring answers to success questionsyou. What can I do today to help move me closer to a dream, purpose, or objective?  Where focus goes, energy flows.

What action can I take to become wealthier today?  What things can I do to build better relationships? What activities will make me happy today?  Each question will focus on that thing, and even if you don’t know for sure what to do, suggestions will come to your mind—usually a lot of them.  Then you can whittle them down to the ones you feel are valuable to your growth path. Often the first ones that come to your mind are pretty poignant.  It is good to be open to all options and not dismiss potential answers automatically.  Weigh your focused suggestions carefully, then choose the best actions.  Of course, to accomplish anything and use those questions, your answers need to be followed up with actions. Work makes everything happen.

Success May Come From Deleting Information

Another significant side effect of asking the right questions and honestly seeking an answer is your focus tends to cut through the opposition you might have to a goal.  You may have to make changes, and with change success questionscomes risk. Risk of failure, risk of learning, and most importantly, a chance of what others will think of most people.   A good question will get you to focus on what you want and delete what you don’t want.

What can I stop doing that hinders my success?  What things prevent me from accomplishing my goals?  Answer these questions and delete those barriers from your life, and you will be on your way to success.  Identifying the situations, actions, and people that hold you back allows you to stay clear of these things and work toward accomplishing the aim or purpose you seek.  How can this work for you?  That answer is up to you and the actions that result from your solution.

It Won’t Always be Easy.

Of course, the journey toward your success will not always be comfortable, but using the right questions can also help you navigate any rough waters you encounter. We are not born with all the knowledge and skills we need to success questionsaccomplish some things.  The education we need often comes from experience, and those experiences may seem complicated and unwanted.  For example, losing a job for any reason can be tough to deal with one’s life.  But along with that change comes opportunity.

Where is the opportunity here I am not seeing?  What can I do now things are changing? What can I learn from this?  How can I turn this around?  Any of these questions will bring answers to guide you. All situations provide information and use them to learn and grow.  What other positive choices do you have?  Questions can reveal the resources available to you and improve your outlook, production, and performance in your life.

Success is a matter of the Right Questions.

Learning to develop a definite pattern of questions for yourself can help build a consistent tool to empower you to overcome obstacles and reach the successes you desire to experience in your life.  The items will steer your focus toward solutions and away from the distractions and self-pity our minds often provide.  Look consciously at your goals and what is stopping you from reaching them today.

Make the conscious choice to see the possibilities in your challenges, leading you toward your goals and desires.  It all begins with a focus on the thoughts you entertain, the emotions they elicit, the words you use to express them, and the actions you take.  Your success today may be one good question away.

“It is not the answer that enlightens, but the question.” – Eugene Ionesco

“The key to wisdom is this – constant and frequent questioning, for by doubting, we are led to question, by questioning we arrive at the truth.” – Peter Abelard

“A prudent question is one-half of wisdom.” – Francis Bacon

Does Anybody Know What Time It Is?  – the musical question only you can answer for success today.

https://youtu.be/8qssWO8NSq0

 

 

 

22

Expand Your Mind

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How much time do you spend consciously expanding your mind?

Our constant companion is our mind. It continually spills a non-stop stream of words into your reality that only you can hear inside your head. No matter what is happening, your mind has something to say about it. As you get older, I think either you succumb to the fact, this is the way it will be. Or you actively start to understand how this tool of a mind works and see if you can make the relationship between you much more positive and productive. The natural flow of thoughts is not very positive or helpful to anyone’s life. To change this, you have to take some action and gain some understanding. Here are some things I have learned and observed.

We Don’t Create Our Thoughts

You would think the one thing in the world you control would be the thoughts in your mind, but in reality, we don’t control very many of them. They come from our conditioning, projecting our biases and beliefs into our lives. It doesn’t matter if you want them or not. There is a constant, natural stream of thoughts conversing in your mind. You are not the creator of these thoughts; you are the listener and observer of these ideas. So who is thinking? That is a conversation for another day, but suffice it to say, it is not you and your conscious self. You are free to listen or not. That is your decision.

To even notice them takes a little effort. You have to be conscious of them appearing. Remember, your mind, left to itself, will comment on everything that happens, from that car you see driving past to the people you see in your day-to-day interactions. Usually, it is neither positive nor friendly. The good news is, these thoughts are not you, and you can dismiss them with a little bit of conscious effort. We will discuss this at the end.

Why are we are so negative and set in our thoughts?

There are two natural biases we all carry that answer this question. First, there is a negativity bias we all have. We are more likely to focus on possible adverse outcomes to protect ourselves. If you expect the worst, you can never be disappointed. So our thoughts tend to reflect this bias. We see the hurricane that might come and the damage it will do. We

What are your thoughts focused on?

Experience these things as if they have happened and that stress is real to us. Of course, if that hurricane should hit you and bring all the bad things you imagined, you will feel prepared, but the sad truth is you will not be—this mode of protection doesn’t work, and you can’t dream up all the bad things in the world.

You can combat this by recognizing it and dismissing the negative thoughts for what they are, unnecessary. One learns to control the ideas and limit them through meditation by quieting the mind and focusing on something else. Your breath or a mantra of some kind, you stop the mind from speaking because you are somewhere else. This includes the negative bias you perpetuate pretty naturally. It is easier to change your outlook to a more positive one when you experience a little peace from the constant stream of thought. The negative bias can be changed with conscious effort.

Why are people so narrow-minded?

Another bias we carry is confirmation bias. Meaning we will search out facts and information that seemingly confirms a previously held belief and ignore or dismiss it out of hand as wrong anything contrary to an already held belief. We are just not very open to new information in any natural way. If you have a particular political leaning, information supporting your beliefs will easily be accepted, no matter how questionable. At the same time, information that contradicts your firmly held beliefs is dismissed without question, no matter how accurate.

The close association people feel with their beliefs and thoughts make any questioning of them an attack on who they are as people. It will help if you look no further than any long, angry argument anyone has on social media. I see people I know get into meaningless arguments about politics, social issues, mask-wearing, or other beliefs. The confirmation bias makes us angrier and more defensive than we need to be and makes people attack others in words to protect their closely held identity.

I often wonder at the venom people state to each other online and hope that a little bit of conscious reflection might ease some of this suffering. Perhaps not taking an opposite opinion as a personal attack on you and your value system might be a good start. Or you can continue as you are and be mad at everyone for everything that doesn’t fall in line with what you think and believe.

Meditate and Let Go

The simple way to get to know your thoughts and recognize your biases is to start to watch your thoughts, and meditation is the way to do that. It isn’t challenging to do, and many great apps can guide you. I use one called Insight Timer, which works for me, but there are several good ones I have tried. Calm and Headspace are two of those. Meditation allows you to handle all of those thoughts and decide which ones represent you and which ones don’t also enable you to understand yourself and why certain emotions and thoughts come up when they do. What is bothering you, and what types of events in your past are still harming you. You have to let it all go to move forward with life, and meditation allows you the chance to do this.

“Watch your thoughts, they become your words; watch your words, they become your actions; watch your actions, they become your habits; watch your habits, they become your character; watch your character, it becomes your destiny.”

“Great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.” —”William James

“Clear thinking requires courage rather than intelligence.” —”Thomas Szasz

“Did you ever stop to think and forget to start again?” —”Winnie the Pooh

“Few minds wear out; more rust out.—”Christian N. Bovee

“It is well for people who think, to change their minds occasionally to keep them clean.” —”Luther Burbank

“Language shapes the way we think, and determines what we can think about.” —Benjamin Lee Whorf

“Misery is almost always the result of thinking.” —”Joseph Joubert

“Most of the mistakes in thinking are inadequacies of perception rather than mistakes of logic.” —Edward de Bono

“Thought is the blossom; language the bud; action the fruit behind it.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson

“What we think, we become.” —Buddha

 

22

Raise Your Energy

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Vibration—a person’s emotional state, the atmosphere of a place, or the associations of an object, as communicated to and felt by others.

The Universe runs on laws that dictate everything. One of these is the Law of Vibration, which states: Everything in the Universe vibrates or offers a vibration. When it comes to an understanding how things work, this is a great place to start. All items have a level of vibration, focusing on everything from quantum physics to holistic medicine. Since you and I are a part of everything, we also offer a beat, and what constitutes that vibration is where our focus of thought most often lies. We have complete control over this because we are the only ones who can decide how to react to anything.   The frequency at which we vibrate is determined by the thoughts we think, the corresponding emotions, and our actions at any moment of each day. You are responsible for your life experience — nobody else.

High or Low Vibrational Frequency

Since we all have a frequency and vibration, our thoughts bring energy to our life. Positive thoughts and their corresponding emotions vibrate on the higher level of the scale. While negative thoughts and feelings vibrate at a lower level, they will have that effect on your life. Knowing where you are on the ranking of vibration is essential because it directly relates to what you are inviting into your life. Like attracts like. When you drift into a bad mood, you have decided to focus on something negative. Changing an attitude is as simple as consciously changing your thoughts.

Look at the thoughts that you focus on and the emotions that result. It is, again, a simple choice for me. Ideas of joy, peace, love, hope, humility, acceptance, understanding, kindness, empathy, and truth will create a higher vibration level. At the same time, a focus on the fearful thoughts of anger, judgment, hate, jealousy, resentment, greed, lies, or ego will vibrate on a lower level. I am not judging, just observing. I see these thoughts in myself and have to deal with them. Each of us has a choice to make in our actions and interactions with others. The decision we make will define us to the world and ourselves.

Choosing Your Vibration

The choice is a simple one. Be conscious of your thoughts and understand that a lower-end vibration results when you entertain fear and let the emotions permeate your consciousness. This result is essential to understand, and I think it isn’t easy to accomplish anything from this level of consciousness. Honestly, look at your life and when you have been operating at your best. What were you thinking? Feeling? Doing? It is often something you believe and feels optimistic about in you.

To start choosing the vibration you offer to the world. It begins by looking at your thought and noticing where it leads you emotionally. Then choose to follow the positive and move away from the negative. This movement doesn’t mean you ignore bad things, but you don’t wallow in them. Change your focus from conflict and separation to cooperation and acceptance. In the end, it is all up to you, and the reality that you experience will be a result of the choices you make. Some people can’t seem to move their thoughts in a positive direction because their conditioning on a subconscious level is negative. That is not a death sentence to positivity but a roadmap to improvement. Seek high vibrational activities.

High Vibrational Activities

Activities you can participate in that will allow your vibration to rise are common sense. Increase your level of physical activity. The human body wants to move, and the mind releases endorphins that improve your mood, make you more optimistic, and allow your vibration to rise. Not to mention the added benefit of having a higher quality of life. Spend some time contemplating nature. Noticing the things that naturally occur all around us can create a more positive mood in your life. Being conscious of the foods you eat can raise your vibration.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that there are things that feel good in life and those that don’t. Being honest, practicing kindness, meditation of some kind,  and pure gratitude for what we have in life will create a higher vibration. Focus your thoughts on these things and see what makes in your life—thinking of others before yourself and being unselfish will also vibrate on a higher level.

Lower Vibrations to Avoid

These are as varied as there are people in the world. For me, a good rule of thumb is that if it doesn’t feel right, it should. The mainstream media is something that I avoid because they sensationalize events to create fear for the sake of ratings. There is nothing positive about their productions, and most are overhyped looks at people’s worst behavior. But simple things like judgment, gossip, and even sarcasm can vibrate lower because they are harming someone else. You can never hurt someone else without hurting yourself, which is the vibrational truth.

Avoid people who are continually complaining about things or criticizing others. You can feel the negativity, which will stay with you for a time. At the very least, it will take a bit of effort to get yourself back on the upbeat track. Life is too short to waste, criticizing others and their choices. Focus on the positive choices you can make.

Your Overall state of being

Life will be defined by the choices you make in thought. Each decision carries its energy into your life and the lives of those close to you. It involves the way you eat, sleep, exercise, and work. Take a moment to look at all of these areas. See if you are vibrating on the low or the high side. Like attracts like and living at a higher vibration allows you to draw more of the same into your experience. Spend time each day looking at the manner you treat other people. That is your gift or curse on the world. Each person matters as much as the next. How you treat others provides a mirror you can look into to see yourself. What you give to the world will get back in return. It is Karma.

“Vibrate at the highest frequency possible.”- Anonymous

“Everything in life is vibration.” -Albert Einstein

“Your vibration or energy state is a blend of the contracted or expanded frequencies of your body’s emotions and thoughts at any given moment. The more you allow your soul to shine through you, the higher your vibration will be.” -Penney Peirce

 

21

Love It or Fear It

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To fear or to love?

You May Disagree
You May Disagree

All situations in life can break down into simple choices. Will you think and act out of fear? Or will you believe and work out of love?

I believe EVERYTHING you think will make a difference in your life and come with emotions attached, which affect your decision-making. I believe this because of a lifetime of experience and entertaining the wrong types of thoughts. I lived much of my life under the influence of fear but have chosen to make a change and look at things with feelings of love. No small endeavor, but I encourage all others to attempt to do the same.

How You Think Leads to How You Live

This article is about the fundamental belief that I have developed in my game of life. If you are thinking judgmental, mean, sarcastic, or hateful thoughts about other people or groups of people, there is no doubt that you will experience those things in your own experience.

These are negative thoughts which lead to unhappy experiences
These are negative thoughts that lead to unhappy experiences

If you choose to focus on accepting, kind, and loving thoughts, then that will be the overall experience of your existence. How do I know? I used to think the former and now try to focus on the latter, and although I am the same person, the experience of life has been entirely different and much more positive and enjoyable in all ways.

Fear is the chief motivation of those who are critical. A person rejects any thought or action that will lead to change or be different from comfortable beliefs. Even if things are currently going poorly, people avoid change because they fear that changes might make things even worse.

There is nothing wrong with experiencing fear itself because fear gives you adrenaline and or motivation to act. Still, if you focus on and allow it to move your actions from day-to-day, your experience will suffer from negative energy. We all face fear every day, but it is how you deal with it that matters. Each moment comes down to this simple choice between fear and love, the one you choose will define your life and you as a person.

Change is Always Possible

change-thoughtsThe most daunting task for anyone to accomplish is to change the way that you think. We have spent a lifetime accumulating experiences that come along with mental programming, which has managed to keep us safe and alive. But it also can make us unhappy and not allow us to reach our capabilities.

Yet, at some point, even though we are safe and alive, the quality of our life needs value. Once you start to pursue happiness and caring, you notice what has been making you unhappy. What is it that makes you hang your head with worry? What makes you afraid to speak? What makes you hide your individuality? What makes you disappear who you are? Fear.

Fear that you won’t be accepted, or fear that someone will take something from you that you love. Fear that someone is going to harm you or those that you care about can hurt you. The mainstream media feed these fears to gain ratings and Madison Avenue to earn consumer dollars.

The reality is that fear is just a thought and an illusionary thought at that. What you are afraid of is not accurate, it is a thought, and that is it. What if? What should? What Might? Questions that provide these thoughts; are not real they don’t exist, yet they offer genuine suffering for people. Your thoughts about things are the cause of most of our issues. Change your thoughts, and many of our problems go away.

There are many dangers in the world, and those should be avoided because they can hurt you, but fear of them will only stop you from doing what you want and becoming the best you can be. Fear limits you and destroys dreams.

Getting Out of Fear

Beliefs are merely thoughts that you choose every day to add weight to.
Beliefs are merely thoughts that you choose every day to add weight to.

Getting rid of fear in your thoughts is simple, but it is not easy.

Stop thinking fearful things. Now that would be easy to control all of our thoughts, but you really can’t.

Thoughts pop into your mind at a rapid pace, representing your lifetime of experience. Bias, prejudice, hatred, fear are all a part of your knowledge, and they are all associated with others.

You can’t stop them from popping into your mind, but you can control how much you pay attention to them. Simply noticing the thoughts of fear as what they are fake surprisingly releases you from their power. All of their power over you comes from inside your head and the thoughts you choose to give power to. Let the negative go and replace them with something more positive. The human mind is only capable of entertaining one idea at a time. If your thought is positive, so will your mood, actions, and life.

Replace thoughts of fear with thoughts of love

enigmaOnce you recognize and admit your worries and let them go, it is incredible how easy the right ideas and feelings flow. It feels better to be happy, healthier to love, and more enjoyable to live without fear.

It takes time, and you have to be honest with yourself. Recognizing your weaknesses can be painful and challenging, but you have a simple choice here. Choose caring over callousness, kindness over being mean, understanding over judgment. Keep living your life in fear and be unhappy or admit to your negative thoughts and recognize that you can just let them go and think differently.

The choice is up to you! Nobody else can make it for you.

“Fear and love can never be experienced at the same time. It is always our choice as to which of these emotions we want.”-  Gerald Jampolsky

“Love and fear represent two different lenses through which to view the world. Which I choose to use will determine what I think I see.”-Marianne Williamson

“Love is what we were born with. Fear is what we learned here.”-  Marianne Williamson

“There are two basic motivating forces: fear and love. When we are afraid, we pull back from life. When we are in love, we open to all that life has to offer with passion, excitement, and acceptance. We need to learn to love ourselves first, in all our glory and our imperfections. If we cannot love ourselves, we cannot fully open to our ability to love others or our potential to create. Evolution and all hopes for a better world rest in the fearlessness and open-hearted vision of people who embrace life.”-  John Lennon

21

Friendly Imagination

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Imagination- the faculty or action of forming new ideas or images or concepts of external objects not present to the senses.

The human mind is a powerful tool. It can recall information and perform intricate calculations while still managing to keep a physical body functioning appropriately. A mind can create imaginary situations and scenarios that allow us to create new things and unique events in our lives.

The mind has an imagination that can go to places that have never existed or might only exist in the future.  Unfortunately, this creative imagination can sometimes work against us. Fear creeps into our lives and starts to use our imaginations against us. You are creating worst-case scenarios that raise our anxiety levels about things that never have and probably never will happen. If you are experiencing this misuse of imagination, it is time to control your thoughts and use the power of your vision for you and not against you.  It is all up to the ideas you choose to entertain, the corresponding emotions you will deal with because of your choice—the words you use to describe things. And the actions you take to enhance or diminish the power of your imagination.

What Can Go Right?

Too often, we spend our thoughts worrying about what might go wrong.  This fear is a thing that develops over time. As we experience suffering in life, we try to create a safety zone in our minds where nothing unexpected ever happens. The working theory is that if we can imagine the worst, it won’t take us by surprise, and we can handle it if it happens.  So we weave tales of terror and woe and play out our imaginary reactions to the situations.  Although they are in our minds, the stress they create is felt by us.  It is hard to experience happiness if you only imagine the most painful things your life can bring.

Rather than spend your time worrying about what might go wrong, how about switching your focus to what can go right? One of the more powerful tools of creation we have is our imagination. Used to imagine a successful result, it can move you down the path to creating that very thing in your life. Think of a goal achieved and how that is going to feel for you. Put it aside and start taking action toward making that thing a reality. Your imagination can help keep you motivated and show you how good life can be when your goals come into existence.  Also, there is the added benefit. When your mind is creating positive thoughts, the negative thought train shuts down.  Focus on what can go right rather than what might go wrong.

Overcoming Anxiety

It seems like we feel we have to know all the answers.  Well, nobody has this ability.  Since our youngest days, we have been conditioned to be “smart” and never look “stupid” and always have the answer.  This mindset is a fixed way of thinking where people seem to believe either we have a talent or not.  Some lucky people start to realize that we are not born with all the answers or abilities. Those things are developed through the learning process and become whatever version of ourselves we want.

The larger group would rather pretend to know the answer rather than reveal a lack of knowledge.  The fear that people might find out this “weakness” is one of the causes of anxiety. They fear that they will reveal as less of a person or a person of less value.  It is an illusion of perfection our society demands, but it is just an illusion.

Nobody is perfect, and nobody knows everything.  When we start to look at all situations as opportunities for growth, rather than tests our current knowledge and base our value on it, anxiety will lessen in our lives.  So what if you don’t know everything? That is called learning. Having a growth mindset sets you free to learn, improve, and become your best at whatever you want to excel at in your life.  Your only limits of accomplishment are then the limits of your imagination.  Rather than using your imagination to conjure up how other people see you negatively, use it, creating a real-world, achieving what you want.

Only So Much Room

Finally, remember worry is a misuse of your imagination, and it will only fill your head with fear and anxiety.  These are forces that can destroy your health and make you unhappy.  Thoughts develop in patterns, and if you are in a mode of worry, it is all you can think of, and there isn’t any room in your head for anything else.  It makes sense to take logical steps for your safety and well-being, but to obsess about negative things happening to you and those you love is a negative chute. It is hard to come out of and change direction.  There is only so much room in your head, just like in your house. Why fill it with junk? It costs you the delight of space and positivity.   Look at your thoughts and how they affect your imagination today.  Use your imagination wisely.

“Worry is a misuse of your imagination.”- Dan Zadra

“Anxiety is a thin stream of fear trickling through the mind. If encouraged, it cuts a channel into which all other thoughts are drained.”- A.S. Roche

“We will weather the weather,

Whatever the weather,

Whether we like it or not.”