“The world we have created is a product of our thinking; it cannot be changed without changing our thinking.” Albert Einstein
We become so accustomed to our negative self talk; we hardly recognize the truth anymore. Someone can say something unkind or negative to us, and some of us, depending on our level of self esteem, will accept it as the truth. This is when we have internalized an inner reference point that is not who we truly are, this way of being does absolutely nothing to enhance our good feelings about ourselves. Unfortunately it is this reference point that creates our external reality, attracting to us unfortunate and uncomfortable experiences, with as much precision as a Swiss clock. It is called the Law of Attraction. If we find ourselves naturally gravitating to negative self talk, then it may be time to question why, and where did it all start? No doubt, most of it originated from childhood, parents, caregivers, friends and teachers. Don’t dwell too long, it is enough to know that these messages were all from other people and in fact, are not the truth.
However, nonetheless they were absorbed into the subconscious mind without any filters and any discernment. They became our beliefs and our ‘truth.’ As we grow into adults, those so-called truths remain, regardless of what we accomplish and how successful we become. We may receive appreciation, approval and recognition, but as the saying goes “it is like water of a ducks back.” Those well meaning appraisals do not penetrate the defensive armour, because there is always that devil in our head that comes in and says the exact opposite, or refuses to accept something that contradicts our programming. There exists an internal conflict, and it can create considerable discomfort. Because the truth of the matter is that we all want to feel good inside. We spend our entire lives chasing things in our external world that we believe will make us happy people, relationships, cars, holidays, homes, clothes, shoes, bags and new experiences. If we chased good thoughts with the same level of passion, then our lives would transform. We believe that feeling good exists entirely outside of ourselves, and no sooner do we achieve one thing, then we are onto the next. We find we are never satisfied, and never will be, because ultimately the good feelings that we seek come from mastering our minds.
There comes a time when that ‘devil’ on our shoulder, with its never-ending ranting, needs to be challenged. When we find ourselves on automatic pilot and blindly accepting an old belief with its verbal attachments, we need to just say “Shut up!” Some old beliefs might be “I’m not good enough, clever enough, and attractive enough!” On and on it goes and where it stops no-body knows, except us. These habitual thoughts have not been challenged, and simply allowed to run riot. It is time to read them the riot act and choose different streams of thoughts that empower us and lead us to good feelings.
What if we accepted the possibility that the ‘truth’ of who we are is purely positive? That would mean that a thought that made us feel bad was a lie. This is where our true power resides; we can make a conscious choice in any given moment about how we want to feel. If a belief doesn’t feel good, then that is a very strong indicator that it doesn’t belong to us in the first place. Beliefs can be changed; they are not road blocks, merely momentary obstacles. Actually by having those challenging beliefs in the first place, helps us decide who we are not and from that perspective we can direct our attention to transforming them. Sometimes it takes being sick and tired of living in the prison of our own minds to pull in the reigns and take control. We have the power to do that. James Allen said “You are today where your thoughts have brought you; you will be tomorrow where your thoughts take you.” Thoughts become things, choose ones that feel good.
