Category Archives: Thoughts

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Do You Talk To Yourself?

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This really is a rhetorical question, of course. Everyone talks to themselves even if they aren’t totally aware of it (I think most people are aware though).

The major difference comes in HOW you talk to yourself. This can make or break you. The way in which you talk to yourself shapes your day and how you think about yourself as well as about your surrounding environment (and the people in it).

When we talk about the power of words, most people think of those words that are said out loud. They are very important, of course. But,  more important are those words and phrases we utter to ourselves and especially about ourselves. Often our talk to ourselves occupies the majority of our time – when we’re driving, working, at night, running, swimming, doing other workouts, meditating etc. Even when we’re supposed to be paying attention to others. Frequently our mind wanders back to thoughts like “how do I look?”, “is my hair ok?” “do I have anything horrible stuck in my teeth like you see in those ads?”, “why did I bother to come here? I don’t fit in? No one likes me?” etc.

Even when you think (or say) something abstract like “that was really stupid”, your subconscious thinks you’re talking to it and telling it that you are stupid. Have you ever said something like “I can’t believe I did that! What an idiot I am?” I know I’ve thought those things. And I have to work rapidly (assuming I’m attentive enough to notice it) to counter that with “that is not my truth”.

What about when we’re plagued by worry? What thoughts go through your mind when you engage in the worrisome thoughts? Be careful there – if you don’t catch yourself, you’ll continue to say the same things over and over again. You know what that leads to – yep – a belief – remember that a belief is just a thought you keep thinking over and over again. You slam it into your subconscious enough times that your brain begins to think it’s true.

Try this for a week: Monitor everything you say to yourself. I don’t want you to feel you have free will to say anything to others but your job for the next seven days is to really pay attention to those words, phrases, thoughts that swirl around inside your head. Write down the common ones but when you recognize something that is giving you the wrong message, immediately say “That is NOT my truth”.

In a week tell me how clear you think your mind is? Is it more clear and happier than today? What changes have happened if any – these may not be external changes (although that is possible too) but there should be some internal changes that you can recognize.

Let us know – put your responses in the comment box below and tell us any changes or even any challenges you’re come across. Did you recognize any patterns? Talk about them with your family and friends and share them here!

Terrie

 

 

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Momentum Monday

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momentum-monday1

Whatever you’re thinking about is literally like planning a future event. When you’re worrying, you are planning. When you’re appreciating you are planning… What are you planning?
Abraham

“What are you planning” asks Abraham.  And Abraham means “what are you thinking about?” Are you contemplating success and prosperity and health? Or, are you thinking about debt, illness and failure? What are the predominant thoughts going through your head?

Take this week to pay strict attention to what is going in and out of your mind. Even if they are fleeting thoughts, record them. Make a list of general thought patterns such as “prosperity”, “success”, “happiness”, “love”, “peace of mind”, “worthiness”, “health (NOT healing but “health”) and what other topics you normally think about. Then make two columns and give the columns opposite names. As an alternative you could list the opposites further on down the list but then you’re more inclined to think about them. Try something like “yes” for one column and “opposite” for the name of the other column. I’m sure you can come up with something that will meet your needs.

Throughout the day put a tick mark on the paper as you have a thought in each of the categories – put the tick mark in the column that corresponds to the type of thought you had. You may have to make a lot of ticks to keep up with all the thoughts you have during the day but try to record as many as you can. Be honest about it. Don’t just “remember” to do it when you’re having a good thought. Record them all if you can. The goal of this practice is to see what patterns you have.

At the end of each day, count up the tick marks and see what has happened during your day. Were you mostly positive or did you stray over to the less than positive side more? No one is going to see this but you so be honest and make a proper assessment at the end of the day. Then decide what direction you want the next day to go in. Once you’ve tried this, you’ll be more conscious of your thoughts and will most likely find yourself catching your thoughts in the middle of the day and even changing them. It’s ok if you have to put a tick mark down in order for you to make the change because the whole point is to ultimately have the majority of the marks in the direction/column you want.

Remember what we started off with – you are planning events when you think things so make sure these are events you want to attend and even ones you want to invite other people to!

Try this simple exercise and let me know if it helps you be aware of your thoughts. Then move on to how you feel when you have these thoughts. That would be the next step. Do you have anxiety, do you smile, do you enjoy what you’re doing more, etc. Record your feelings after you’ve gotten the hang of this!

Terrie

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You Are What You Thought…. AND What You Feel

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you-are-what-you-thoughtYou always hear “You are what you think”. But that’s only partially true.  That sentence should be reworded to “you become what you think and feel”. What you currently ARE is a result of what you’ve thought and felt prior to right now. In other words, what you “thought” before.

It doesn’t really do anyone any good to wonder “why me”, “why did this happen to me” because they don’t really want the answer which is that we have brought everything into our lives that we have. The Law of Attraction always words – even when things aren’t as we wish. The Law of Attraction doesn’t work only with the things we say we desire.

Everything in our lives was brought there by our thoughts and feelings. Always remember that. When you start to get angry at someone or criticize someone or some thing, ask yourself what you’re feeling right now and if you really want more of that in your life.  Because you are focusing on that emotion and pretty strongly perhaps, too, if you’re angry.

That emotion is what you are focusing on and what you are putting out to the Universe. Remember that the Universe stands ready to bring you whatever it is you’re looking for and concentrating on. When you put such emotion into a thought or feeling such as anger, the Universe doesn’t know that it’s just a temporary thing. It thinks (if it could think) “wow, Terrie is really focusing on that thing…she must want more”.

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Stories, Stories and More Stories

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newspaper navy yard shooting The tragic Navy Yard shooting yesterday brought a few items up for me (that’s where I worked for 9 years before I retired):

  1. I think that people seem to have become immune (or maybe numb/anesthetized) to events like this and that bothers me.
    • It first struck me last week when the news sites had very very little coverage of 9/11. People where I work (on an Army base even) didn’t even bother to observe the moment of silence – not one single moment. That disgusted me.
    • Yesterday as I was driving home there was a talk show (another thing I normally pay no attention to fortunately) and the guy’s primary concern was whether the news folks in Texas should be talking more about the shooting or the fact that we finally got rain. That is really pathetic. He was not even concerned about all the flooding in Colorado. I know we are in the midst of a big drought here but come on – what are the important things in life?
    • Almost none of my Facebook friends even acknowledged the shooting. That made me wonder about my friends. It was all about running and internet business and food and whatever else they normally posted about. Nothing different. Funny that the runners were “all over” the Boston Marathon Bombing but this event seemed “unimportant” to everyone.
  2. I remembered why I don’t watch the news last night. It’s NOT news. It’s a bunch of opinions and slurs and stirring everyone up to be afraid.  Even the one good news story (the raising of the Concordia ship) was minimally covered sitting_on_news_text_reading_paper_400_clr_9470and they emphasized the cost and problems – not the fact that this is the first time this has been done and how it will help lead the way for other salvage operations. The news is supposed to report the facts. I suppose that if they did that, there would be no material for all the time they have to fill. Imagine if they had to fill a full 24 hours every single day with just facts! What a challenge that would be for them. Because I was stationed at the Navy Yard I am somewhat qualified to render an opinion about some of what they reported as “facts”.  These were not facts, they were misinterpretations, they were statements by people who were willing to go on the radio to say stupid, inciteful things just to get some acknowledgement. I remembered why I don’t watch the news.
  3. People all have their stories and they carry them around like a gunny sack of rocks.

If you just concentrated on the facts that occurred yesterday you would be able to make an informed opinion on what happened – if an opinion was/is even required. What are the facts? This man was formerly in the Navy; he worked as a subcontractor and had access to the Navy Yard as a subcontractor; He gained entry to this particular building carrying at least 1 weapon if not more; he opened fire and killed 12 people and wounded several others; he died during this event.

There are more facts but other than for the law enforcement investigators, what difference do they make to you or me? Ok, maybe we “need” to know if it was an act of terrorism and if so, are there others out there that could be planning other events. I’m not sure I “need” to know that as opposed to needing to know if they found out positively that there was other potential danger. Do I need to know about his background and about him working at a restaurant etc? Heck no. What import does that have for me? Not a bit. So why should I clutter up my mind and my thoughts and feelings with all the emotional reporting that is going on about this. These folks are not expressing sorrow and desire to help the families and other victims (those that were frightened at being shot at etc). They are trying to stir people up and get them going – this time it’s once more about gun control. It’s to perpetuate fear. I think people are good enough at creating and living their fears without the help of the media magnifying those fears. I also heard these same news people reporting that if the government shut down in October then in a couple of weeks the US wouldn’t be able to pay it’s bills and would be “broken”.  They snuck that in but you know that’s another fear generating story they are implanting in us.

story wiht baggageWhat stories are you carrying around? I talked about this last week or the week before.  Can you change your past (and even present) stories into “feel good” (or maybe even neutral) stories instead of the bad news stories we make them. Bad things happen but what we feel about them is what counts.  We can replay an event, see it as just a series of facts (without applying/feeling the emotions) and have it be a part of our past – without negative influence. What types of good things can you pull out of that experience once you extract the negative emotions? What have you learned? How has your life changed and how can you change it even more in a positive way.

I’m not discounting how we are affected by events and situations but it’s how we respond and later relive that has to be changed. If you don’t work at changing your feelings about those things, you will continue to be miserable and you will continue to attract more of the same.  We are not taught to “spin” our stories in a positive direction. We are just taught to tell them. Often we go into great detail so that we can tell an “interesting story”.  Consider not even telling your story. Allow it to dissipate in power. Or see if you can write it out or talk it out putting the positive spin on it. Start small and work your way up. It’s a new habit but one that will change your life!

All those that think I went on a rant are free to comment. You are right, it is a rant but there’s also an important metaphysical lesson here if you want to attract more good things in your life.

Terrie

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What Are You Thinking?

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what are you thinkingYou’re sitting there kind of zoned out and all of a sudden someone says “what are you thinking?” and it pulls you out of your reverie. You probably answer “uh, nothing. What’s up”?

Does that sound familiar? You may actually believe the “nothing” part of that story but it’s not true. There is almost no moment during any day that you are NOT thinking something.

The challenge I have for you is to pay attention to what you are thinking ALL the time.  Decide to be diligent for at least ONE day this week (preferably more) to monitoring your thoughts – be your own “Big Brother”. You’ll be very surprised.

It’s pretty simple – you can use a small notebook you can carry in your pocket or your purse or you could even use a portable recording device (there are many apps for your smartphone that would serve that purpose).

 

Yes, I know you have to work and you have to take care of your family and more. But these busy times are the times when you’ll usually find the most revealing thoughts – things like:

  • “I can’t believe it, I don’t have any time to myself”
  • “I’m so overwhelmed”
  • “Gees, what more do they expect me to do”?
  • “Get out of my way damnit, I’m in a hurry”
  • “I’m so stressed out. I can’t take it any more”
  • “I hate this job (or fill in any blank)”
  • “It sucks to be me”
  • “Why me”?
  • “I can’t win”
  • “I can’t catch a break”
  • “How did I get myself in this mess”?
  • “I’m so angry/mad/p.o’ed”
  • “I’m afraid that ……”
  • “I’m so tired”
  • “I’m sick and tired of …….”
  • “You’re killing me with all this”
  • “I’m so ashamed that….”
  • “I”m so embarrassed”
  • “I wonder what he’s looking at”
  • “I wish I weren’t so ….. (fat, dumb, stupid, lazy, etc)”
  • “I wonder what would happen if…”
  • “I’ll never get all this done”
  • “That’s ugly”
  • “I wish I had that”
  • “God I’m starved”

These are just a few common thoughts I came up in a few seconds. There are millions more that you have going through your mind repeatedly.  The key word is “repeatedly” – we think the same things (perhaps with minor variations” over and over again. And if you remember how Abraham defines a belief, it’s “a thought we keep thinking over and over again”. So, guess what? You’re creating or reinforcing beliefs with all these “simple” thoughts.

Write down (make an effort) or record all your thoughts. It is important that you pay attention to all of them, not just the good ones, not just the bad ones – all of them. The idea is so that you can see how your thoughts balance out – what percentage of the time do you spend thinking positive thoughts and how much time do you spend thinking less than positive thoughts. And then, what thoughts are you repeating throughout the day – whether positive or not. Those are the ones you’re cementing in your subconscious as beliefs. You really want to make a conscious choice about what beliefs you cultivate, don’t you?

When you write these thoughts down, pay attention to what’s going on at that time – are you stressed, relaxed, working out, in the car, what? Make sure to pay attention to any follow-on thoughts and actions. For instance, if, after you think, “God I’m starved”, you your thoughtshead to the snack machine or the refrigerator and pick something you wouldn’t necessarily describe as “healthy”, write down what thoughts (if any) are going through your mind as you hit that button or pull open the frig door. Is it “I really shouldn’t be doing this” or is it “some chips or ice cream is just what I need right now”.  Perhaps you’re not even thinking – you’re just rushing to the machine so that you can take the food to numb the feelings. Unfortunately, you may be using the food to numb the feelings (stress, overwhelm etc) but you’re probably still thinking while you’re doing it. And you’ve made a conscious choice to pick the food regardless of the negative thoughts because feeling the pain from the emotion is worse than feeling the guilt or shame from having eaten that ice cream.  Some people use cigarettes, alcohol, food, drugs, abuse, exercise or many other actions to keep from feeling certain emotions.  Do you want to keep using your “drug of choice”? Or do you want to change your behavior? If you want to change your behavior you have to change your thoughts.

Here’s a short example. Yesterday was the day runners could try to get into a popular 100 mile race (Umstead- one I know I could do well at). I had planned the day around the “registration attempt” time (11 am my time) and I’d used affirmations and beliefs that I was definitely going to get in. I had written in my gratitude journal every day that I was grateful that I got into Umstead 2014 (being specific so that the Universe knew that this was the one I meant, not sometime in the future).

11 a.m. came and I tried and to make a long story short, I didn’t get in. I could have spent the rest of the day being really bummed out and saying that all this stuff really doesn’t work and I’m just a hypocrite, blah blah blah. But you know what? That would have done absolutely nothing but bring my mood and vibration way down. I chose not to experience that so I realized that “everything always works out for me” (Lord knows I’ve experienced that so many times in my long life) and began to think about the alternative runs I could do or apply for. And my day improved. It took some conscious work but I chose to feel good, not to plummet to the depths of despair which I could easily have done had I not paid attention to my thoughts.

Are you up for this challenge? Can you commit to at least one day and hopefully more? Let us know by putting your comments in the box below.

Have a great day!

Terrie