Noticing Our Thoughts: The Gateway to Joy
Our minds are is filled with 50,000 or more thoughts each day! What we do with each thought, when it arrives, is how we create the moments that determine what we experience in our lives.
How are you CHOOSING to live your days?
If you say you don’t have a choice - that you have to, must or should...or, you are relying on anything outside of yourself to choose (you are at the effect of what is outside of yourself) you are not being the creator of your life. In essence, you are coming from a state of victimhood.
Stepping out of victimhood and into presence and personal responsibility - into being the creator of your days is essential to living in joy and truly possible!
Learning to be present provides the opportunity for you to choose what is the most nourishing for you...and what you want to believe.
Working on presence is noticing what is in your NOW state. Your breath. Your heartbeat. Your feelings. Your thoughts. Allow, then notice, accept, and breathe.
Being in the now moment makes you available to your full potential. Our mind wants to look ahead or dwell in the past. Our work is to train our mind to notice what is now. Our ego is driven in fear and scans to see what is wrong - what may be wrong - what is not enough. Scanning the past or the future - our ego keeps us hopping!
As we focus on the quiet sound of our breath and learn to become still - we gradually move to a state of appreciation for the ability to sense and see what is with us without effort.
The moment we notice the thoughts stuck in our mind that bring us stress (often the ones we unconsciously ruminate on), we awaken to the power of choosing to let go of that thought and choose another more aligned with what we want to create for ourselves.
The ego does not want to give up so easily on our stressful thinking because it wants to be in control, to defend and keep us safe (even if it actually limits us in the process). So how do we combat our ego - vested in and clinging to our limiting thoughts? We first ask - is this thought the absolute truth? Could it's opposite be true? With these questions alone, we allow curiosity to enter into our thought process. This then brings the expansion of choice and more curiosity. The body begins to relax and creative energy is welcomed.
Try it - when you feel anxious, stressed, angry or sad, breathe deeply 3 times. Notice your thought. Flip it immediately! Is this thought the absolute truth? What is the opposite of this limiting thought? Could this be just as true or truer?
Let me know what comes up for you as you practice this over the next month! I would love to hear what you are choosing to create in your mind.
What you think is what you create.
Exquisite Leader. Exquisite Life.
Note: The questions in this blog are found in The Work by Byron Katie.