De-Frazzle: Thinking New Thoughts

You know, all of life is thinking! No matter what you are doing, or not doing, you are thinking. You thoughts shape your life! This is why it is so important that we all learn to take control of our thinking. Our thoughts create our experiences...Louise Hay

There's my favorite Maxine cartoon.  Don't believe everything you think.  Have you ever found out that something you were thinking just wasn't true/correct?  Like when people thought the world was flat?  Or, perhaps you thought someone was angry with you when they were just having a bad day?  Or, perhaps you thought you were falling in love but it turned out to be just a crush?  Have you ever found yourself acting on an ASSumption that you found out later had no truth in it whatsoever?  



Consequently, we can see that, just because we think something doesn't mean that it's true.  


I have come to believe that TRUTH is a very personal thing.  The best example I can see for this is different religious beliefs - people tend to think "My way is the right way or the only way or mine is the absolute TRUTH".  How can it be possible that only one of these 'ways' is right/true and all the rest are wrong/false?  I know that what is true for me may or may not be true for you, so it's important for me to open my mind to other thoughts and ideas.  There might be some ideas out there that FEEL more true to me than what's already in my head and I'll never know that if I don't purposefully seek out new ideas and entertain new and different thoughts. This is especially true if the thoughts I've been thinking are making me feel bad.  I much prefer thoughts that make me FEEL GOOD.  

This is me FEELING GOOD

Since a repeated thought can become a belief, my goal is to repeat only thoughts that feel good and healing.  Healing is pretty high on my list of priorities and I know that I am responsible for making myself feel good.  


Science tells us that we each have about 50-60,000 thoughts PER DAY.  That's about one thought per second if we're awake for 16 hours in a day.  How could anyone actually count that?  I don't know, but I do know there is  a way to 'monitor' my thinking.  It's by noticing how I'm FEELING.  Science also tells us that our feelings are a direct response to our thoughts.  Following in this logical train, then...

IF I FEEL BAD (sad, angry, worried, fearful, depressed)

AND my feeling is a response to my thoughts...
THEN I can change how I'm feeling by changing what I'm thinking.  Now, that's something to think about!


How do I know when it's time to change what I'm thinking?  It's when I FEEL bad!  So, I need to pay attention to how I feel!  That's not really hard to do.  
Then, HOW DO I CHANGE WHAT I'M THINKING??????

Well, who is in control of what I think?  Only one person - ME.  Here's one way to change my thinking/thoughts - use DISTRACTION.  Direct my thinking toward something different.  There are so many ways to do this.... for example:

• make a phone call
• read a book
• watch a movie
• meditate
• plan a social event
• write in your journal
• play a computer game or solitaire
• work on a word or number puzzle
• go for a walk/exercise
• pray for help to change the thought and feeling
• MOVE AROUND AND DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT

Here's another way to change my thinking/thoughts - use THOUGHT SUBSTITUTION.  It is just what it sounds like....Substitute one thought for another.  This requires a little planning ahead, but once you've used it, you'll want to expand on it, use it even more often and have fun with it (perhaps - at least that's what's been true for me).  

Knowing that ABSOLUTELY ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE in my imagination, I like to see how imaginative and creative I can be in making up "happy thoughts" and "remembering happy times" and storing them in my imaginary treasure chest, which must be in my mind somewhere. Then, I can open my imaginary treasure chest and retrieve a thought, image or memory that I know ALWAYS makes me feel good.  If it doesn't feel good, I have the power to change or discard it.  It makes me feel really powerful!

Treasure chest of good-feeling thoughts & memories

So, I have filled up my treasure chest with MEMORIES that make me feel good, like...

• my daughter's wedding celebration
• my own wedding
• holding a precious child
• seeing the smile on that child's face
• hearing the giggle while seeing the smile
• feeling that sense of accomplishment when  I decided to quit my job
• feeling the excitement of swimming with a dolphin
• breathing in the beauty of nature (so many of these awesome memories) with the wind - using all my senses (sight, sound, touch, taste, smell)

Get the idea?  Take some time with a memory and really get into the feelings of that moment, write it down, talk about it with yourself or others, expand it, exaggerate it, look at photos, draw pictures, use all your senses... Do whatever it takes to firmly implant the good feelings of the memory in your treasure chest, leaving it ready to retrieve on a moment's notice.  Then, you can substitute the feel-good memory for the bad-feeling thought and the good feeling will come. If the memory does not FEEL GOOD when you retrieve it because you have associated a bad feeling with it, then either change the memory (embellishment is fine in our own imagination) so it DOES feel good or take it out of your treasure chest so you don't try to use it again. This really does get easier with practice.  You can do the same with your good-feeling thoughts.

Since there's no actual size limits, I have also filled up my treasure chest with GOOD-FEELING THOUGHTS and SCENARIOS (not actual memories, although they do slip in there sometimes) that always make me smile, like...

• a scene where my higher self or guardian angel shines a light on my negative thought and makes it disappear, then replaces it and fills my being with light, warmth, comfort and divine healing love (breathing it in to every cell)
• seeing and feeling my body performing the Sun Salutation (yoga) with perfect strength and breathing
• inspiring songs to sing, like Gloria Gaynor's I WILL SURVIVE and Helen Ready's I AM WOMAN
• the shocked look and big smile on my oncologist's face when he says the word "REMISSION" and it reverberates/echoes in my mind over and over again
• my victory dance - jumping for joy
• taking flight on a dragon's back to "soak up" the beauty of nature
• chemo droplets destroying individual cancer cells
• painting beautiful landscapes and humorous faces
• imagining that my heart is sending love to every other being on the planet and that we are all connected with love.  With this loving connection, we can bring light to areas of darkness, and transform despair to hope, disease to perfect health, conflict to peace, poverty to abundance, hunger to nutritious meals, and so much more.

There are no limits to what we can imagine!  We are so fortunate to have such powerful thoughts.  We must be able to do lots of healing work with them.  Again, this is what is true for me.  I love my treasure chest of GOOD FEELINGS!  How about you?


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