Can't stop thinking?

What are you thinking about right now? In this very moment, what thought is dominating your mind?

What about today? What have you been thinking most about today? Is it those same thoughts that bother you every day or is it something else? Did you think about it yesterday? Will it clog up your mind tomorrow? What is your thinking leading you to do?

Whatever you have been thinking about, one thing is clear. We are always thinking.

Thinking. Thinking. Thinking. Thinking.

It doesn’t stop. We just continuously have thoughts that flow one after the after, 50,000 of them every day, flowing one after the other like a stream of consciousness.

Have you ever stopped to think about your thoughts? Where do they come from? Where do they go? Why do we have them?

Thoughts are the essence of everything. Take a second and think about it, everything comes from thought. All the things you see around you originate from a thought. Everything man-made has thought at the basis of its existence.

Thoughts create the world around us. Thoughts are powerful.

Think about it, everything you can see came from a thought. The phone you use every day. The table you sit at to eat. The clothes on your back. The car you drive. Everything started life as a thought first and foremost… someone, somewhere had to think about it first before they could do it.

Imagination is more important than knowledge. We are all blessed with an imagination, and we can use it as a starting place to create magic and abundance.

Take, Sir Tim Berners Lee, for instance, here was a man who had a lot of knowledge about computers. He took this knowledge and thought about creating a network of computers, so that people could communicate with each other, in a time when computers were only for personal use, with no way of connecting to anyone else. Thus, the internet was born. The internet started life as a thought from the imagination of one man. Thoughts are powerful!

We all have an imagination, something given to us to use to dream, believe and create beyond our dreams, but most of us don’t use it to create magic like Sir Tim, instead, we use it to create the reality we see before us.

That’s right the reality you see in your life is a creation of your thoughts. Hard to believe, and probably the reason why my sister didn’t talk to me for weeks when I said it to her. But it is true; the reality you see in your life is coming from your thoughts because thoughts create feelings that produce behaviour. Thought. Feelings. Behaviour.

The CBT (cognitive behavioural therapy) model as displayed above shows how our thoughts, feelings and behaviours are connected. Our thoughts especially our consistent ones produce feelings, and these feelings trigger our behaviour. Hence why it is important to recognise if you are having negative thought patterns that are impacting on your life and possibly those around you.

Do you think mainly positively or negatively? What do you think about consistently? How does it show up in your behaviour?

When you have a thought, the neurons fire up in the brain causing electrical and chemical impulses to interact and create brain activity. Neurotransmitters receive the signals and send the information to your feelings and emotions along with whether the thoughts are positive or negative. This is then transformed into your behaviour. Thoughts are powerful. So, it is important to check in with your thoughts and how they are showing up in your life.

Do you have beliefs that hold you back? Limiting beliefs that keep you stuck?

Philosopher Loa Tzu sums up what happens when we don’t pay attention to our thoughts.

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 destiny.

How can you watch your thoughts? By evaluating your beliefs. Be open and honest with yourself about your thoughts and beliefs. 

Do you have thoughts that are not serving you? Question your beliefs and ask yourself, where does this belief come from? What evidence do I have that this is true? What would happen if I let go of this belief? What would be possible?

Thoughts are powerful. Your thoughts are powerful. What will you decide to think about most today?