Read it.

Ever shake your head and wonder “What was I thinking?”   

Wondering this is a clear sign that it’s time to start thinking about your thinking!  

Our thinking abilities are extremely powerful. Mahatma Gandhi is quoted as saying “A man is but the product of his thoughts.  What he thinks he becomes.” 

If you become what you think, you can become anything you can think of!   Dr. Seuss was right when he said “Think left and think right and think low and think high.  Oh, the things you can think if only you try!”  

Everything in life has a choice attached to it, including our thinking.  How, what and when we think are all choices that are ours to make.  Choosing not to think about our thinking is just as much of a choice as thinking about your thinking is.  You can manifest your desires when you become aware of the many opportunities you have to choose the thoughts you think.  

You are not your thoughts.  You are more powerful than your thoughts.  You have power over your thoughts.  They do not have power over you. Your thoughts are merely tools for you to use.    How you use these tools is well within your control.   Will you remain sleeping or wake up to your ability to manage your own thinking?

Each one of us has the ability to be curious and observant about our thinking patterns and strategies.  We have the ability to use our free will to act at our own discretion.  We can apply our power of free will to our thinking. 

If you embraced your power and purposefully thought about your thoughts,  what kinds of thoughts would you think?  Would they be self defeating or self supportive?  Constrictive or expansive?  Limited or limitless?

Begin by discerning when your best self is choosing your thoughts as opposed to when it feels like your thoughts are choosing you.   How can you tell the difference?  Thoughts chosen by your highest self will always feel uplifting.  On the other hand, thoughts that choose you will feel more constrictive.

Buddhist teachings refer to a concept called  “monkey mind”.   

Monkey mind is created by the endless chatter inside our head that talks dirty to us.  

No. It’s not talking dirty to us in a way that makes us feel good.  On the contrary, monkey mind is chatter that bullies us, puts us down, keeps us fixated on what we don’t have, struggling with anxiety, fear and worry.  It scares us and weakens our power.  It diminishes us.

The endless chatter fosters a mentality of lack instead of abundance, fear instead of belief, denial instead of acceptance. When left unmonitored, our thinking can become biased, distorted, judgmental, uninformed…It becomes easy to become someone we are not.  

Limited, inadequately informed, defensive, arrogant, and programmed with survival tactics, monkey mind does not care about our emotional needs.   Always on high alert, primitive minds have an innate capacity for thinking, and will feed upon anything to survive. Constantly scanning its environment for stimuli to process, it will create stimuli using false beliefs because its survival depends on it.  Thoughts like you aren’t good enough, no one likes you, and you will never succeed are all charged with fear.  Fear and drama based thoughts are especially delicious food for the monkey mind. Peaceful and loving thoughts do not trigger the instinct to survive and therefore do not satiate the monkey mind in the same way.

Instinctively protecting itself from failure and disappointment using primitive tools and methods, monkey mind will remain in survival mode. Our thinking can easily become out of control, keeping us locked in heavy, toxic energy and stuck in a loop of old patterns and thoughts.  

Being caught in a primitive thinking loop no longer meets our 21st Century needs and is a barrier to realizing our infinite potential.    Protecting ourselves from failure and disappointment limits our growth.  Failure and disappointment are where all of our most valuable opportunities to learn and grow exist.  

Coasting through life on autopilot,  we don’t purposefully think about  how to put our shoes on, start our car, drive to work, brush our teeth, etc..  We just do it.  We have done it so many times that gradually, over time, it became a habit.  Left on autopilot, our thinking patterns become habitual in the same way.  Many of our thinking patterns were learned in childhood and have worn down a path to the same outcomes over and over again.    Ironically we use these thinking patterns without thinking at all.  We use them whether they serve our best self or not.    These thinking patterns must be reviewed and supervised if we want to get unstuck. 

Observe your thoughts for one day and notice how you speak with yourself through your thoughts. Notice your thinking patterns.  Think about your thinking.  This is called Metacognition.  Metacognition is the process of observing, questioning, monitoring and evaluating your thinking.  Listen to your quiet inner voice that knows.  Not your inside voice, your inner voice that comes from a place of unconditional love and peace, the voice that knows what is in your best interest. 

Shut down any voice that comes from anxiety and fear.  This is your ego which is pre-programmed to project a self image based on illusions and false beliefs.  The ego is designed to ensure your safety and existence.  It is based in survival mode.  When you become aware of any voice that is not loving, thank it for its service and evaluate if there is a thinking pattern that would serve you better.   Reach for better feeling thoughts.

Without a doubt, changing thinking patterns that do not feel expansive is the first step to embracing your free will.

If you kept hitting the dead end of a street without accomplishing what you were there for, would you keep going down that dead end?  What would you do differently?  How can you accomplish your goal more efficiently? People stay stuck in the same patterns and behaviors for their entire life to avoid changing a specific thought or behavior.  They are self sabotaging themselves.

I am inviting you to use your free will to make a conscious choice about what thinking patterns you choose to embrace, and which you choose to discard.  You can create your own toolbox of strategies that work for you.  

Conscious thinking involves analyzing what you know versus what you believe.  It includes asking questions, considering alternative explanations, and assessing your options, as well as your conclusions.  Always draw conclusions based on the thoughts that serve you best, as well as the ones that make you feel the most peace and love.   

Conscious thinking strategies can be programmed into  habits and used for every decision you make, including which thinking strategies to use.  As you use these strategies, continue to monitor and evaluate the strategy, making adjustments towards happiness as needed. 

We can manage our thinking in a way that uplifts us.  It is a false belief to think that our thoughts control us. Opportunities exist in each moment to  think better feeling thoughts, or to think toxic thoughts.  Not making a choice is using your power of free will to not align with your highest self.  Either way the choice will be made, whether you consciously or passively make it.  Resistance of any kind is an opportunity to observe your thinking to see how and where a shift in your thinking may change your perception, as well as your circumstances. 

Self-fulfilling prophecy describes the tendency for something that you believe to come true because your beliefs affected your behaviors which in turn, manifested the situation.  We think thoughts based on our beliefs.  Believe that you have the ability to manage your thoughts, think thoughts that support that belief, and you are on a path of happiness.    

Observe your thinking to see where you can reach for better feeling thoughts.

When you align your thinking with the best version of yourself, you will experience happiness.  We fail to launch when we let our mind limit us.  Will you choose to be:  limited or limitless?  

Don’t allow a monkey to manage your mind!  Make a conscious choice to wonder “What am I thinking?”   And allow the essence of who you really are to inform your thinking, instead of allowing your thinking to control you.    

OUTRO

Thank you for listening to this week’s episode of “21st Century Abilities” brought to you by Keara Kisses.   

Think about it!  Embrace the power you have within yourself to think the thoughts that align you with your potential.  

In Episode 3 of our series “21st Century Abilities” we will look at how we are able to guide ourselves to  inner peace.

For more information on the services I offer, please visit kearakisses.com.  

Thank you for listening each week.  Until we meet again, keep wondering.

Disclosure

These blogs are written from my personal perspective.  I have over thirty years of experience investigating, counseling, assessing and understanding the nature of humans.  I look forward to creating a connection with you and sharing reciprocal positive experiences, comments and feedback about your life experiences and opportunities for growth.  Please feel free to comment below.  Positive comments only please.