Back to the Basics

I have had a busy past six months – it’s been a long time between Newsletters!

I have been working with all of this material now for 35 years, but I still go Back to the Basics when life and living become a tad overwhelming. We all need to step back and ‘re-group’ every so often.

I always maintain that the first thing we need to do, if we are to keep on the positive track, is Be Grateful. So often in workshops, I say “we live in a fabulous country”. Even with ‘droughts and flooding rains’ etc., we live such a great lifestyle in a country where we can do just about anything. How blessed are we?

One of the best things we can do, every day, is remind ourselves of all the things we have in our lives. The list of blessings is long but we human beings can take so much for granted.

If you have done workshops with me, you will know that I write on the top of the whiteboard “WE BECOME WHAT WE THINK ABOUT”. The mind is so powerful, we create our own reality by what we think and what we say.

The pundits tell us we have a least 50,000 thoughts in a day. Everything from the mundane “I must pick up a loaf of bread”, to the uplifting “I’m so proud of the kids”, to the somewhat self-destructive “I’m just not good enough”. Our thoughts can be cluttered, unstable, shifting, often illogical, whimsical – such is the nature of the human mind.

There’s an important point here – we are not our thoughts. The awareness and perception we have in life are as a result of our thoughts.  Many people berate themselves when they have negative thoughts, but of course we have had lots of training and many influences and experiences throughout our lives that have brought us to where we are today.

Controlling our thoughts is a great way to achieve a healthier and happier mind, and to attract the things we want in life.

Remember Henry Ford’s quote: “Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right.”?

And there’s that old adage that says if we keep doing the same things over and over, we will wind up with the same results – and we wonder why that happens ?!!?

Because all of this is such a powerful process, I want to pass on some helpful ideas to make changes to the way we all tend to think. As you know, I love things that work and these are some techniques that have worked for me over the years.

Effective Thinking Without the Clutter

1.  Take Note Of Your Thoughts – Rather than reacting to everything we think, if we take a breath and step aside we can be an observer. “Mmmm, that’s interesting I’m thinking that.” This is a good way to keep in control without being reactionary. Throughout the course of our day, when we practise being the observer we notice how our mood changes, and consequently, our actions. Awareness is the first step in changing anything.

2.   Reassess Those Negative Thoughts – Perhaps we have a thought “No, I could never do that.” And we’d be right – so says Henry Ford! What about putting that differently, such as “I’ve never tackled anything like that. There might be a way I could do it.” We are now ‘going with the flow’ rather than ‘paddling upstream’. These are references from Esther and Jerry Hicks’ book “Ask And It Is Given” (definitely recommended reading). It’s hard work ‘paddling upstream’ (leaping to the negative) and completely unproductive because we effectively stop the flow of achievements that is available to all of us.

Please remember, most of life is about choice. We all want to feel better, so choose a thought that makes you feel better – one that ‘goes with the flow’ suggesting a positive outcome. When we choose a more positive thought, our perspective changes – and so do our actions. It’s a powerful process.

3.   Practise Mindful Non-Thinking – One of the most productive things any of us can do is to practise ‘finding the space between our thoughts’. Clearing the mind for a short time each day means more creativity, greater access to our wonderful imaginations and more clarity. It is such a good practice to work on daily. Our day will be so much more productive when we take time out to practise our Relaxation.

4.   Focus on the Way You Want to Live Your Life – When we do goal-setting sessions we talk about ‘seeing and speaking the end result’. What we focus on for a length of time becomes our reality. The mind is that powerful. This also helps to minimise the ‘mental clutter’ when we focus on the way we want our life to be.

It’s easy to focus on our problems (we all have them!). So we change our focus to the solutions, and there is always at least one solution to every problem.

5.   Your Mind is Like Fertile Soil – Protecting our minds from negative opinions and misinformation and avoiding stressful situations is vital for a healthy mind. As with all fertile gardens, we need to be careful the seeds we plant as these will grow to fruition. Negative ideas, gossip and judgements, should all be strenuously avoided. We really need to work at this. We live in a wonderful society but it is, so often, very negative.

If you’re not getting the very best out of life, here are some techniques that will help change the way you think. Your life mirrors your thoughts.

Have a happy month. I won’t leave it as long between Newsletters next time. As always, Love and Laughter,