How To Take Control Of Your Thoughts

The mind is a powerful tool it can revisit experiences you thought you have overcome, it can even turn a positive situation into a negative within a matter of seconds, it can also bring you into an emotional state of anxiety. If you are an over thinker who manages to nitpick every experience or scenario, you will know what I am talking about. As an over-thinker myself I have witnessed how powerful my thoughts can spiral out of control by over analysing every situation and reacting to the thought as reality.

Eckhart Tolle in one of his books A new earth explains the science behind how emotions are created and I have broken it down in it’s simplest form.

You think a thought  > the thought gets filtered through your own interpretation > You create a mini story to go with that thought because your mind can not filter the difference between a thought and the reality   > Your body responds to that thought with an emotion   > This is how your thoughts create your emotion

When I first saw this sequence I thought yes, of course that is how it works but after pondering on it for a few moments and replacing the sequence with an example of a thought that has led me to a particular emotion, I soon came to realise how easy the domino effect it has; once you think of a thought and it gets blown out of proportion. Since then it has blown my mind and now I take extra care when a thought pops into my head to steer away from me creating a scenario that is far from the reality.

Now as for how to control your thoughts; Once you understood the sequence on how thoughts and emotions are created you will pay more attention to stopping the cycle from continuing. For example, a thought can be ‘ My friends don’t like me’, your body responds to the thought with feeling alone and sad even though you are surrounded by your friends but you have created this altered reality based on past experiences or a shift of tone or body language.  Before you replay that experience in your head looking for confirmation of that thought, think about the sequence I have shown you and ask yourself has this really happened or is it my thoughts creating a new story from the reality.

Once you understand the foundations on how to control your thoughts, you approach things differently because I know I certainly have when it comes to my thoughts taking over. It’s quite a hard complexity to get your head around, so if you don’t get it the first time don’t be disheartened, just re-read this post over and over again and you will suddenly have the light bulb moment .



Stay Grounded X

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