Thoughts Are Important

You are a spirit, you have a mind (soul), and you live inside a body. Even though you are a spirit, the way you interact with the world is through your mind. So the thoughts that reside in your mind are very important because they are how you interpret life. Life does not happen independently of your mind; your mind is essentially your life. You cannot have a life experience without the mind. The mind is the creator and interpreter of your life’s experiences.

"Everything you do – begins with a thought".

What you think determines your life. We typically think that life happens to us; but really, life is happening because of us. Events, situations, and relationships that occur over the course of our life and how we respond to them helps us to develop our mindset. Then that mindset (or thought life) is portrayed in everything we do. For example, peaceful people don’t initiate wars. Their mindset is such that they will seek and settle for a peaceful agreement. Whereas angry people are more likely to initiate wars. War doesn’t occur separate from people; war is caused by people. So, the mindset of the person causes the life experience.

You may have wrong thinking going on and not realize it. We all have within us the potential for good or bad - it’s our decision which side we want to live on. And sometimes we switch sides (back and forth). There has to be a daily effort to corral our thoughts and keep our minds focused on the positive and what can go right in this life. It needs to be done in everything we think, say and do. This is how we manage our mind. And sometimes the mind requires retraining to a more correct or desirable mindset. The mind must get into a new pattern in order to create new thinking. It won’t correct itself. There has to be a deliberate choice and continued effort to do so. Why? Because the mind maybe so used to its routine that it may not even know it’s involved in wrong thinking. It can see the wrong thinking as normal.

The average mind is believed to have 20,000 – 70,000 thoughts per day! Yes, that’s right – there’s a lot going on inside that head of yours. And research and studies show that 80% of thoughts are negative, and 90% are repetitive. Wow! That amounts to a whole bunch of negative thinking going on everyday all around the world. The majority of the thoughts processed by your brain are based on your intuition (intuitive thinking) and happen instantaneously and effortlessly based on your experiences. The other type of thinking is called rational thinking which is directed, conscious reasoning. We need to manage all of these thoughts or our mindset can get out of control quickly.

Taking It Personal

Here’s an anonymous quote:

“The bad news is, you cannot control people and make them like you, accept you, understand you or be nice to you. The good news is, it doesn’t matter.”

That’s a pretty good quote. The only problem with it is – most of the time, we do allow it to matter.

Consider a person who is always insulting others, or someone even as extreme as a bully. It’s very easy (and even normal) to take this kind of behavior personal. But realize that a bully is always hiding something. Even though their actions are aimed at you, they are really covering up an insecurity or weakness. They are saying “I feel like a loser inside – like I have nothing going for me and in order for me to feel better about myself, I have to put you down which in turn lifts me up a little higher”. They do this so much that it becomes ingrained in their personality. When you’re being treated wrong by someone and it’s not your fault, know that they are going through struggles, having a bad day, or even having a bad life. Of course, that doesn’t excuse what they’re doing or make it right, but what it does is help their behavior not get to you and affect your temperament. It helps you not to take it personal. They don’t get to put their stuff on you, but it’s up to you to not let that happen. Don’t accept the bad thoughts. Because the minute you grab onto it and take it personal, it begins to mess up your mindset and the rest of your day, week and sometimes year.

No one can truly ruin our life – we do that ourselves. People may do or say negative things to us, but our life gets ruined when we accept that what they told us is true. Then we began acting and living in a manner that brings on the destructive results (as a response). It may be true that they lied and probably did some things to you that were not fair, but you are the one who decides to accept those things in your mind, keep them there for a prolonged period of time, and allow them to become a part of you. So, please practice not taking things personal. And it takes practice! Keep your mind intact and set on what God needs you to do. Don’t take personal what others may do to you, but do take personal the responsibility of how you respond to what they did.   

“The way you feel has nothing to do with the way I feel; UNLESS I let it”.