Power of Our Thoughts

Lord Buddha said, “ We are what we think, all that we arise with our thoughts, with our thoughts we make our world”.
Isn’t it alarming and at the same time relieving that what we are today is the result of what we have thought in the past. That means our thoughts have the power to make us or break us, and we have the power to choose!
It had been estimated that we all think more than 60,000 thoughts a day… and it’s unbelievable ,isn’t it?
How is it possible to think that many thoughts!
Let’s find out…!

Stop for a moment…! Let’s turn inward and pay attention to what’s going on there…!
Can you listen to that endless chatter… like a commentary about your life…, your feelings,your feelings, about other people… what they have done to us… and how we can get even with them etc. … and a myriad of things are happening there.
If we can listen to this inner dialogue objectively, we can be aware of our thought patterns. Undoubtedly, there are a few that serve us… but for most people, these thoughts majorly negative, limiting and self defeating…
For example… “ I’m not worthy… not good enough, I’m alone… no one loves me or I’ not loveable… I’m not capable like others, I hate my job… I can’t do it… “ and the list goes on..

Who creates this pattern of thinking?
These thoughts are based on our core beliefs about ourselves and the world around us. We have learned these beliefs during the course of our life. These beliefs are put into our minds by our culture, society, faith, parents, teachers and so forth..
Everything we have learned from the beginning of our soul’s journey stays with us. Our core beliefs lead us to our limiting beliefs and we hold them as facts of our life…, and these beliefs constitute the ingredients of our thoughts.

A thought is a living entity.It’s born on our mind sometimes consciously and sometimes unconsciously in response to a presenting situation. When a thought is born, through it we get connected to instances that are similar in nature, and then a chain of thoughts is formed.Thus the birth of a thought is backed by a history of its own. It is this trail of thoughts that attracts and creates everything in our life… good or bad. Most of the time we’re not consciously aware of this mind chatter… however unconsciously they become the reality of our life. Like Aristotle said, “ we are what we repeatedly do.”
How do these thoughts affect us?

The quality of our life depends on the quality of the ingredients of our thoughts like the quality of a dish cooked on our kitchen depends on the ingredients that went inside.
Moment by moment we are consciously or unconsciously going through healthy or unhealthy thoughts…poisonous thoughts poison us, and positive thoughts empower and energise.

The word ‘ neuropeptide’ coined by Dr. Candice Pert in her research on brain function refers to the chemical messengers that travel throughout our body when we think or speak a word. When our thoughts are angry, judgemental or critical, the chemical produced in our brain depresses the system. When our thoughts are loving, positive and empowering, these messages carry chemicals that enhance our immune system. This communication never stops! Our mind is constantly relaying thoughts to the cells of our body, and every cell in our body carries encoded memories e of every thought we think, every emotion we feel, and the experience of every breath we take and get stored in our cells. During our metabolic activities, the dying cells all these memories to the cells that are being born…. isn’t it amazing! This is the influence of our thoughts on our body!
Science is confirming that we cannot afford to indulge in negative thinking as it can destroy us mentally, physically, emotionally, and it can even kill us. Do we have a way out of this quagmire….! Yes of course, we have.

Since we have learned or conditioned ourselves to these negative patterns, we can certainly unlearn them and re-learn to think to our advantage. In order to achieve this change,we need to take time to go within, observe our activities there, do an assignment, and if we don’t like something, we have option to re-create. Develop empowering beliefs and speaking patterns that can shape our life in accordance with our dreams. To make these positive changes permanent we need to be always aware, alert and committed. Again learn from the wisdom of Aristotle, “ Excellence is not an act, but a habit.”
 
As we begin to change, we may not see tangible results right away, but as we practice tenaciously, we’ll find our tomorrow becoming magnificent…better and brighter…