How many times do you think of something and then get caught up in the emotion that thought provokes and have your entire day ruined?
We all do it – that time when something went wrong and we feel stupid, frustrated, uncomfortable. Or when we laughed so hard with our friends that our stomachs hurt and we again feel the joy, the pain (in a good way) and how close we were at that particular moment. But our thoughts are just that. They are thoughts. They hold no emotion, they have no loyalty or attachment to anything.
When something happens and we have a thought about it, we translate that thought into thinking based on our perception and experience of the world. This is why 5 people seeing the same event will all tell a different version of that event afterwards. We are individually hard-wired to think a certain way because of our upbringing and circumstances we experience as we go through life. The more we think a certain way, the more we validate our perception because that is what happens to us. We are the function and result of our thinking.
Thought = thinking = emotions = behaviour = action = results
Think about it. Does a thought actually contain an emotion or do we just attach emotions to the thought?
A boy walks down a street. There is no emotion in that thought. It is a statement, a fact, if you like. But if you start thinking about that statement, you recall a memory of seeing a boy walking down a street and suddenly an emotion is attached to it based on your past own experience of seeing a boy walking down a street and the circumstances surrounding that event. No one else will have that emotion, only you. By questioning our reality, our perception of a thought, we can change the meaning and, with practice, detach ourselves from the emotion that thought provoked. If we detach that particular emotion from that particular thought, we see it in a different way, we can give it a different meaning, feel differently about it and can move to create a different action and result. All by challenging the thought.
Exercise:
Next time you feel yourself getting caught up in emotion due to a thought, take a breath, put that thought on a big imaginary screen and observe it from a distance. Ask yourself:
- Why did I think that way?
- Is my thought true?
- What does it mean for me?
- What do I think the main issue with this is?
Lesson:
By creating this new dialogue we can then start to think in a different way, think outside any limiting beliefs.
We always have the power to choose. How we think, feel and react to any situation is no different. No one can choose a thought or emotion for us, so break the pattern, change the thought and choose empowerment.
