One of the first steps to reducing your dysfunction and enhancing well-being is to better understand the principle of thought.
1) All people think.
Your moment-to-moment thinking creates and shapes all experiences and perceptions, all day and every day. Notice as your thinking fluctuates so does your experience of the same event. Additionally, two people experience the same event yet have radically different interpretations. Why? Because of the human capacity to think.
2) We cannot control our thoughts.
Thought manipulation and replacement is counterproductive because it revs up your thinking and lowers your state of mind. Your thoughts are random, neutral, and always fluctuating. When my clients realize this truth, they feel as if a weight has been lifted from their shoulders.
3) You are not crazy when you have some “bad,” “crazy,” and off thoughts.
I hesitate to label or differentiate between “good” and “bad” thinking because such analysis invites more thinking. The content of thought isn’t important; the important thing to understand is that we always have thought flowing through us. Having a “bad” thought doesn’t make you a bad person; it makes you a normal person with a wayward thought. No need to worry; carry on.
4) Thought comes first, then feelings—always.
Seeing this will change your life. What you feel is never the result of your circumstances (it only appears that way). Believing circumstances dictate state of mind and your thinking invites a victim mentality and sets the course for a maddening life. Feelings (emotions, internal world) are the result of the ebb and flow of your moment-to-moment thinking.
Let’s focus on what we have in common.
Remember your thoughts ultimately have no power.
Please don’t take your thinking so seriously.
Thanks for reading.
Bruce