The Quality Of Your Thoughts Determines The Quality Of Your Life

Lately I've been thinking a lot about... thinking.

Pay Attention to the Voice in Your Head

Have you ever noticed that there's a voice in your head, almost like another person is speaking to you? Do you notice that most times you aren't thinking, but thoughts are happening whether you try to think or not? One of the most liberating days of my life was when I realized that I am not always the thinker of the thoughts, but I am the observer of those thoughts. 

I realized that I can either pay attention to every thought or just let them go, unless it's one I really want to play with. 

That means that I ultimately get to decide the tone, quality, and overall amount of mental processing at any time. This is true for you too. 

When I didn't understand this I was always in my mind, and usually processing thoughts of chaos, crisis, or certain catastrophe. I was always involved in a doom-loop sequence where every negative thought led to anticipating the worst case scenario. Most times, this was unnecessary stress and only caused even more worry, fear, and doubt. 

Once you realize that thoughts pop in and out of your mind without your permission or will, you can let the negative-based ones go and choose to amplify the positive. 

That's when your life will change for the better. 

Isn't Being Negative Responsible?

I can already hear you saying "But isn't that irresponsible? How can you properly prepare for potential problems? Doesn't that just make you naive that everything's always ok?" The exact opposite. It elevates your entire consciousness, and helps you focus on the positive aspects of your life and circumstances. 

What you focus on grows, right? If you always prepare for doom, guess what? Doom will come because you will amplify the negative aspects of your life. When you train your mind to focus on positive thoughts, circumstances, and outcomes, you'll see your entire life shift in that direction. 

Did you notice I said "train?"

If you're anything like me, for 43 years my mind ran the show. I lived in my head, and as I connected with more negative thoughts my life became very dark because my mind kept getting darker. As I became more mindful of what was happening in my thoughts, thought processes, and mental patterns I began to be more choosy in what I would allow my mind to contemplate. And oftentimes when I notice a negative thought I immediately shift it to an awesome thought. 

For instance, when my thought are that the economy will collapse and that we're going to lose everything, I immediately shift that thought to the opposite. I contemplate my net-worth expanding consistently for the rest of my life. If there are ever economic challenges I'll deal with them - because I have survived and thrived through some pretty volatile situations. I trust myself. I'm undefeated, and I haven't died one time because of a major obstacle. 

By doing this type of mental gymnastics you begin to retrain your mind to think and perceive more clearly, positively, and effectively. Over time, the quality of your thoughts and your thought processes will improve dramatically. Please understand only you control what's happening or not happening in your head - your ability to shift from a negative thought to a positive though. No one can do it for you. 

Add Meditation to Your Life

Meditation is a super powerful tool to decrease your volume of thoughts while increasing the quality of them. Focus only on your breathing for 10-20 minutes per day. During this time your mind will wander away from your breathing and become distracted. Just bring your awareness back to your breath. By doing this you'll retrain your mind. 

You'll always be able to intentionally brainstorm, problem solve, and contemplate anytime you want. Your intentional thinking time - planned time to think and ponder - will get even more effective and powerful. You'll notice a tremendous increase in your overall mental capacities.

By seeing that you're not the thinker of random thoughts, shifting random thoughts from negative to positive, and adding meditation to your life, you'll see your overall mental health improve. Your wealth and successes will increase, and you'll notice the amount of joy you experience increase. 

Your overall quality of life will improve. 

Thoughts Create or Destroy

Remember this, the quality of your thoughts determines the quality of your life. Positive thoughts create, negative thoughts destroy. What you think about enough eventually happens.

You work hard to create the life of your dreams. Are you willing to just think differently and easier to do achieve the same results?

Photo by Thought Catalog on Unsplash