Taking control of your thoughts

How do we mismanage our thoughts?

When we repetitively think about something we expand it, enlarge it and thereby strengthen its power over us. Picture yourself holding a magnifying glass over a piece of paper under a hot sun. As the sun’s rays finds a focal point on the paper it will start to burn the paper and soon it will be engulfed in flame. So it is with the focus of our thoughts.

When I was 16, and going through a difficult patch, I found myself constantly living in a story with the theme of being, ‘misunderstood/ hurt/ unseen’. In my story I gave power to the thought that I would never find a sense of happiness or peace. It was during this difficult time a wise person gave me a piece of advice that I’ve never forgotten. She said, “if you want to change your situation then take hold of your mind and starve those thoughts to death”.

Being a visual thinker, this analogy worked well for me. I pictured those hurtful thoughts as a living person and when they stepped forward, I began to withhold food from them. Over a period of a few weeks of taking emotional responsibility over how long I allowed those thoughts to live in my mind, they soon began to shrink and I was able to step out of that story.

Observe your thinking over the next week, which thoughts are serving you and which are not? Remember the magnifying glass and remember the analogy of starving thoughts which harm.

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