It matters what we think, for we draw to us what we think. Even thoughts left unspoken yet still swirling in the mind attract. Ideas we have about ourselves manifest as we continue to repeat them and believe them.
Spines and prickles, like so many unwanted thoughts… – Photo by Jan Ketchel
Anything we focus on with intention, both good and bad, whether we are conscious of doing so or not, affects us. Sometimes our negative thoughts rule us to the point where we have no other sense of self except these negative ideas. And such negativity has very negative vibes attached to it.
Thoughts matter. You can prove this very simply. Think of something bad that happened or something that makes you sad. Notice how you feel. Now think of a good thing, something pleasant, a happy place to be. Notice how you feel.
We can consciously monitor our thoughts, by constantly bringing our attention back to our thoughts and asking: What am I thinking about right now? Is it a good thought or a bad thought? How does it make me feel? Does it bring me positive energy vibrations or negative energy vibrations?
If we decide we want to change something about ourselves, the first place to start might be in changing what’s going on in our heads. We can be sure that what we think finds a way in and affects us in some way, often in ways we are not even aware of. And a lot of thoughts just aren’t good ones!
A Meditation
A simple 2 to 5 minutes of quiet and focused breathing, with intention to change your thoughts and your energy too, might just begin the biggest change of your life. It’s very simple.
Focus on the heart center and breathe into your heart the following words, saying them softly or silently to yourself: “Goodness, kindness, compassion and love in.” Exhale through your heart center the words: “Goodness, kindness, compassion, and love out.”
Take another breath into your heart center and say the words: “I am breathing into myself goodness, kindness, compassion, and love.” Let the power of good words and good thoughts fill you. Ask them to remain present in you, even as you exhale.
As you breathe out through the heart center, say the words: “I am breathing out into the world goodness, kindness, compassion, and love.”
Then breathe in again, saying to yourself: “I am filling myself with goodness, kindness, compassion, and love.” Breathe out into the world with the words: “I am filling you with goodness, kindness, compassion, and love.”
The Mantra:
Goodness, kindness, compassion and love in.
Goodness, kindness, compassion, and love out.
I am breathing into myself goodness, kindness, compassion, and love.
I am breathing out into the world goodness, kindness, compassion, and love.
I am filling myself with goodness, kindness, compassion, and love.
I am filling you with goodness, kindness, compassion, and love.
Try some simple centering and calmness… – Photo by Jan Ketchel
A simple breath and a simple mantra, for a few minutes at a time, is a powerful way to change our thoughts and to also reap the rewards of positive thinking as well as the generosity of sharing our goodness, kindness, compassion, and love with the rest of the world.
We are all capable of doing this. No one is more or less equipped. Let your heart show you that this is true. You might even notice, as you breathe in and out through your heart center, that your head is pretty calm and quiet. And that’s really the message I wish to pass along today: Focus more on the heart, leave the head alone.
Breathing and sending good vibrations to everyone, Jan
Note: I am shifting, pulling away, after today’s blog, from writing every week. In the meantime, a new collaboration between me and Jeanne, the Soul Sisters as I have been calling us, is in the works, to be revealed in the coming weeks!
Who else are we that we have unlimited power within? – Photo by Jan Ketchel
I have a pain in my shoulder. I notice that when I’m distracted or busy I don’t feel the pain; it simply doesn’t exist until I put my attention back onto my shoulder and remember, “Oh yes, I have that pain in my shoulder.” Immediately, I feel pain again. Why is it that the pain sometimes exists and sometimes doesn’t? Is it real to begin with?
I think about other scenarios where I think something and it manifests. One day, Chuck and I were gathering wood for the wood stove at our wood pile. Chuck was reaching high up on the stack while I was reaching down to some small logs on the ground below him. I suddenly heard a voice warning me to get out of the way, that a log could fall on top of me. As soon as I heard the message to get out of the way, I started to pull back. At the same time, as Chuck said, “a log leaped off the pile” and landed on my finger. OUCH!
I wondered if my thinking that a log could fall, actually caused the log to fall. Did my thought create the outcome? Do thoughts have that much power? Sometimes, I might think a thought and then tell myself to dismiss it, that it’s not something I wish to invite into my life, and in such cases the thought does not manifest. Can we really control our lives by our thoughts? Do WE have that much power? These questions have interested me for a long time.
We limit, inhibit, and control ourselves in the way we speak to and about ourselves. We tend to label ourselves, saying that “I am this” or “I am that.” We compare ourselves to others, give ourselves commands and definitions, make statements about ourselves that have impact, not necessarily positive, even if we might intend them as encouragement, such as, “I have to change, I must lose weight, I have to exercise, get into shape, eat better, etc.” We say, “I have to do this or that,” or “I should.” It’s also common to complain about what we think we can’t change. “I can’t… I shouldn’t… I’m not… Why aren’t I…? How come I can’t…?”
I do the same. I tend to say things like: “I have to get into balance. I have to get calm. I look tired today.” These things may have positive underlying intentions, but they in themselves are not helpful. When I notice myself saying these things I apply a little self-hypnosis and turn those phrases into affirmative, self-empowering thoughts. “I AM in balance. I AM calm. I look GREAT today!” When I do this, I notice that I feel differently. The more I say it, the more it becomes true.
Dare to dream a different dream… – Photo by Jan Ketchel
Self-hypnosis is really just about offering suggestions to the self. We do it all the time, without even thinking about it, telling ourselves a myriad of things every day, plenty of negative self-talk, most likely, because we have been trained to notice only our imperfections. It might be time to try out some positive self-hypnosis for a change, to discover that real and lasting change comes from within, and that positive suggestions have positive impact.
If we actually listen to what we say to ourselves on a daily basis, how often we say negative or demeaning things to ourselves—I’m lonely, I’m bored, I’m a loser—the more lonely, bored, and the more of a loser we become. Our thoughts are that powerful!
So, watch what you say to yourself. You might be able to prevent a lot of unnecessary pain. If I had dismissed the thought of that log falling on me, might I have prevented my finger from getting crushed? I don’t know, but I’m sure going to try to avoid unnecessary pain in the future!
How can we do that? How can we avoid pain? How can we change our thoughts? We might begin by asking ourselves some questions, depending on our circumstances: Did I bring this pain on myself with my thoughts? Did I invite this challenge into my life? What thoughts do I tell myself that have created my life? Are my thoughts generally negative or are my thoughts generally positive?
Once we discover our own personal method of self-talk, we take the next step of using new language to empower ourselves. Self-hypnosis is an agent of change, but using it is our choice. Are you ready to take responsibility for the self and wake up this power within?
We enter new territory as we give positive, supportive suggestions to the self. “I am healthy. I am happy. I am fit. I am losing weight every day. I am beautiful. I exercise and I am in good shape. I eat right and I am healthy.” As we say these things to ourselves we become them. Yes, we have the power to change ourselves!
About a decade ago, when I was in the middle of my recapitulation, I discovered that I was always expecting everything in my life to be difficult. I expected bad things to happen to me because that was my experience. I expected my car to keep breaking down, people to disappoint me, to be lonely and sad, to always be depressed. One day, I got so fed up with things going wrong and with being depressed that I declared I would no longer be accepting bad things. From that moment on I would only accept good! That very day things began to change for the better. It was in that moment that I discovered just how much power my own thoughts had.
Just as the morning light of each new day is intentional, so will peace come if we intend it… – Photo by Jan Ketchel
Gaining control over how we speak to ourselves, is a fine practice to accompany our work on becoming kind, loving, and compassionate beings. As we practice putting our attention on our thoughts—the patter that runs through our minds, day and night, about what we should or should not do or be—we will turn those thoughts on their ears. We will take back our power, turning negative energy into positive energy.
As we study how our own negative self-talk affects us, as we change the messages we constantly give to ourselves, we gain understanding in the difficulties that others face. We learn compassion when we realize that we are no different from anyone else.
We really do hold the power to change, the power to create a new reality, simply by how we talk to ourselves.
Here is a positive, self-affirming hypnotic suggestion to say to yourself: I am calm, I am in balance, and I have the power to change, Jan
NOTE: During the writing of this post my shoulder did not hurt one bit! Hmmm…
Our minds like to confuse us, presenting us with a tangled and confusing mess of thoughts that have nothing to do with our truths… – Photo by Jan Ketchel
Here is this week’s channeled message from Jeanne. She suggests that a New Year’s Resolution of the highest order would be to take back our power over how we think and speak. Think positive! Speak from the heart!
Fog is depressing. That’s a thought that has power. – Photo by Jan Ketchel
It’s raining and foggy today. I could be depressed, but my spirit is not depressed and so the weather outside is not having the effect on me that it might once have had, when I was clinically depressed. Back then the weather would have made me feel even more lifeless and given me a good excuse to stay in, vegetate, and feel sorry for myself. Today I take it in stride, knowing that the outside weather will nurture me in some necessary way, perhaps not clearly revealed until later in the day. I am certain that my spirit and my own nature will find the appropriate alignment that will lead to this nurturance.
Why is it raining? Nature says it’s time for rain. The conditions outside—cloud cover, temperature, humidity, etc.—produce fog, everything working together to produce this grey and rainy morning. We might look outside and wish for some sun perhaps. What we get, however, is nature saying, “no, I need the rain and everything is set up for rain to happen so this is what you are getting today.” This is the spirit of nature, nature and spirit as one, creating appropriate conditions for the planet.
Sometimes nature produces extreme weather conditions, fires, volcanic eruptions, melting ice caps, flooding rivers. Sometimes nature produces aberrant behaviors in human beings, rapists, murderers, terrorists. I can only surmise that nature knows what it is doing, that all of these extreme and seemingly destructive elements and events are actually necessary correctives. I trust nature. I know I cannot control it, but I can study the lessons it seeks to teach me.
We have similar goings on inside ourselves all the time, our nature and spirit work as one too, producing exactly the conditions that we need at this time in our lives. Sometimes the conditions within our bodies are extreme too, such as catastrophic illness, accident, or unexpected deeply emotional situations that send us spinning. Perhaps we also have a terrorist inside us, seeking to rout out some aspect of ourselves that we have not acknowledged or cared to deal with.
How we react to what is going on, both outside and inside ourselves, will tell us a lot about how in alignment we are with our own nature and spirit. Do we ignore the real reasons behind our challenges? Do we pull up our usual defenses, shift right into our ingrained habits and behaviors, the things we normally latch onto when we don’t want to face what is actually happening in our lives? On the other hand, we can turn inward and ask our own spirit and our own nature to come forth and communicate, to tell us the truth, to show us what is really going on.
We can take a scientific approach as well as a psychological approach to any situation we find ourselves in. In fact, viewing a situation from all sides is pragmatic, so that we have all the information we need to make a good, healthy decision for ourselves. Facts might be presented that explain what we are dealing with, alternative approaches to healing suggested, imperatives presented, but then it is up to us to go deeper into what is happening to us, if at all possible to invite our own nature and our own spirit to weigh in. Often, if we are to not only alleviate but fully resolve our inner conditions, we have to go beyond the facts and venture into feelings and emotions, and confront the deeper issues and circumstances of our inner psychological and spiritual makeup that produce our outer symptoms.
If we sit and go inward we might discover something we didn’t see before, like the nurturing sage growing right beside us! – Photo by Jan Ketchel
For instance, if I’m depressed, my nature and spirit are telling me there is a reason, that it’s time perhaps to go deeper into old feelings about myself that need to be attended to. I take the view that my physical body is my personal planet, and in knowing that my spirit resides in my body I understand that they are one unit. This body unit is my personal “Nature.” Just like the nature of the planet outside of me they are always in agreement, constantly working together to alert me to my deeper issues, offering me the guidance I need to heal my mind and body so that I may take my place in a new and brighter world.
It’s sometimes easier to look outside of us and see how other people are in conflict with their own nature and spirit, but much harder to see it in ourselves. It’s much easier to look to the earth and see how we humans have been, for centuries, slowly destroying the planet we live on, but much harder to realize that what is outside is only a reflection of what is going on inside and that we personally are as responsible as anyone. It’s so easy to blame others, to rant about what they have done to us. It’s so easy to point out how others are so greedy and feel so entitled to take and to destroy. We are above it all, we say, but the world around us is telling us that we are all responsible for the state the world and the planet are in now, just as we are responsible for our own bodies and spirits.
As the rain pattered outside this morning, Chuck and I sat and spoke about our dreams and what we had been reading. The conversation came around to how to begin a process of healing that is practical, offering the most basic of principles: Change our thoughts; change our personal world. Yes, thoughts do have power, a lot of power. Negative thoughts powerfully effect us negatively. Positive thoughts have powerfully positive effect upon us.
Our thoughts set up our natural environment. They bring us rain and fog, or they bring us sunshine. If we say that we are sick, then we will be sick and we must take full responsibility for feeling sick. If we say that we feel great, we must take full responsibility for feeling great too. No one else, outside of us, has the responsibility or the ability to fix us or heal us. Just as we are all on our own journeys—responsible for all the decisions we make in our lives, offered the opportunity to take what happens to us to new levels of growth and understanding—so are we responsible for our own thoughts. And beyond that we are equally responsible for our own healing.
If we have negative thoughts running through our head we should pay attention to them. They are there for a good reason. They are our spirit alerting us to them, asking us to question if they are really true, hounding us to let them go. We will not be left alone until we do. We will suffer depression and inadequacies until we feed our nature and our spirit some healthier alternatives. This is how our nature and our spirit are in alignment.
How we decide to nurture our minds, bodies and spirits is up to us! – Photo by Jan Ketchel
Are we polluting ourselves the same way we pollute the earth? Are we taking too much, giving too much, overdoing, thinking negatively? How are we using our power? Where are we out of balance in our own lives and what can we do to correct the imbalances?
It’s not really that hard to take the first steps in a healthy direction. But it takes a commitment to really taking up the challenges that are imposed upon us as we face what we need for healing. To bring our own personal planet into alignment we must let our own nature, our spirit and our body, drive us to the necessary balance.
The world outside of us is the perfect environment for our inner process to grow and evolve; as within, so without. In gaining inner balance, outer balance will also be achieved and our lives will advance. A rainy day will not be depressing, but the perfectly necessary environment that it truly is.
