How to Change your World by Changing your Thoughts
Daily thought patterns determine how you see the world
You wake up every day and go through a series of patterns. You hit your alarm, go back to sleep, hit it again, and roll out of bed. You brush your teeth without thought, you make your bed as a rehearsal of your day begins to play itself out in your mind. You jump in the shower and have already had three of the same regular arguments with co-workers, your step-son, and that asshole online.
Thought Patterns
We all have stories we tell ourselves about the way life is. Many of these stories came from a belief about a situation based on what we experienced as children. A belief is embedded in our minds and our entire life we play out the scenarios of this one wounded moment, surrounded with fear, that we created to protect ourselves from having to experience hurt again.
As an adult, you can see this in children. It’s much easier to point out the innocent situations. recognizing these behaviors in children can help us begin to understand our own stories and beliefs. This is a key to unlocking new doors towards healthier beliefs. Thoughts that can guide us into a brighter future.
Patterns Become Habits
Once a thought pattern is formed we spend our lives defending those patterns to protect our story. Our brain is constantly running this pattern as our truth. It controls our behavior throughout our daily life. So if the belief pattern ruling your thoughts, that was created in your 6-year-old mind, are based in fear that you are unloveable, unworthy, or not good enough, then you have some work to undo.
These patterns are deep-rooted and if you look around your world today you probably see evidence that these beliefs are all true. Thought patterns that continually send messages to your brain of not being worthy will influence everything that you do. This puts you in a space of feeling like an imposter in your own life. So now you are in the habit of constantly guarding yourself. You find yourself getting upset at comments for no good reason. You are immediately on the defense because you’re in the habit of responding to your story of not being enough. That’s a lot of unnecessary work.
Habits are formed around these thought patterns to protect you. The good news is that unhealthy thought patterns can be changed once you begin to realize what they are.
Triggers
A good way to start identifying your negative habits and thought patterns is to start paying attention to what triggers you. Examples are:
- Anger
- Resentment
- Blaming
- Impatience
- Frustration
- Defensiveness
- Justification
Once identified you can begin to explore the story or fear behind them. This takes work. Work that many will choose to ignore. You see grown-up babies all around you, and it’s unhealthy, so don’t do it. Grow. It’s the only way out of those negative thoughts.
Odds are you already have some idea what things trigger you. My bet is you already know what habits are keeping you functioning at a consistently low bar. Now make it your goal to be conscious of these triggers so you can change the story at hand. Nobody can do this for you. You have to want to grow and change.
Become Aware
You have to believe that you are worthy of breaking from these patterns. This gets tricky, I’m warning you now. You have years of protective layering in your mind that feels safe and comfortable right where you’re at. These thoughts, like all thoughts, will jockey for a position in your mind. They will not go down easily. Not until you decide to see how unique and special you really are. For it’s when you can truly love yourself that you can pour that love out into the world around you.
Like most things, the more you practice being aware, the more aware you will become. Again, I need to stress that there are certain patterns that your subconscious will fight for even though you know they are the most toxic behaviors you have. This is where the real work is.
Begin to ask yourself in these moments, “What am I getting from this behavior or pattern?” Most likely you will find that you are addicted to the negative spiral you have come to rely on. But now that you are aware, and committed to changing your thought patterns, you need to look deep. As you spiral inward, ask yourself to start identifying events or people who pop up.
Continually ask yourself, is this thought helpful? If not, commit to changing it at the moment. If you choose to take responsibility for your growth, then you must consistently do the work at the moment. This will be a challenge at first, but new neural pathways are forming, and soon you will be on your way to new, healthier thought patterns.
New Thought Patterns
Nobody wants to be judged harshly. Nobody wants to be remembered or identified by a mistake they made years ago. Forming new, healthier connections in your brain will help you to let go of old baggage you have come to identify as truth. When you put in the work to do this, you will no longer hold others in a place of harsh judgment either. You will begin to identify with others who are just humans along your path, just like you, trying to make their way through the world. You will begin to hold new energy and light towards yourself, the future, and those in your life. Your world will begin to reflect these new patterns. These patterns after a time will become your new habits. Soon, unconsciously, you will begin to pattern your way into a new way of seeing the world. You will have more energy because you’ve let go of old baggage.
It starts and stops with you. You are the director here. Putting in the work will be challenging on days and easy on others. The key is to get into the moment. realize what’s happening, and then decide if you want to continue down that all too familiar path, or take the steps to create a new one. Ultimately the choice is yours. I do hope you do decide that you are worthy of a healthier headspace and do the work. The more all see people do this, the more people will do the work. Be a leader in your own life, take control now. Redirect your thoughts and watch your world change before your eyes.
