In this post, I want to talk about what I mean by mindset training. Mindset is a term used by many brain trainers and can mean any number of things and I want to be clear about what I mean in my blog.
Your daily, repetitive thoughts are stored in your unconscious or subconscious mind from the time you are an infant and bubble up from your subconscious mind unconsciously, without direction from you. Your subconscious mind has been filled with beliefs, values, preferences and habits from your parents, family, school and society. Most of these thoughts are not actually yours and they run on a loop by default. Your amazing mind was programed by people who had no idea what they were doing! They were just repeating the thoughts, habits and beliefs they had learned from their own parents, families, teachers, bosses and so on. Unless you consciously decide to create your own reality, you will be running this program of thoughts, habits and beliefs that aren’t even yours unconsciously your entire life without question!
The unconscious mind is unable to reject what goes into it and it’s useful to recall how to accomplish tasks or to store ways to do things that we no longer rely on. This is also where instinct is stored so we know, after experiencing a hot stove, for example, to avoid dangerous situations. Most of these thoughts, however, are vestiges of the past and really provide no further benefit once we are adults.
Take a couple of days of paying attention to your thoughts and see what you notice. If possible, make a note in a journal what you notice each day to determine the pattern and see the repetitive thoughts going through your mind.
To further add to the challenge of this unconscious process, when combined with emotion, your repetitive thoughts attract each other. So if you are thinking a negative thought with emotion, such as frustration, desperation or anger, this will attract similar thoughts and similar situations historically that support the negative thought. As an example, you might think “I hate it when that happens!” and then next thing you know your mind is supplying you with all kinds of evidence that shows you when this experience happened before and how you hated it then as well. This is the nature of the mind, it will continuously match the type of thought you are thinking and especially when that thought is attached to an emotion.
Knowing this now, as of this moment, realize the truth of this automatic program and really look at the thoughts that repeat through your mind each day. You can now consciously choose to replace those thoughts that no longer serve you, or worse, hold you back from the life you would love. This takes practice and determination, but the results are astounding! To know that you can create your own reality and be, do and have anything you want in this life just by thinking it, is unbelievably exhilarating.
The good news is that you can choose to think a positive thought right now and feel a positive emotion while thinking the thought and more positive thoughts and examples of positive experiences associated with the thoughts and feelings will be supplied! Knowing this, doesn’t it just make sense that you would choose the positive thought and emotion!? If you take radical action and deliberately choose the thoughts you want to think, you will have begun the process of moving towards achieving your dreams/goals. Try these general thoughts to start with:
I can do this!
Everything is working out for me!
Everything is unfolding in perfect timing.
I recommend the exercise of first noticing what thoughts repeat through your mind for a few days and then choosing general, soothing, positive thoughts to relentlessly replace them. You must notice that you are starting to feel better to continue to feel better! Once you start to feel better, you will start to have great ideas, your perception and senses will sharpen, you will discover new ways of looking at things and see innovative approaches to situations. This is your intuition opening up for you and how you want to live your life going forward, creating the life of your dreams by consciously choosing your own thoughts!
If you want to continue to develop your positive mindset, creativity is key! Start using my creative visualization practice and see how you can use it throughout your day in fun ways to create your positive mindset and start generating new ideas. You can find it on my website www.vickymcgrath.ca