Thoughts Shape Our World

Everything you do during the day defines and further cements your reality.  Proceed cautiously!  If your life is the way you want it, then keep doing, saying, and thinking the same way.  If not, then it’s time to change.  Many go through  their day and live it and treat is pretty much the same as yesterday.  This ongoing cycle of thoughtless action leads to a life of disillusion and frustration.

Take some time to consciously establish your personal vision.  Determine how you want your life to be, what you want to do, the quality of your relationships, etc.  Define these items in as much detail as possible and still maintain a positive attitude.  Once you’ve got this information spelled out, adjust your day by taking new actions, thinking new thoughts, and saying things differently.  Consciously do this to support what you want to create.  It’s really not difficult, but it does require discipline.

Many don’t realize how powerful, creative, and vibrant they are.  When you’re ready to make a change, this simple formula allows you to move forward and create something new.  Start telling a different story, and reinforce this new story with new actions, thoughts, and routines.

A useful tactic is sometimes referred to as “not-doing”.  Basically, not-doing is breaking your patterns and habits to interrupt your usual thought patterns and create new perceptions.

A simple exercise in “not-doing” is to walk backwards in a safe environment.   Instead of the world you perceive coming at you, when you walk backward it’s now receding from you.  This creates a subtle, yet powerful change in your visual perception.  Instead of subconsciously seeing where your next step will be, you are now moving without visual clues of what lies ahead.  It’s a great exercise to expand and refine your other senses.  New inputs create new neural connections and activate the brain in different ways.

The benefit of “not-doing” is in creating new neural pathways in your brain that allow you to process information differently.  Your awareness and mental flexibility are increased.  The stories you tell yourself will start to change.  These mental stories, as we’re starting to scientifically prove, have incredible power in determining how we live our lives, what we do, and our health.

After reading the books, I decided to expand my awareness.  I was intrigued by walking backward, so I modified this a bit by backing my truck into the garage.  With practice I got better and better at doing this.  I can now back up my truck, in extremely tight spaces, with the best of them.

By doing this I learned to process information in a different way.  I developed new neural pathways, new ways of processing the input, and new motor skills to control the wheels while backing up.  While none of this sounds particularly beneficial, in a holistic sense it is extremely useful.  I now know that I can back up my truck in tight quarters, I can easily change my habits, I can learn new things, I can process information in reverse, and I can quickly learn new skills.  This is the new story I tell myself.

By repeating this formula in other areas of my life I have broadened my capabilities and have a more flexible approach to problem solving.