How Changing Our Thoughts Can Change Our Lives.
“We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world.” Buddha
Many of us grow up with the notion that studying hard and working hard will lead to success, right?
We are taught that if we do well in school, we will have a good career. If we work hard at our jobs, we will be successful. Yet, there are so many people on this planet who studied hard in school and got decent grades, but are now faced with thousands upon thousands in student loan debt. And even if they have a decent job they are just getting by. There are so many hard working people in the world, yet they never get ahead. Why does this happen?
I believe that it takes more than working hard to have the life of our dreams. I believe it takes going way back in our family history and changing how we think about life, money and work. In a manner very similar to genetics, our beliefs are shaped by our ancestry. If our ancestors lived pay check to pay check, it is likely that we do also. Why is this? It is because we all have a “story” running through our heads. That story tells us what is possible. It tells us the upper limits of what is possible for us, our lives and our money. It comes from what our ancestors believed, talked about and taught us.
How do we break that cycle? It starts with a desire for something different. It requires a belief that something else is possible. And finally, we begin to change the story in our head.
I’ts more than ancestry though. Sometimes we just don’t realize the power that our thoughts have over our reality. For many years, I felt like I was a loser, a failure and incapable of doing anything different with my life, even though I was a 6-figure earner, climbing the corporate ladder, and from the outside it looked like I had a lot going for me. I was unhappy with my body and my job and my relationships. The list goes on. What I didn’t realize was that my thoughts were creating my reality. It had become such a habit to think this way that I didn’t even realize I was doing it. One negative thought leads to another thought and another and another until there is a stream of negativity going in our heads. Our subconscious mind doesn’t have the ability to distinguish that these negative thoughts aren’t truth, so it goes about creating the circumstances that match the thoughts. This is where I was. I was failing because I thought I was failing, not because it was actually true. I was overweight and had medical issues because I thought I was fat and I couldn’t change it. I had superficial relationships because I thought I wasn’t capable of having deep, lasting ones.
I’ve experienced major improvements in all these areas. In fact, my life has done a complete flip flop. I am now doing what I love, building lasting relationships and loving my body. It all started with a shift in my thinking.
Changing the story in our head, whether it comes from our ancestors or whether it comes from things that have happened to us, can vastly improve our lives.
My favorite way to break this cycle and change the “story” in my head is to use affirmations.
If you are a woman who wants to learn to use affirmations, I invite you to participate in Your Awesome Affirmation Challenge. I created this challenge to help you break the cycle and build the belief that you need to get the life you’ve always wanted! Join me here https://livesinbalance.lpages.co/awesome-affirmation-challenge/ as we spend five days together making affirmations simple and easy to use so that you can see tangible results!
Sherry Parks is a Rediscovery Coach who helps women rediscover themselves and reconnect to the core of who they are.
To contact Sherry for more information about coaching join her women only Facebook group Lives in Balance.
Originally published at medium.com