You can call me the Platitude Whisperer. I am about to unravel the truth, and you are about to realize just how fucking powerful you are. But before we go any further, I need to tell you something. It’s important, so you need to concentrate.
You can call me the Platitude Whisperer. I am about to unravel the truth, and you are about to realize just how fucking powerful you are. But before we go any further, I need to tell you something. It’s important, so you need to concentrate.
Okay, here it is: you are not your mind.
I’ll say it again; come in closer: YOU ARE NOT YOUR MIND.
You are a human being, and as a human being, you are made up of cells, atoms, and molecules, all of which are energy. The reason energy matters so much when we’re learning about the mind is because every thought you have is also energy.
Now that we’re clear that you’re a human being (you’re welcome!), we need to get just as clear on what you possess due to your status as a human being.
You have a head, an arm, a leg, to name just a few of your possessions. You have them. You are not your head, you are not your arm, and you are not your leg.
You HAVE a mind. You are not your mind. YOU ARE NOT YOUR MIND.
You can direct whether you nod your head, wave your arm, or kick your leg. I need you to realize that you can also direct your mind. I know, it’s incredible. It’s also the truth.
When you choose to accept and embrace that you direct your mind, not the other way around, then everything changes. EVERYTHING. Choosing not to embrace this will keep you stuck and powerless, a victim of your own existence. Pardon me, but fuck that. Life is too short. Let’s look at how you can begin to master your mind.
We Have the Ability to Change Our Minds
Mastering your mind is magic. Nothing will ever make you feel a certain way again. To know that you are not your mind, but rather the director of your mind allows you to be unfuckwithable. It gives you the highest sense of freedom you’ve ever experienced.
So, if this is the way it is, why didn’t we know this when we were growing up? The answer is neuroplasticity, which is a relatively recent discovery. It’s a big fancy word to explain that your brain is malleable, it is not fixed. That means that you can change it.
Imagine an Etch-a-Sketch. You can write something on it, then erase it and start over. Even if that Etch-a-Sketch has been untouched for twenty years, and you don’t believe the writing will disappear, it magically does, giving you space to write something new.
Right about now, you’re probably getting excited and with good reason. You can change. You can change your mind! I don’t mean that you can change your mind about ordering Chinese food and choose pizza instead (although it’s fine by me if you do); I mean that you can actually rewire and change your mind.
WOOP WOOP, let’s hear it for neuroscience!
The Thoughts We Water Will Take Hold
At the moment, when you feel like you’re being directed by your mind, it’s because you have familiar thoughts that you’re so used to thinking you don’t question them. They’re like a familiar route home; you know it so well that you haven’t stopped to think about if there’s a quicker route or a more scenic route. You unquestioningly follow the same path home every day. Your mind is packed full of familiar routes for your thoughts; some of them serve you well, but some do not. You haven’t questioned them; they just automatically start their journey and follow the same path each and every day.
You have already chosen to raise your awareness, so you may already know which thoughts you would like to change. In order to change your mind, you need to start creating new neuropathways. Just like the creation of any new path, it takes effort and work to begin with. Your neuropathways have to be built with new thoughts. Each new thought fires new neurons in your brain, and those neurons create the new path. So by choosing a new thought, you actually start to rewire your brain. I know, fucking amazing.
And, as if that’s not exciting enough, the old neuropathways that you were used to following on a daily basis will get smaller and eventually disappear. Yes, your default way of thinking. Your current pathways will actually disappear.
Think of your neuropathways like plants. The plants that you repeatedly water every day will grow bigger, stronger, and take root. The pathways that don’t get watered will wither away and die from lack of attention. It’s your choice which plants you water.
Every time you allow yourself to think that thought, you are strengthening the roots of that neuropathway. And the stronger it is, the more automatically you think it.
What Happens When You Choose New Thoughts
Now, let’s say that one day you decide that you no longer want to water the persistent thoughts of worry that you’ve been watering for years. You’ve realized that worrying is interfering with your happiness, so you’re going to choose a new thought instead.
You can choose to think, “I love my life; all is well.” It’s so simple, yet when you choose to think and repeat this new thought, neurons fire together and you have created a new pathway. The more conscious you become, the more you will catch yourself if you divert to the old pathway, and you can quickly return to and repeat your chosen thought.
Yes, I am telling you that you can choose different thoughts and change the way your brain is wired. What happens when you think the new thought over and over again? Exactly, you’re so smart; it strengthens that neuropathway. What happens to the old worrisome thought that you are not choosing to think anymore?
Yup, right again, you brilliant human! It shrinks, dies, and disappears, buh-bye!
Changing Your Default
Now that you know how you change your mind, it’s important to realize that new pathways aren’t created overnight. Your default thinking, which is the way you think when you’re not being fully aware, will always take the strongest, most familiar pathway. The only way to create a strong pathway is to repeatedly think the same thought over and over and over and over. So, this sounds awesome, right? But why does this matter? It matters because your thoughts really do create your reality.
Allow me to elaborate.
- You think a thought, which produces hormone stimulation in your brain.
- The hormones create and release chemicals, which are your feelings.
- Your feelings inform your actions and behavior.
- Your actions and behavior create your results.
- Your results are your reality.
So, Thoughts = Feelings = Behavior = Results. It’s the “Everything starts with a thought” loop. As soon as you choose to direct this loop by inputting thoughts that serve you, you can change the default settings on your human technology. Powerful, or what?
I know that you might be thinking, “It’s not that easy to change your thoughts,” and you’re right, and wrong. Here’s why: thoughts are just thoughts. Just because you think it doesn’t make it real, doesn’t make it true, and doesn’t mean you have to believe it.
The ability to change your thoughts is what makes your mind the greatest tool you’ll ever have. It is a tool. Plain and simple. Learn how to use it, and you will always be able to choose how you feel and direct yourself to achieve the results you want.
The following is adapted from Worthy Human: Because You Are the Problem… and the Solution. For more advice on mastering your thoughts, visit The Litt Factor.