Let me ask you a question. How often do we tell ourselves things aren’t always what we think they are? In other words, there are times when our own brains just think about things so out of context that we have to tell it to be quiet. Although our brains are great at analytical things and things that require deduction or finding answers, where do we draw the line between when we should listen to our brains and when we should tell it to shut up? Here’s what I mean by that. Have you ever thought about something that you may not feel too sure about and your brain starts running through a scenario of outcomes? Sometimes these outcomes are so ridiculous, maybe even frightening, that you close your eyes for a few seconds in an effort to stop thinking about it? Or the brain could be thinking of positive outcomes but you don’t buy into them completely because things could turn out completely opposite of what you thought? This is what I’ve come to know as thought pattern displacement. I was told by someone a long time ago NOT to listen to my brain. At that time, I didn’t understand, or maybe didn’t want to understand what that meant. But as time has gone on and I’ve gained wisdom, patience and my thinking has grown wiser, I do understand that very well. And its very true too.
Think of it this way. Within each of us we have 4 raw forms of how we think, come to decisions, decipher and choose our outcomes for our lives. They are our brains, our hearts, our gut feelings and our spiritual beliefs be them through religion or spirituality. These 4 forms make up who we are, how we make decisions and how we live our lives. What I’ve come to find is our brains are not always our friend. Our brains, besides being a brilliant thinking mass, has the capacity to destroy our self confidence or build our self image with just thoughts. It can even create the outcome of our lives. How we think and what we think are the components of what we make happen in our daily lives. That saying “..our thoughts create our lives..” is more true than we know. When someone says something negative about you. You are the key factor as to how you will allow this negative comment to effect your entire day, effect how you feel and even the outcome of how you see yourself. Unless you are an unfeeling narcissist, you most likely will feel some kind of feelings about what has been said. We could just let go of it, which is probably the best way to handle it. But for some thats not so easy to do. We certainly can’t allow others to direct how we should feel. But most importantly we can’t allow our brains to fall into the depths of imagination of self doubt, uncertainty or feelings of inadequacy because of it.
Some of the best ways we can help ourselves is by reminding ourselves of all of our inner strengths. The experiences we’ve gotten through in our lives, our achievements-no matter how small they all count. When the brain starts to think in negative ways, for every negative thought about yourself think of an opposite positive one. It may help you to write it down. Even though this may be difficult to accomplish at times, the more you do that the better you get at it. When things aren’t going right for you, take a moment to ask yourself; “what is the lesson I should be learning here?” This is a way we can self examine ourselves and even gain strength within and change the way our brains can think. Now grant it, there will be times when you can’t help how you feel. Unkind and hard times can stir up negative patterns, its just the way life is. But its how we handle those moments and how we think about them that makes all the difference in how it affects us and how we will feel. Our thoughts create our lives. We are affected by others only when we allow negative people and unhappy circumstances to affect our thoughts about ourselves. If you’re a person that feels like the thoughts your brain creates are making you feel unhappy, its time to re-evaluate your thinking and begin to think differently. Don’t become hostage of self sabotaging thoughts that hold you back from discovering what you are capable of achieving and who you truly are. Believe in yourself.
Copyright(c)2015-2019. Our Brains – Friend, Foe or Both? Written by Sherrie Vitello. All Rights Reserved.