Exploring the Process of Conscious Thinking
Transforming our thinking is a process, not an event. We don’t wake up one morning and suddenly have a new way of thinking. It takes time to change our thinking. The good news is that we can make this journey easier if we are willing to take some risks and try something different.
To think consciously, you have to transform the way you think and perceive information. My hope is this will help you to see your own thinking in a new light.
What do you think about when you hear the word “thinking?”
I’m confident you would answer “thinking is what we do when we think.” In other words, when we think, we use our brains to create thoughts in our minds.
This is a minimal view of thinking. When you think, you experience emotions. Right? You feel happy or sad, excited or afraid, angry or frustrated. Your feelings influence your thoughts and vice versa. Just like a computer program runs on software, your emotions run on your thinking.
In fact, the masses believe that our thoughts control our emotions. They believe that if we think positive thoughts, we will be happy. If we think negative thoughts, we will be unhappy. This is a common belief, but it is false.
Think Positively, Feel Better
There is another way of thinking: you can look at your thoughts as information. You can treat them like a message from someone else. As such, you can learn how to improve your thinking.
For example, suppose you are driving down the road and notice there is a car parked in front of you with its lights off. You assume that the driver must be asleep, so you decide to honk your horn to wake him up. But when you honk, he doesn’t respond and you figure he must be having a bad day. So you decide to give him a few more minutes before you honk again.
You could say, “I was wrong to assume that he was sleeping. He may just be taking a break. I should wait until he gets back into his car before I honk my horn.”
We can apply this same logic to our thoughts. Suppose you are feeling angry with someone. You might think, “She is always being rude and mean to me. I wish she would stop being so short-tempered.” Or maybe you are feeling disappointed because you didn’t get the promotion you wanted. You might think, “I am going to work harder next time to prove myself.”
When we are angry or disappointed, we tend to focus on our feelings. We become preoccupied with our emotional state and lose sight of the bigger picture. We forget that our thinking influences our emotions. We don’t realize that we are actually making decisions based on our thoughts.
I AM Master Teacher