Want powerful results? Change your thinking!

How our minds translate our thoughts to emotions and finally results.

Yes, what on earth were you thinking when you did that? Our minds are beautiful things capable of the most amazing things. The only thing is that out of the over?2 million bits?of data we receive per second our conscious mind can only deal with around?134 bits?of data per second. So what does our mind do? It accesses what it knows and pushes the information through internal filters that delete, distort and generalize the information to make sense of it.??

Our mind uses information from what it already knows such as our Values and Beliefs, memories, previous decisions, attitudes etc. to decide what to do with the information. This makes it easier for our mind to deal with the barrage of data we receive through our senses every second. For example, when we see a small round bobble on a door our mind automatically accesses our memory and spits out “That’s a door handle, you twist and pull or push on it”.

Let’s look at the process at a higher level as to how we move from a situation to a resultant reaction.

First there is a situation?– Something happens. Our mind the processes this information and?pushes it through our filters?and it?makes a decision?of what it is. This decision as mentioned comes from our stored memories, Values, Beliefs, and previous experience amongst other things. It then releases the chemicals that?create our emotions and physical state.?We then react accordingly through our behavior and achieve a certain result.

How does knowing all of this help us?

Well, its quite simple really. Some people believe their resultant thoughts and state are driven by an Emotion. In other words: The Emotion happens first and then the thought and the state. This is not true. (Don’t worry if you believe this, I did for a long time) It is the opposite.?Your inferred thought creates the emotion and state which leads to the resultant behavior or reaction.

Being aware of this now, logic would state that if you can consciously?catch your thought, you can?change it?and?change the resulting emotions, states, and behaviors. This means over time we can?silence some of the negative thoughts?we are having. Plus, we can?take control back?of who we are and stop reacting on autopilot.

By now you should be screaming well how do I do this?

It takes practice but the first step is to become aware of the situation / trigger that creates your unwanted behavior. From there you need to analyze what the inferred thought you are having is and then decide what you would prefer it to be. Once you have this you will need to make a conscious effort to catch the inferred thought and change it the preferred one.

To get here ask yourself these questions:

• What is the situation / trigger that sets off the unwanted behavior?
• How would I prefer to react in this situation?
• What is my automatic thought when this happens?
• What can I consciously do be sure I can change the thought? (This could be something like take a deep breath, count to 5 etc.)
• What is the preferred thought I will replace the limiting thought with?

Then it is time to?practice until it becomes a natural and unconscious process. Be patient with yourself. Rome was not built in a day.

Bonus Tip:?Your Emotions and physical state are closely linked. Try change your physical state to achieve the Emotion you would rather have. Don’t believe me? Give it a try right now.

Slump your shoulders, hang your head and look down at the ground and relax the muscles in your face.?How do you feel?

Now do the opposite. Pull your shoulders back, hold your head up high and look straight ahead. Give us a big smile.?How do you feel now?

Amazing right!

I hope that you have found this article helpful.

For more articles click?HERE.

Until next time.

Rob