You are NOT your thoughts!

Our minds are the 8th wonder of life in my opinion! A beautiful creation of the almighty that differentiates us from all living creatures on this planet. What keeps our mind pumping other than blood is our thoughts. We live on continuous thinking, consciously and subconsciously. Sometimes we are aware of what we think and say to ourselves and sometimes we aren't.

Our mind is fueled by all the actions of what happen to us, let's imagine our mind as a new desktop/laptop that has no programs or files stored once we are born; a clean slate (a very digital metaphor, I know :). The more we live our lives the more we program our mind and our thoughts. What to think and how we think is stemmed from who we surround ourselves with, starting with our mother and father.

We start defining our reality and making sense of everything around us by validating what is already stored, but is what's stored the truth about us and our reality?

How do we define our thoughts?

Our thoughts are shaped from our experiences. Our experiences are built on our senses; what we see, feel, hear, touch and smell as well as the beliefs that we have built. It is a mix of certain emotions, with a touch of senses and a validation of our backlog information stored in our mind, which help us shape what we think at that particular moment. All of this happens within milliseconds of our time. So imagine that we have an average of 100,000 different signals and thoughts that we receive during one moment. Our mind filters them to focus on a bunch only and disregard the rest, based on familiarity. And then from these bunch of moments we choose a couple to take in, validate, and believe. The key word to all of this is CHOICE. We are choosing what to focus on and what to give meaning to, and just knowing this will give you the sense of power and control once you learn how to choose wisely.

The beautiful truth about our thoughts is that we control what we think and how we think, and we are able to control what to do with the thoughts; the outcome!

Controlling the outcome starts with believing that you are able to change the narrative of your thoughts from the backend system (your saved files in your mind). This consists of experiences, limiting beliefs, our personality, what scares us, how we feel, how to act and many many more data stored in that big head of ours. But because we all interpret life differently, we act on our thoughts differently as well. Some find it easier to control the voice of the critic in their head. Others find it better to accept themselves with all their flaws. Some find it easier to hide their true emotions rather than facing them. Others believe they need to be mean to feed their ego and feel better about themselves. I could go on and on with our actions, because they are our choice of what we do with our thoughts.

But if we just take a moment and truly listen to our thoughts and ask ourselves:

* What am I truly thinking?

* What is the reason behind my thoughts?

* How is this serving me at the moment? or not ?

* What do I truly want to do with it?

The more we reflect on our thoughts before we take action, the more we are able to stabilize and act consciously with the outcome. Our thoughts do not always represent who we are. sometimes we think in a certain way because we are used to doing so. One way to control our own thoughts is truly become aware of what we are feeding our mind. If I am a person that believes I am not good enough without awareness, I will find myself looking for reasons to validate this thought, and then act on it by feeling bad, sad, or unworthy. And this thought will translate into actions; hence can lead to less confidence, people pleasing, and reliance on others for validation.

But to be able to control the narrative were feeding our minds with, we need to first of all increase our awareness, second of all to let go of any thought and belief that doesn't serve us in becoming the best version of ourselves, and last but not least to feed our mind with thoughts that lead to positive outcomes, which support our higher selves.

So rather than work on validating the thought that I am not good enough, take some time to create awareness of where this idea stems from. Is it true or is it the voice of the critic that's becoming louder in my head? Once I realize the voice and the thought, what do I want to do with it? (for example I understand that this is not the reality but rather a coping mechanism to make me feel safe from being hurt by others). And then how can I change the narrative? (ex. I am enough by being me, I am not perfect nor do I need to be, and I am worthy with all my imperfections).

I know it's easier said than done, but if we keep hiding behind our thoughts and relying on validation for a system that hasn't been updated, nor is it serving us to fulfill our true higher selves, then the only person we are harming is us.

So take control of your life and find how you can support yourself in redefining your thoughts and make the choice on how you want to feed your thoughts, as well as how you will act on them! What you do is your responsibility, so choose wisely!