The quality of our thoughts determines the quality of our lives. That’s how important it is to encourage a disciplined mindset towards monitoring our thoughts and making sure we’re planting roses in our gardens of life, rather than toxins. Here are 7 practical, easy to implement ways to stay on the exhilarating path to becoming the master of your own mind.
1. Become Best Friends With Your Emotional Guidance System
Your emotional guidance system is your biggest cheerleader on your path to being in control of your own mind. Not only do your emotions tell you when you’re on frequency with your highest and greatest good, they also tell you when you’ve strayed far away. The trick is to become consistently mindful of your emotions, before your thoughts have a chance to run with pre-conditioned ideas or negativity. Emotions can range from a general feeling of anxiety or nervousness, to outright anger; regardless, simply experiencing the emotion means it’s time to stop and evaluate your thoughts, before they gain momentum. This way, you can acknowledge and release emotions, rather than enhance them (unless they’re good ones), with unnecessary, thought-based worry and fear.
2. Listen To Your Body
Your body is a finely honed instrument, just waiting to advise you that your thoughts are taking you on a merry ride down into a bad mood. Of course, when you allow this, due to the attention you’re giving to negative thoughts, your external situation will begin to reflect those thoughts. The first point of call is in your own body, in the form of a tug in your stomach, sweat on your forehead, a frown, a sudden headache, aching limbs or the beginning of an illness. If you’ve ignored your emotional guidance system, your body will give you another chance to reevaluate your thoughts and change your path. All you need to do is become mindful of it.
3. Find Your Own Stop Sign
You might choose to visualize an actual red sign with STOP written on it, or, to say it out loud. Whatever form your stop sign naturally takes, have it at the ready at all times to bring you back from your thoughts and into the present moment. This takes practice and time, however, once you’ve mastered it, your trusty stop sign will be instantly at the ready, as soon as your emotions and body give you the indication that your thoughts aren’t working in your best interest.
4. Think Of Words As Nutrition
We know that feeding our body nutritious food is important for our health, however words and images we allow to enter our minds are of equal, if not more, importance. The easiest way to monitor this is to stop watching things that irritate you on television. Eliminate any negativity from your Facebook feed. Reevaluate relationships in your life that often result in a lowering of your mood. Whatever you consume, through images, words or actions, has the same effect on your thoughts, as food and drinks have on your body. So, next time you’re tempted to delve into a gossip session that could be hurtful to someone else, for example, understand that it’s the same as drinking three bottles of wine; you can’t escape the hangover.
5. Use Affirmations
Affirmations are the perfect way to remind yourself, on an hourly basis, to be the master of your own mind. Pin quotes, positive sayings and goals all over your house or office to give yourself the best chance at keeping track of your thoughts. Sometimes, all you need is a little reminder to stop the negative spiral of unnecessary thoughts in their tracks, before you start seeing the results of those thoughts in your experience.
6. Don’t Forget To Take Out The Trash
The outcome of consistently monitoring and switching your thoughts, is that you become increasingly aware of the rubbish hiding away, ready to leap out at you in a moment of unawareness. The beauty of this, is that you can confront long-held thoughts and beliefs to let them dissolve into nothingness, leaving you free to expand into originality. This doesn’t mean over-analyzing or going back into past issues. It simply means acknowledging thoughts that no longer serve you, in order to change them to ones that do. Daily meditation is the single most effective method of silencing your mind and allowing the clearing process to take place. You’ll know when you’ve been successful, because you’ll feel light, clear and a tiny new bud of bliss will have received enough light to break through towards expanding the overall awareness of your mind.
7. Read Books From The Masters To Be A Master
There is an abundance of books out there to help you become aware of your thoughts, in order to change them. Here are two quotes to inspire you: “Thinking is only a small aspect of consciousness. Thought cannot exist without consciousness, but consciousness does not need thought” ― Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment. “Relax, let go, allow, and recognize that some of your desires are about how you think your world should be, rather than how it is in that moment. Become an astute observer…judge less and listen more. Take time to open your mind to the fascinating mystery and uncertainty that we all experience.” – Wayne W. Dyer, Change Your Thoughts – Change Your Life: Living the Wisdom of the Tao
