In our work here together we often refer to how you can energise thought patterns and emotional states, and how deliberate focusing can help to direct these.
In this lesson we will consider some of the options available to us when we have unwanted / undirected thoughts, which take away our power in the moment. As such we’ll consider when you may want to intervene and how.
You will probably want to step in as soon as you realise that your current thoughts take away your power in the current moment. The first thing that you may wonder is how you can tell whether a thought in the moment leaves you empowered or not.
An empowered now (underpinned by empowering thought, which can include no thought), is one where your focus and energy are aligned to the direction of who you truly are and what you truly want for yourself. So how can you tell whether a thought or train of thought is aligned to who you truly are? This is where *how you feel* about it comes into play. If you feel negative (not in resonance with your Inner Peace) about it, it is because you have given away, to some varying degree, the power in that moment. When something leaves you feeling positive, or with an improvement from where your thoughts were before, you will experience positive feedback. It may seem overly simplistic, but that is really what it comes down to in every moment. And if you are struggling to tell how you feel about certain thoughts, you may need to practise to be more aware of (sensitive to) how different thoughts feel to you.
Now you may wonder how “how you feel” links into alignment or being empowered. Sometimes it helps to go to the extremes on a scale to understand the concepts behind it. I often applied that approach when I tried to understand an economics model while I was studying. I’ll do the same here, and maybe it helps to give further understanding to why the emotion in the moment is a good indicator of your level of alignment, and we will do so through a little practical example.
So I want you to pretend that you need to create a bowl as part of a pottery class. Now, when do you think will you feel most inspired to make a beautiful or fun bowl which you will paint by hand afterwards: when you are feeling miserable and depressed, or when you are happy and blissful? Which is more likely to lead to a fun and exciting day out?
It is rather easy to see how feeling peaceful has much greater potential to lead to great fun in the process, while you may not even attempt it if you’re feeling miserable, right? Or you may yell at the clay if it doesn’t play along? This puts into perspective why how you feel can be used as a gauge in the moment. By seeing 2 extremes at the opposite sides of the emotional spectrum, it helps to understand how it moves from the one end to the other, and how it either disallows or allows your connection with the Creative Source.
Sometimes, however, you may feel like you can interject all of the thought that you can possibly want, but your thoughts feel a bit like a runaway train. For example, you may have had an argument with someone and you just cannot seem to redirect your thoughts from that interaction. So if something really bothers you, it is easy to imagine how you can focus on it with consistency for a while, and build up a fair amount of momentum in that time. So if you try and interject thoughts, but still think about (energise) the thing that has been bothering you, then you have not yet managed to overcome the momentum, and won’t be in a position to change what you are experiencing in that moment.
So what can you do?
As we can gather from the example above, interjecting thought in the opposite direction to a train of thought that we wish to quiet is not going to change the direction if we are still applying energy to the thought pattern that we are trying to turn around. That may lead to frustration on a different level as you then get frustrated with yourself for not being able to take control of your thoughts. So think about when you are driving – you first take your foot of the accelerator pedal before you apply the brake – and that is what we need to apply here.
Then you may wonder, but how do I take my foot of the accelerator?
This is a tough one, because you cannot just up and walk away from yourself, it may have been helpful, but alas, we need to make another plan. In simplest terms, just try and distract yourself, go see a movie, go for run, do what you can to not energise further the unwanted train of thought. Of course there are times when your underlying beliefs may act as a catalyst for an unwanted direction of thought, and we will discuss limiting beliefs in more detail separately. Irrespective of the catalyst for the train of thought though, when we are already in a place where such thoughts are arising, and potentially gathering momentum, then we can look at the techniques described here.
That brings me to my next point – it is easier to prevent a runaway train than stopping it. By being more aware of the thoughts and the types of thoughts that you are having, it is easier to interject thoughts to turn things around when the thought that you want to step away from has not been energised for very long. So even when we are talking about our thoughts – prevention is easier than treatment. And of course by deactivating a limiting belief, fewer catalysts for unwanted thoughts exist. But as we all have limiting beliefs to some degree, catching those thoughts early and making the decision to be deliberate in your thinking is an invaluable technique to prevent momentum from building.
Another process that can be applied to assist in breaking a train of thought, is to exchange an interjecting thought with the practice of being present. In short, practising being present can be beneficial in preventing the momentum of unwanted thought as it avoids the adding of more energy to the unwanted thought, by simply not continuing the focus on that which is unwanted. You can think of it acting as a circuit breaker in this instance.
Another way in which practicing being present can be used with regard to unwanted thoughts with momentum is to slow it down. Initially it may be especially hard to cease thought if something has a lot of momentum to it, but you can become skilled enough in the practice thereof, that it can become a powerful way in which to reduce or prevent momentum in an unwanted direction.
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