An old(ish) Adam Sandler movie, of all things, got me inspired to write about: Habitual thinking and how life-changing it can be to simply change the way you think; How important rest is; How rest influences what we do when we’re not resting.
Now it’s time for practical steps.
Trust me, everyone needs to change their thinking habits. Every day. First of all, most of us have a lifetime worth of bad habits built in. That means we’ve trained our minds to work wrong for decades.
How our minds work: In my high school physics class our professor had us build Rube Goldberg machines. It was awesome. You basically setup a small(ish) machine that does a simple household thing like turning off a light. But it starts with a single object that goes through a series of crazy domino effects. Ultimately, the object, once it’s finished bouncing, flaming, steaming and bopping around, causes the simple household thing to be done.
This is basically how our minds work: We take one thing in to get us thinking (image/movie/book/conversation/etc.) and a lot of different things happen in a chain reaction to produce an outcome (feeling/ action/ speech etc.) But the way we think, our habits are based on whatever life handed us.
Yikes.
So typically, we all have maybe a few of these thinking machines: Us at our best, us at our worst, and us on an average day. Those are our habitual thought patterns, or autopilot space. And we use them automatically, because they’re convenient and we literally don’t have to think about it.
But let’s say those machines or habitual thoughts are causing problems, like emitting poisonous gas… Or horrible ideas? Or self-sabotage, self-defeat?
Your mind should produce fruit, not waste:
Like our digestive system, what we put or allow into our mind has an effect. Depending on what we eat or drink, we may gain weight, have an allergic reaction, become intoxicated, energized, sick… Or healthier, more fit.
Depending on the information and concepts we feed our mind, we may become heavy-minded or react badly to the point of being uncomfortable… We may malfunction and get out of touch with reality, have racing thoughts, or even a mental breakdown however minor or major… Or become more joyful, more at peace, clear, brilliant.
With our digestive system our organs are pretty much always going to do the same thing with food and drink: Help our bodies sift through what we put into it and pass out waste. We have to produce bodily waste and we can’t change that.
A fruitful mind feeds on fruit:
But our minds are different. We can change the way our mind works so we never produce waste.
We don’t have to let in anything that creates a waste byproduct.
We don’t have to turn anything into waste once it’s let in.
What we take in matters a lot. What our mind does with it once it’s taken in matters even more. If you’ve ever had a bad day that seems to start from the moment you wake up, or been swallowed by grief, you know exactly what I mean. Everything, no matter how extremely wonderful it is, will appear opposite because of your mindset.
That’s what happens all day every day when your mind is wired to produce waste instead of fruit.
Rewiring it isn’t hard, but it does take persistence.
Mind-food:
The music, lyrics, TV shows, movies, articles, facebook and twitter info, people, conversations, books and gatherings we let in are all literally food for thought. So what’s in your mind diet? Why? If it isn’t full of encouragement, honesty, optimism, you’ve opted into the McDonald’s version of food for thought. It will not supersize your mind.
I know we’re passively fed information through advertisements, media, and our environment constantly but we don’t have to be. Exercise some control over what you’re exposed to so the balance shifts positively, for just a day. Feel the difference. Keep it up.
The world seems full of terrible tragedies, hurt, and pain, yes. But it’s really full of love, inspiration, joy, overcoming and miracles. That’s not what we’re fed by the news, talk shows, music, or movies… Or even, sometimes, our friends and family.
You deserve to be uplifted every second of every day. To be told how amazing and wonderful you are. To believe how capable, and powerful you are. To be fearless. Unafraid of failure. To be shown new and inspiring ways to be better, bigger, a more awesome you than you already are.
If you feel repelled by those things, why?
It’s just you. You can fight it, but it’ll still be the reality of who you are.
Love on yourself.
Begin the fruitful process of changing your thought habits by changing your mind-fuel. Then we’ll talk about making sure our thoughts always produce fruit.
