You can change your life, one thought at a time.
That is impossible you think…. Ridiculous claim! Nope.
Unlike any other living thing on the planet, human beings are able to evoke physical reactions with their thoughts and only their thoughts.
Try this thought experiment. As you sit in your comfy-chair, perhaps with a dog or cat cuddled alongside snoring gently, music playing softly in the background, bring to mind a stressful encounter you experienced in the past week. Perhaps it was a difficult conversation with a co-worker or even worse, your boss. Replay that conversation in your mind. You may notice, your heart rate starts to increase, you may start clenching your teeth, you may feel the need to take a deep cleansing breath.
Or late at night, when the dogs perk up for no apparent reason, trot off to the living room and start barking. You think you hear something outside. Did you lock the doors to the car, to the house? Should you get up, turn on the lights and investigate or pull the covers over your head and hope the intruder is startled by the barking dogs? Settling back into the pillow to drift back to sleep is not only impossible – you are wide awake, adrenalin flooding your system.
Your thoughts just triggered the stress response… that series of chemical reactions that in turn release our ‘red alert’ hormones. With your thoughts and only your thoughts.
I love the work of Dr Joe Dispenza. He suggests that we make ourselves sick with our thoughts. With our thoughts alone, we can trigger the release of our ‘red alert’ hormones – our acute stress response. And since we are not designed to handle the acute stress response chronically, it is killing us. He then postulates, if we can make ourselves sick with our thoughts, then we can just as effectively, heal ourselves with our thoughts. He elaborates with a personal story describing a self-directed recovery from a tragic, cycling accident which doctors said should have left him unable to walk, and his subsequent studies into the neurophysiology and healing power of thinking. So fascinating!
Such is the power of the mind, if you learn how to harness it! You can start right now.
Think a thought. “I am fat.” Such an unhelpful thought. When you think that thought, I am fat, it elicits a feeling such as ‘disappointment.’ Often this triggers another thought… “I can’t lose weight.” Or “I have so little will power.” All not helpful thoughts.
Your feeling – disappointment – fuels the actions you take. When you are disappointed with yourself you may find yourself reaching for carrot sticks, out of a sense of obligation or a get-it-together-willpower-struggle, but more likely than not, you are self-critical (why can’t I follow through on anything?) effectively fuelling more self-critical thoughts, or reaching for some quick relief comfort foods (chocolate anyone?)
Your actions, determine the results you are getting.
Your thought(s), create your feeling(s), which fuel your action(s), that determine your result(s).
Change your thought(s), change your feeling(s), change your action(s) and your result(s). Change your life!
You can change your life, one thought at a time.
True or not, why not believe it if it helps you become a better version of yourself?
Buff it up, my friends
Dr Karen
Are you ready to Buff Up Your Brain? Ready to, lose weight, increase your mental clarity and polish up your thoughts? Let’s chat.
Email: DrKaren@karenbackwaymd.com
