The POWER of THOUGHT is a very complex topic that required more exploring which I will share with you in this article on What Is The Power Of Thought?
In the main photo, you may see two heads each with a brain inside. You also may see the strange image of two brains outside of the table leg, lamp leg or candlestick depending on several factors that influence your thoughts.
Every waking moment of every day our minds are busy with a multitude of thoughts. Those thoughts are then revisited throughout the day as well at night as we sleep.
How do those thoughts affect our daily lives? That is if they even do?
I’ve often heard it said, “We become what we think about all day long”, but do we really?
I have also heard it said that “if you want to change your life then you need to change your thinking”.
Hmm… no doubt an interesting concept…
… but is there any truth to it?
Let’s dive deeper to find out just what it is and can we benefit from it?
Table of Contents
A Great Intelligence
One of the most useful powers we hold as humans are thoughts.
The combination of thoughts, emotion and imagination has the power to create amazing success or devastating failure.
It can create happiness or unhappiness.
Our thoughts have the ability to create opportunities or obstacles.
The truth is that freedom, happiness, love, friendship, health and wealth are our birthright as humans.
Isn’t it ironic that we each hold the secret to success and yet so few of us reach our true potential?
Why is that?
Many great leaders and philosophers throughout the ages have said we determine our life’s outcome based on the thoughts we choose to believe.
There are many who would argue we have been conditioned from birth to accept whatever circumstances we are born into…
but…
it could also be argued that we hold the power to change those circumstances simply by changing our thinking.
The Law of Attraction is based on the premise that we have the power to create our own best life based on changing our thoughts which changes the vibration we are sending out to the universe.
Thoughts Can Be Creative
When we think in a positive frame of mind it seems good things happen in our life.
We feel happy and confident and we seem to easily come up with our most creative ideas.
By creative ideas, I don’t mean you have to be an artist or musician.
Creative ideas are simple solutions to problems within your life.
Maybe you think of how you could fix that leaky faucet or you think of a great new recipe to try.
Maybe you figure out what things you could do to get that promotion at work.
When we focus on positive thoughts more positive results appear in our lives.
This leaves us feeling grateful and good and then we think of more ideas.
Those ideas or thoughts when combined with positive emotions and a strong belief that it is possible, serves to bring more success or positive results into our lives.
Amazing how that works isn’t it?
I can think of no greater example of positive thinking than our 12-year-old granddaughter.
Her friend was involved in a little local theatre group who were going to do a kids’ version of Disney’s Frozen.
Kaileigh (not her real name) wanted to be a part of this so badly.
Her friend thought she might be able to get her in as an ‘extra’.
Kaileigh kept saying, “I want a part with lines and a song”. She said this every day to anyone who would listen to her.
When the time came for the performance we bought tickets along with her other grandparents and her parents.
We were so surprised to discover she had landed a part with more lines than what her friend had and she actually sang a solo which was not what she was first given so that was a real big surprise to us.
This kid knew what she wanted, believed in her ability to get it and made her dream come true.
Now, instead of singing and acting in front of her family, she, like magic just ended up on stage in front of a real audience. This is a big deal to a young child or anyone for that matter.
Yes, your thoughts really can influence the outcome of situations in your life.
As the saying goes, “If you think you can or you think you can’t”, your right.
Thoughts Can Be Destructive
Unfortunately, thoughts can also be destructive.
We were created to live our lives in freedom, health and wealth, if we do not live that way it is because we have blocked ourselves by our thoughts.
The more we focus on the negative the less desirable results we attract.
I will use my youngest son as an example.
He was struggling with depression and anxiety.
He couldn’t find positive in any situation.
In his mind they didn’t like him at work, he never did it good enough, he would never get that raise, he would always be struggling to get enough hours to be able to pay the rent let alone put food on the table.
Then his relationship with his live-in girlfriend started to sour. She started putting him down for not having enough money, not buying enough groceries.
He stopped coming home for family functions and avoided spending any time with his siblings.
Eventually, he lost that job, broke up with that girlfriend and had to move home.
My husband worked with him for a very long time but finally got him to relocate to another province, my husband went with him for a period.
This son would call me daily with his tales of woe. Everything was wrong in his life and he couldn’t see anything ever-changing.
One day he called much earlier than usual and he sounded different almost like a stranger with my son’s voice.
What I mean is he was actually talking positively.
Not one negative word came out of his mouth that whole conversation.
Later that day I asked my husband what he did to our son to have such a drastic change in him.
My husband was able to get our son to start thinking more positively.
Since then, our son has completely turned his life around. He has a job he loves and is positive and learning and growing and just loving life to the fullest. He moved up in his job position and is highly respected by all the higher-ups and even his peers.
While I am relieved my son is on the right track now my point was to show how his negative thoughts compounded into more negative thoughts which then attracted all kinds of negative energy into his life and pretty much ruined him.
Depression and anxiety are serious mental illnesses that require intensive therapies.
In the case of our son, my husband was able to intervene early and avoid a long term battle.
If you or someone you love is struggling with depression and anxiety please seek professional help immediately.
Ever Heard of The Placebo Effect
This is a prime example of the power of thought in motion.
Take any medical study where patients expect to experience a specific effect from treatment.
The patients are not told who is taking the experimental treatment and who is taking the placebo(sugar pill).
The patients who received the placebo found an improvement in their symptoms as much or more than the patients who received the actual treatment.
Isn’t the power of the mind a wonderful thing?
If you truly believe in something it will work for you.
Likewise, it can also work against you if you believe in a negative result.
Be Mindful of What You Feed It
Our thoughts are incredibly powerful.
The power of the subconscious mind is so potent it can heal us or help us effortlessly figure out complex problems.
It is extremely important to guard what we allow in.
The songs we listen to or the people we listen to can all have a significant effect on our thoughts and therefore our lives.
It is well known that music, television programs and even the repeated comments of friends and relatives can be hypnotizing which allows these words to go directly into our sub-conscious minds without our conscious mind even being aware of it.
Popcorn anybody?
Back in the 1960’s they did an experiment on the audience in a Movie Theatre. They set up two theatres with the same movie but in one movie they inserted short images of food that was too short to notice during the watching of the movie. Then they observed their actions by watching what they bought during intermission.
Those that were given the food images on average bought more food and more of the product that they were introduced to.
The results from those tests are still used today, this is why we see so many ads for the same product.
One thought can change everything by igniting passion, excitement and creativity or it can crush dreams by causing you to not believe in your talents and abilities.
Choose wisely what messages you allow into your mind but also become aware of the tone of the thoughts you have.
How to Harness That Power
There are several highly effective methods of harnessing the power of thought.
Personally, I use a combination of methods and it seems to work quite well for me.
Meditation
Meditation is using a technique such as mindfulness or focusing on a particular object, thought or activity for the purpose of attaining a mentally clear and emotionally calm and stable state.
I use it in combination with yoga and this calm state enables me to reflect on the things that are most important to me so I can better determine my path in life.
I find it much easier to arrive at solutions to problems when my mind is not cluttered with the day’s events.
Visualization
I love this and I tend to do this several times throughout the day. I just take a few moments to close my eyes and visualize myself successfully completing the tasks at hand.
For example, some days I really have a hard time writing, I can’t seem to come up with an idea or the idea of researching a topic overwhelms me. Yeah, I know it can happen to anybody.
In those moments I am feeling overwhelmed, I simply close my eyes and visualize myself successfully completing that research or completing that article.
I clearly picture myself typing away vigorously as the ideas just keep coming to my mind easily.
Can you guess what happens?
Once I open my eyes I simply get started and somehow I actually complete that task.
If I am writing the words come easily, if I am researching I easily find the necessary information and am able to take accurate notes that will make my writing so much easier tomorrow. It’s not because it’s actually easier to find, no, it’s because I have a positive mindset and no longer have those negative thoughts that were stopping me.
I would recommend being seated or laying down when using visualization techniques.
Writing is my passion that I never knew I had because of negative thoughts in my past. Today I find tranquillity in sharing information with others in the form of writing.
If you are interested in writing articles for an income check out the program that got me started here, don’t worry it’s free to try to see if it’s something you would enjoy.
Affirmations
Affirmations are very helpful in helping to re-program years of negative programming.
I use this technique when I am on the treadmill every morning.
Pinterest is full of ready-made affirmations you can use for any desired result.
There are affirmations for losing weight, making more money, cooking better, becoming a successful business person.
Literally any topic you could think of.
I would seriously recommend only working on one thing at a time.
Reframing
Naturally, as humans, we can’t always think positively. Those negative thoughts always seem to creep in.
Try to notice when those negative thoughts creep in and reframe those thoughts in a more positive way.
For example, if you catch yourself saying “I’ll never lose weight”, try reframing that in a more positive light.
You could say, “I’ll lose weight once I begin exercising regularly.”
See you are putting it in your mind what you need to do in order to lose weight rather than putting yourself down which only causes more self-harm.
Imagination
Imagination goes hand in hand with visualization.
Think of what you really want, then use your imagination to bring it to life in your mind’s eye.
Don’t just tell yourself you want a new car.
Tell yourself you want a brand new, red, mustang GT convertible or whatever your specific dream car is.
Bring it to life in your imagination then use visualization to see yourself driving it down the road, feeling the wind blow your hair as you drive with the roof down.
Feel the warmth of the summer sun and smell the fresh air.
Visualizing in this way programs your subconscious mind what you really want. Then your subconscious mind will set out to make it happen for you.
Isn’t the power of the mind so brilliant?
In Summary
What is the power of thought is a very exciting and useful topic that you can put to use right away.
We have learned that we control the way our life plays out based on the thoughts we have.
If we don’t like our life we have the power to change it just by changing our thoughts.
Positive thoughts have the power to create positive results in our lives.
Likewise, negative thoughts will always produce less desirable results that compound more negatively.
The choice is ours.
Do we want to learn to control our thoughts and therefore control the outcome of our life?
If so there are several techniques we can implement to accomplish this:
- Meditation
- Visualization
- Affirmations
- Reframing and
- Imagination
These are all powerful tools we can use to control our thought patterns and ultimately make changes in our lives.
What tools do you use?
How have you put the power of thought to work in your life?
Share your ideas or suggestions in the comment section below.
Thank you for reading