Thought-Belief Triangle

February 11, 2013

Ever heard the expressions

Time is money.

and

Money is power.

So, if this were an equation, then

Time = Money = power

or

Time is power.

Does that make sense? If you believe that time is money and money is power, then by logic you also believe that time is power. You have just unearthed a new belief, one that might explain why when you feel short on time, you feel frustrated (powerless), or that you might try to control another’s time when you really want power over them. Now, you can examine the two original statements and see if they are indeed true, if you were somehow fooled into believing one of them, or if perhaps you inherited these beliefs from your parents. You can choose to change them at any time, since a belief is just a thought you keep thinking.

Isn’t this interesting? I call this making a thought-belief triangle. Take two beliefs that have something in common and see if the addition of them makes sense. I did it in my last post too, where I talked about the gut-thoughts-moods connection.

Scientists have proven that our gut chemistry affects our moods, and we all know that thoughts affect our moods, and now I’ve put the other side on our triangle — our thoughts affect our gut.

Be aware, we are applying a scientific principle here, so it may break down with purely emotional things. I find it amazingly useful in uncovering new truths! Let’s try another one. It’s a fairly common belief that

I will get fat if I eat too much.

I will get fat if I don’t exercise.

So, the third belief is:

If I eat too much, I don’t exercise.

or

I don’t exercise when I eat too much.

What does this tell you? Overeating is really the reason it’s so hard get up and to exercise. If we change our belief that food intake is related to being overweight, then the whole triangle topples down and new truths come out.

Let’s try one more.

Time is money.

Time is limited (there is never enough).

So then

Money is limited.

So, we’ve just uncovered a common belief in the lack of money, and it rests on the belief that time and money are linked, and that time is something we never have enough of. If instead, we start thinking that time is not limited — there is more than enough time to accomplish what we want/need to — then the pressure immediately comes off about money. Alternatively, you could remind yourself that time really isn’t the same as money — poor people have just as much as the rich. Then the triangle comes crashing down and the belief that money is limited may also dissolve, depending on what else you believe about money!

So if your triangle reveals something you don’t want to believe — or something you refuse to accept is true — then take a look at the two initial beliefs and figure out which one you want to change (or feel is flawed). Then, start formulating, wordsmithing, journalling and talking about the new belief instead of the old and see what happens! This is so much fun, I gotta do one more!

The only thing constant is change.

Change is for the better.

Therefore

The only thing constant is for the better.

Sometimes, the third belief comes out sounding a bit like Yoda! So, you might need to “massage” the words a little. In the above example, this person is optimistic — things are constantly getting better. But if you believe that the world keeps changing for the worse, then the third belief would be “the only thing constant is the world getting worse.” This is a pretty negative chain of thought, and one that’s easy to fall into if you start focusing on change being bad. It IS inevitable, but it doesn’t have to be bad!

Notes: It is easier if you use expressions in the positive. For example, in the “Time is money” case, saying “Money has nothing to do with happiness” might get confusing because of the “nothing.” The third belief would come out as “Time has nothing to do with happiness.” Huh? 😛
Sometimes, you might have to use a synonym to make the phrase work or make more sense. Sometimes you have to read it backwards, like I did in the second example. Or pretend you are Yoda!

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How Do Thoughts Feel?

February 10, 2013

A little while ago, I wrote a post about thinking, and how certain thoughts make me feel good and I can improve my mood by changing my thoughts. This is a grand form of self-manipulation, and I’ve been doing it a while so I’m getting pretty good at it.

But manipulating my feelings is not always a good thing to do. Sometimes, my feelings are actually my intuition trying to get through to me, to tell me that something is not right… that I need to change what I am doing… or that I’m making a bad decision. So, I have been learning to listen to my intuition better (read Part 1 here).

The other day, I had yet another realization when it comes to thoughts and feelings. I had been meditating for a while, and my mind suddenly wandered away from the happy, healthy, harmonious thoughts I had been thinking. I mean, I was feeling really good, humming along at a very high vibration, and feeling very “floaty.” And then, out of the blue, I thought “I really need to log in to the online banking and see how much money is in the account.” Woah. I distinctly felt my body react to that thought. It was a slight churny feeling in my gut. So, I made a note of it, re-centered myself, and continued meditating. A little while later, my mind wandered again, and all I thought was “I should check what time it is.” Again, I had a little “worm wiggle” in my gut — very slight, and not exactly in the same place or same way as before, but definitely in response to the thought.

I am sure you have had the experience where you talk about food with someone, your gut “hears you,” and pretty soon it’s churning away and you’re feeling very hungry. It’s happened to me many times, and the strongest when I am talking about my favourite foods! It’s like my gut is saying “give me some of that! That sounds awesome!”

Interesting, isn’t it? When I was meditating, I felt exactly what those thoughts did to me. Both were related to a lack of something — time or money — and had deep, hidden roots in worry. And here I thought I never worried! Well, I don’t worry much, but even just a little bit of worry affected me physically, so I can’t imagine what a full-blown worry-fest would do. Would it affect my digestion? Almost certainly. Would my thinking be clouded? Most likely.

My beliefs about money and time seem to be connected to my gut, and I don’t know if this is universal, or if you would find that a different part of your body responds to similar thoughts. I think it is probably different for everyone, because all our beliefs are individual. No matter what, recent research is showing more and more that we have huge numbers of neurons (brain cells) in our gut. Scientists have proven that our gut chemistry affects our moods, and we all know that thoughts affect our moods, and now I’ve put the other side on our triangle — our thoughts affect our gut. So if one of the three — gut, moods, thoughts — isn’t healthy, looking at the other two can help to fix it. For many of us, it’s the gut that shows up as unhealthy, so it’s good to know that by changing our thoughts and moods, we can have a healthy gut again.

We are energy beings, so we need to remember to take care of ourselves on all levels. Often when we are sick, it’s because our intuition has been trying to get our attention, to tell us something VERY important, and we just aren’t listening. When we get sick, we are forced to stop and take notice, reevaluate our lives and make new decisions.

If you would like to try this experiment on yourself, let me know your results! I’m sure your mind will wander naturally, so don’t feel like you have to think about money or time. Just let me know your experiences (you can leave a comment or contact me directly if you prefer). 🙂

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Create Your Own Universe

February 8, 2013

The Traveler

I love Star Trek, especially The Next Generation. As I rewatched one of my favourite episodes, ‘Remember Me’ (from the fourth season) I was struck again by the profound truths within that story.

The plot begins with Dr. Crusher being mystified by the sudden disappearances of people on the Enterprise. But they haven’t just gone missing — all proof they ever existed is gone. They were never even born. Soon, even the main crew members disappear, and it’s just her and Piccard left on the whole ship. When he disappears, her focus shifts — she is going to tackle this problem methodically and figure out what is going on. She guides the computer through a logical analysis and gradually, she begins to realize that she is stuck in a universe all her own. People are disappearing because that’s what she was thinking about when she became enveloped by the warp bubble universe (another of Wesley’s experiments gone awry). Luckily, Wesley and Beverley, in their separate universes, somehow call the Traveler from Tau Alpha C. He helps Wesley to open a portal to save his mom, which he can only do if he lets go of the past. The Traveler says:

“It is time. Let it go. Let go of the anticipation, the expectations, the demands upon yourself. Let it all go. Leave it behind. Yes… The ability is there inside of you. You do not need to look for it.” – The Traveler

We create our own reality with our thoughts. It takes shape according to what we think, but unlike the Star Trek episode, we can’t track it back to an exact moment when we had a certain thought, but we can change the direction it is taking at any time by simply thinking about something new. It is no experiment — it is life, and we are living it according to our own self-imposed boundaries, limits, definitions and rules, all of which we can change at any time.

Our universes overlap to the extent that we have things in common with others. For example, my universe doesn’t overlap with Donald Trump’s, that is, I don’t interact with him, because I don’t have much in common with him. However, if I think more abundantly, I will start to meet and interact with more abundant, thriving people (which I do already, just not so much with the ridiculously rich folks). The type of people in my life are an indication of where I’m at with my thoughts and vibration.

So if I am unhappy with someone in my life and I “kick them out,” someone new and similar will come along and take their place if I don’t change the way I think. The people closest to me are an indication of my inner workings. When I abuse myself, so do others. When I take care of myself, those around me treat me better too, and I find I have all sorts of great friends and lovely people around me, even in minor interactions with grocery store clerks. My thoughts and relationship with myself are quite clearly visible, once I realized this is how the world works. I think we all secretly know this, which is why we try to fool others and get so concerned about appearances — we feel like we don’t like ourselves and everybody knows it and it makes us uncomfortable. The solution, of course, is to learn to like ourselves more.

The overall direction in our lives is sort of a sum of our thoughts and feelings. Experiences that are more intense hold more weight, so if you want to be happier, try to recall a time when you were *really* extremely happy. By recalling/re-experiencing that feeling, your life will head in that direction. This is the Law of Attraction in a nutshell, so if you were unfamiliar with it, you’re not any more!

We each create our own universe. We are either moving toward more love or more hate, more compassion or more antagonism, more freedom or more fear. Choosing what way to go is as easy as changing lanes in a wide, multi-lane freeway — think about which way you want to go, wait for a space in the traffic and do it! In this analogy, the “waiting for the space” is just living in the present moment as much as possible and being aware of your thoughts. As you choose the direction and make the lane changes, some of the people in your life may change, and that’s a good thing. There are always more lanes on your left or right — the freeway is infinitely wide — because our growth is never finished. It is all about the journey!

Once more, take the advice of the Traveler:

“It is time. Let it go. Let go of the anticipation, the expectations, the demands upon yourself. Let it all go. Leave it behind. Yes… The ability is there inside of you. You do not need to look for it.” – The Traveler

It is time. Let it go.

Here is a link to the Star Trek episode, if you’re interested! Unfortunately, it doesn’t show the inspirational speech by the Traveler. 🙂

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Always Thinking

January 22, 2013

I have been thinking lately about thinking. I think A LOT! And so do you. We are virtually always thinking — the only times our brains stop is when we are sleeping or deeply meditating. Every other moment of the day, we are thinking about something — or many things all at once. But do you realize what you think about really matters!?

I’ve been paying attention lately to the effects of my thoughts. Sometimes, what I think about actually happens, right in front of my eyes. Other times, it happens later on. Things I consciously think about — especially things I fantasize about or really ponder for a while — Actually. Come. True. It’s neat, but it scares me at the same time! Am I at risk of getting into a car accident because I think about them sometimes? Yes, but I’m also at risk of living, and life is so damn risky, have you noticed!?!? 🙂 (I just can’t sit around doing nothing, so the regular risks of life are okay with me.)

The biggest thing I have noticed though, is how my thoughts make me feel. I have done some experiments on myself 🙂 and tried changing my mood by changing my thoughts. I have found that I can absolutely change how I feel by thinking happier thoughts (I never make myself feel worse, at least not on purpose). I have noticed that sometimes I feel icky because of my negative mode, and if I want to feel better, I can do it. It isn’t instantaneous, but in the course of a minute or so, I can actually make myself happier by just thinking of the feeling of positive anticipation, or reminding myself that the future is bright, and I have lots of good things to look forward to. I don’t even have to get specific, I can just think that I’d like to have more positive anticipation, and if I think that way for a minute or so, I really do start to feel that way. It might take longer if I’m more “down,” but if I’m feeling neutral or bored, it is surprisingly easy.

One key is to stay very much in the moment. You have to be aware of exactly what you are thinking, as you are thinking it (or close). So, that is the first step to being able to change the way you feel. Whenever you feel bad, try to grasp what thoughts led you there. Then, you can go general or distract yourself (read more here).

– – – – – – – – – – – –

I found this cartoon that matches so nicely…

(From here)

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What’s Your Soundtrack?

September 29, 2012

I wonder what would happen if, all of a sudden, I was a ridiculously talented musical composer? What kind of music would I create? If, right now, I had a full symphony and every possible instrument at my disposal, what would the music in my mind and heart create? If my vibration were to suddenly be transformed into sound, what would it sound like?

Sometimes, I think it would be a bit like the background track to a scary movie. Other times, it would be the soaring, exalting melody of a hero’s homecoming, a struggle completed, the fight over…

Interesting idea, isn’t it? If you want to connect deeply with your inner guidance, this is an excellent way to do it. Imagine that right now, the sum of how you are feeling were music. What would it sound like? This helps you realize how you are really feeling and since your feelings are a very good barometer of the direction your thoughts are taking, you can discover the path you are on/things you are manifesting. As Abraham-Hicks says, when you feel bad, that is simply your inner guidance/higher self telling you that what you have been thinking or doing is not in alignment with your true purpose or your best course of action. So, if your internal music is sounding like a horror soundtrack, your might be manifesting trouble — ominous things are afoot. Thrash metal? Perhaps you have some sub-surface anger you weren’t aware of.

If you decide you don’t want trouble or anger (or whatever), then consciously change your thinking towards what you DO want, picture it as clearly as you can, and now imagine the new soundtrack. Will it be bubbly and happy? Will it be cheerful or peaceful? Dramatically uplifting? This is just another way to play with your vibration and get in touch with what you are manifesting before it appears.

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Picking up Good Vibrations…. in Your Body

August 6, 2012

Have you heard of the concept of “raising our vibration”? In the New Thought realm (wikipedia page), we often talk about raising our vibration. I was thinking about what this means and how it works, and got these tidbits of inspiration.

We are all familiar with microwaves, but few of us know how they work. Microwave ovens work by beaming actual microwaves — electromagnetic radiation, similar to light but with longer wavelengths — that are tuned to the frequency that excites water. The radiation then heats your food by heating the water within the food. Stay with me here! I am going somewhere with this.

How about MRI machines? They work on a similar principle, using electromagnetic radiation. Once your body is magnetized inside the huge magnet, the machine beams radio waves towards your body and the hydrogen atoms in your body — which are everywhere, and very abundant in water — “reply” to the incoming radio waves by producing weak radio signals of their own, which the MRI picks up. So an image of your body taken with an MRI is actually made from radio signals your body produced.

I wonder how else our bodies react to frequencies? Every atom or molecule has certain frequencies of electromagnetic radiation (microwaves and radio waves are just two types) that can make the atom excited or make the molecule vibrate in particular modes. It follows, then, that the calcium in my body might react a certain way to certain energies. Or any other element, like iron or oxygen or sodium.

From the Heart-Math Website

What about molecules? The water in the microwave is a molecule, and there is lots of water in our bodies (plus lots of other molecules). I wonder if unsettled energy like anxiety or worry might cause certain atoms or molecules to act differently? I remember reading The Hidden Messages in Water by Dr. Masaru Emoto, and he certainly proved that water reacts to different thought messages! I also remember reading this article on the Heart Math website that talks about how our heart’s rhythm and electrical signals change when we are focused on appreciation compared to being angry or frustrated.

And then there are the really long chain molecules like RNA and DNA. These ones are certainly far more complex than simple H2O, but it stands to wonder if more complex frequencies — those created by thought energy itself — could affect them.

Could playing and staying youthful keep you healthier?

Could having faith, i.e. not worrying, help your cells to function better?

Could being positive and thinking loving, appreciative thoughts make your cells “happy?”

Well, the only way to know personally is to try. Imagine that your cells are happy. Love your body. Appreciate the life-giving forces that inhabit it. Feed it with healthy food and thoughts. Don’t give in to worry. Breathe the fresh air deeply, consciously. Do this, and I BET you will feel better than ever!


video about Dr. Masaru Emoto’s work

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Energy Beings

August 2, 2012

We are Energy Beings.

We live on more than just food. We live on energy. It’s simpler to think of our bodies just as chemcial-food-energy factories that convert chemical energy from food into energy for use in our bodies, either as motion, heat or building blocks for cells. That is true, and what you tell yourself about the food you eat is one part of the equation of health. If you think that the food you are eating is bad for you, it will be (no matter what its actual content). If you think that the food you’re eating is good for you, that will be true for you!

Tell Yourself This: Everything I eat contributes to my healthy body. Everything I eat comprises the building blocks for perfectly healthy cells.

Although this is true, there is so much more to it than that. We absorb other types of energy too. Have you ever noticed the “mood of a room” change when a new person walks in? Have you ever felt tired and frustrated one minute and then perky and happy the next, because a friend called you or you started doing something you enjoy? Your thoughts are a form of energy and your body benefits or suffers based on the type of energy that you are creating with your thoughts.

The next time you feel tired or mildly depressed, rather than eating something, why not try feeding your energy body another way? Read some jokes or look at cartoons (Savage Chickens is one of my favourites). Remind yourself that life is supposed to be fun — put on a playful attitude. Sit quietly and breathe deeply. Remind yourself that everything is working out perfectly. You are a good person, and good things happen to you. Put your feet up and focus on your breathing. Imagine that you are reaching upward, tapping into a higher energy (literally and metaphorically). Think of someone who inspires you and imagine that you are entering his/her energy-space… you can tap into the place their higher self lives. Keep breathing!

Tell Yourself This: I am an energy being. I am in a healthy, happy energy field right now. I am “recharging my batteries” right now with pure, loving, abundant, expansive, boundless energy.

Your energy body can be described further by chakras, but for now, just realize that there is more to it than food. Sometimes when I am vaguely hungry but I don’t know why, I just sit and have a short meditation and then I feel better, centered. I am no longer hungry (although I am still sometimes thirsty). I wonder how different your body would be if every time you ate, you also topped up your spiritual batteries? Would you feel like eating less, because your spiritual body has also been consciously fed? Would your digestion be better? Would the food-chemical building blocks be used more perfectly? Leave a comment and let me know how this works for you!

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