Reframing Thoughts and Living Authentically
Everyone can admit that they’ve caught themselves having a negative thought about themselves. But have you ever really paid attention to how much of this negative self-talk you actually do in a day? The average human can experience something like 70,000 thoughts in a day. That’s a lot of thoughts, and yet, a very large percentage of those thoughts are repeated multiple times over. It wasn’t until I started paying attention to my thoughts that I realized, most of my exterior circumstances, were a result of my fearful and negative mind. I would say some horrible things to myself daily. I didn’t believe in myself at all, I didn’t love myself, and I realized I had forgotten who I was. It was at a time in my life when I had forgotten my truth. I had been seeking answers and wanting better for myself. I was on a search for my truth. It was then that I realized, my life was all in my perception, so I began to change it. In this article, you will discover how to recognize your thought patterns, transform them, tune into your intuition, and find your Authentic self. Bring more joy into your life by trying some of these tips.
"Every time we have a thought, we make a chemical. If we have good thoughts, we make chemicals that make us feel good. And if we have negative thoughts, we make chemicals that make us feel negative." Dr. Joe Dispenza
1. How to recognize thought patterns?
Most life coaches will agree that journaling can be an incredible tool to use for self-help. When we journal, it is a way of taking an idea or thought from the etheric realm and then pulling into our 3-dimensional realm to be released or acted upon. When we journal, especially during a time of emotional upheaval, an expression can be experienced and felt as well as seen on paper. Journaling also helps us to recognize a repetitious thought, whether it be negative or positive. After writing every day, for at least one week, you go back and reflect upon what is showing up repetitiously. I recommend beginning a daily journal that you can use to reflect with.
Meditation is also a profound way to bring oneself to the present moment and slow down the thoughts that flood our minds. Meditating for 5 minutes a day has been proven to create incredible changes in the lives of many. Meditation teaches you to be able to experience yourself thinking without attaching an emotion to that thought, rather, you are simply the observer of your thoughts.
Being aware of your emotional ups and downs is another great way to notice thought patterns. Anytime you are experiencing a rise or fall in your emotions stop and ask yourself what thoughts you are having? What thoughts were you having before you started to feel these emotions? What emotions are playing out in patterns? What is causing these emotional triggers? When you begin to ask these questions, you start to understand your emotions, where they are coming from, and why you are experiencing them.
2. Reframing negative thought patterns
After getting accustomed to journaling, meditation, or other forms of reflection, you become more consciously aware of when you are having a thought versus it being an automatic occurrence. At this point, you can then begin to intentionally interrupt those negative thoughts and replace them with a positive instead.
When you notice a negative thought pattern present itself, stop what you’re doing, and allow the space to speak or think 3 statements of gratitude. By doing this you are breaking the negative energetic cycle and introducing positive energy. Expressions of gratitude create positive emotion and by doing this we are not only reframing the negative thoughts, but we are also transforming the emotions we are experiencing at that moment. You are training your mind to switch from a perspective of lack or victimization to a perspective of abundance and appreciation. When you continue with this practice, eventually new thought patterns and emotional responses form. A shift in our awareness has taken place and we learn how to rise above the pendulum swing of our emotions that create negative thoughts, to begin with.
3. How negative thought patterns are formed
When we are exposed to a traumatic experience or negative circumstance, we have an uncomfortable emotional response. We then develop a negative thought around that emotion/feeling. As life goes on, we move past the actual trauma experience but that feeling and thoughts attached to it stay with us. With new life experiences, as these emotions are triggered, those negative thoughts replay in our mind creating a repetitious pattern. We begin to believe the negative thoughts and don’t realize that we are outwardly acting based upon them. We also start to fear that others think this same way about us. We develop an attachment to those patterns and begin creating more of these types of experiences in our reality. While it’s all happening, we can’t seem to understand why. We become stuck in a victimized mindset.
4. How Mind, Body, and Spirit work together to help you heal and stay true to you.
There are times when we need to make a decision or choice and, in those times, something happens to guide us in the direction we need to take whether it’s a gut feeling, an instinctual reaction from your body, or a thought that keeps replaying in your mind that you can’t ignore. We have free will as to what we do with that guidance but I would like to review some things to look for when you want to listen to your own inner guidance.
Our minds are beautiful, humanity has yet to discover all the amazing abilities that the mind has. The mind is the interpreter of the experience. Our minds are the ego. Our ego is a part of us that is our protector, our ego receives information and translates whether we are safe or in danger. Our body speaks to us through physical sensations such as tension. We may experience pains or ailments when we need to make a decision. We may experience an energetic sensation in our heart center, in our throat, in our head, in our belly, and in other areas within the body. Finally, we have our spirits intuition, which tells us what to do, where to go, who to trust, and what to believe. Our spirit provides us with an inner knowing without needing a reason for factual evidence.
Tune into your mind body and spirit to discover what it’s telling you. Ultimately it all comes back to the mind to be interpreted and the majority of us will listen to our head over our hearts. So I ask this, don’t you want your mind to be positive and clear, and not interpreting from a place of fear?
Discovering this information and applying it in my life was a profound awakening for me. Over time and with continued practice I started to notice that my whole life was shifting and changing. I was making decisions differently, I found myself with more confidence, I went back to school and became a life coach to help others transform their own minds.
In conclusion, changing your negative thought patterns can and will bring you back to your authentic self. In this day and age, we tend to work in robotic mode, on the grind, we stop paying attention to ourselves and eventually forget who we are, or why we started something, finding ourselves feeling lost and unsure of what to do next. Don’t you love being who you truly are or have you forgotten because your negative thoughts have taken over?
