Productive Thinking
“Our life is what our thoughts make it” Marcus Aurelius
What fuel are you using to drive your life? Many of us now feed our bodies with foods we believe are beneficial. How many of us do the same with our minds by feeding them with information and thoughts that are equally beneficial?
Our brains contain billions of neurons. Each time we learn, experience or think something new a connection is made between neurons thereby creating a neural pathway or network. Repetition of any action or thought strengthens that neural pathway and in time we do, think or even feel things automatically. Learning how to play a musical instrument, drive, speak a new language, play a sport relies on this process for us to improve and become competent. With regard to thoughts, this is wonderful if our thoughts are working for us, if they feed us rather than deplete us, but if we focus on negative ‘what ifs’, on what is wrong in our lives, on what we can’t do then those neural patterns will become very powerful and our thoughts will automatically follow the negative route, which in turn will affect our actions or inaction. as well as the ‘energy’ we transmit to others. In Sanskrit there is a word ‘samskara’ one of the definitions of which is ‘impressions stored in the mind that form the basis of our beliefs, attitudes and personality’. You can imagine how we determine our lives on the basis of the ‘samskaras’ we are creating.
Initially, our thoughts are in our conscious minds but since the conscious mind can only hold a very limited amount of information much of what we experience, feel, believe and learn is stored in our subconscious mind. There is more and more evidence, based on scientific discoveries, that every thought and feeling we have alters our body chemistry either beneficially or negatively. Chemicals in the brain called neuropeptides link our thoughts and emotions with all parts of our body creating physical changes. This is now being shown to operate at even a genetic and/or cellular level.
The good news is that just as we forge negative neural pathways, we can train ourselves to create new, more positive patterns which, with practice, will take over from the negative patterns to enable us to lead happier and healthier lives. We do in fact have more control over our thoughts than we may believe. We do have choices!
How do we do this? Firstly, we need to become aware. Notice when we criticise ourselves, criticise others, expect things to go wrong, fear failure, focus on the negatives. We can start to become aware of our thoughts. How often are they negative? A large proportion of the thoughts we have one day are the same as we had yesterday and will have tomorrow. Because our thoughts are so often repeated on a daily basis, we view problems in the same way and can’t see possible, new, creative solutions. That is why we sometimes come up with constructive solutions when we are busy doing something else because we are using the more creative (right side) of our brain. Even Einstein said that he often came up with his ideas when he was doing something else.
There is always a split second between getting a thought and allowing it to follow a downward spiral. We may have become so ‘programmed’ to accept our recurring thoughts and they are so familiar to us that we don’t challenge them at all. Challenging or looking for rational evidence for negative beliefs is the next step. You may be surprised that you are generalising or catastrophising with no evidence. If, of course, you do find evidence then think of what actions you can take to minimise the effect.
Having challenged your negative thought, you need to replace it with something more productive. I am not suggesting that we live our lives in a constant state of positivity. That is unrealistic. There is a time for grief, sadness, acknowledging loss, fear. However, if we are stuck in these emotions because we have been reinforcing the neural pathways with repeated thoughts of hopelessness, there is a time for changing to a more productive way of thinking.
I use the word productive because it implies creating options, the realisation that there are options. There is always a choice – even if the only choice is how we react to given situations. A simple example is the following. I live near the A3 and there is the constant background noise of traffic. However, I am also lucky enough to have a garden – with trees! Therefore, there is also birdsong. One day I became aware that I could choose what I focus on. Traffic or birdsong!
There is also growing evidence that thinking of, or even better writing down three positive things that have happened during each day can increase ones overall happiness! This works because the brain starts forming new neural patterns which allow it to focus on the positive and because it will consciously start looking for the positive on an ongoing basis. The positives can be as minor (for our culture) as ‘I have water’ to something much greater.
With a more positive outlook, you will gain in self-confidence which will allow you to interact differently with others, to move out of your comfort zone, to take some ‘risks’. In short, to take action to move towards any goals, dream or plans you may have to improve your life.
In summary, productive thinking requires:
- Awareness of how thought patterns develop
- Effort to become aware of your own thoughts
- Challenging the negative – looking for evidence!
- Replacing negatives regularly and consistently with positives
- Choosing what you will focus on
- Choosing positive rather than negative ‘what ifs’
- Practise, practise, practise!
It may have taken a while to develop the negative habit, it may take a while to break it but with a new, more positive outlook you will find that you become more productive. In your work, your relationships, your leisure time. Go on, enjoy!! You deserve it.
The area of the human ‘body’ that we still know the least about is the mind but this is currently one of the most exciting areas of scientific research. We accept that there are gravitational fields, magnetic fields, fields involving mobile phones and computers but scientists are now researching the possibility that our minds also involve fields that stretch out beyond the body and that our thoughts can affect others at a cellular level. Scientific journals now report on areas that were previously considered taboo due to scepticism with regard to the energy fields of thoughts. It is very exciting!
Productive thinking also requires productive action.
© Monika Key
This article first appeared in a Focal Vocal newsletter - http://www.focalvocal.co.uk/
