Have you ever wondered what causes you to live the kind of life that you do, do the things you do, and act and react in the ways that you do?
It’s simple really: We are as we are because of ALL THE THOUGHTS WE HAVE EVER HAD.
Everything we have ever done and all that we have accumulated and achieved began with a thought. We cannot act or react to events, people, and circumstances without first having a thought. And these thoughts generate feelings within us that directly affect our mental, emotional, and physical well-being, our circumstances, and therefore the overall satisfaction we feel with our lives.
If you change your thoughts, you will change your world!
If we want to improve any aspects of our lives, we need to begin thinking differently, because, one thing is certain: WE CANNOT EXPECT TO RECEIVE DIFFERENT OUTCOMES IF WE CONTINUE TO THINK THE SAME THOUGHTS AND DO THE SAME THINGS THAT GOT US TO WHERE WE ARE NOW!
How’s life? How have you been feeling lately?
If you haven’t been feeling upbeat and optimistic, what have you thinking about that caused you to feel less than optimal?
If you noticed that sometimes you are not feeling so good, do you do anything to try to make yourself feel better?
There are lots of ways we can improve the way we feel. We could eat our favorite food, go shopping, or seek validation from others. However, actions like these can only provide short-term relief to any general dissatisfaction we may be experiencing.
For real and lasting positive changes, we need to change the only thing that we have any real control over, and that is ourselves. And since we are, and our resulting lives are a product of our thoughts, change has to take place within our minds, and more specifically, with the way we are predominantly thinking.
Once begun, the process of change will be ongoing for the rest of our lives as we come to understand the enormous benefits we gain by thinking in ways that support our well-being…..
It’s the difference between our life continuing pretty much the same as it is now, OR supercharging our experience knowing that our goals and dreams are ALL achievable.
So, what’s it going to be for you? More of the same daily content that you are generating for yourself now, or are you ready for an upgraded life experience that includes more joy, love, abundance, fun, adventures, freedom, better health, and overall well-being?
What you think determines what you receive as your life circumstances.
Whatever is going on in our minds has been created BY US. It is our attitudes, convictions, and viewpoints that have added to, and keep reinforcing both our beneficial and harmful beliefs, which recycle themselves as our daily thoughts, again and again.
Everything about us, including our personality, is made up of the thoughts we think. This means that we can change aspects of ourselves that may not benefit us just by changing the predominant thought patterns we have about that aspect. For example, if we typically react angrily when a certain trigger is activated, we can learn how to reprogram ourselves to achieve a different response. I’ll talk about how later in this post.
Our thoughts are responsible for creating everything that we want as well as what we do not want. They determine our relationship to financial success, our level of health and fitness, the state of our love life and friendships, our satisfaction at work, and even our ability to think with clarity or not! However, most of us are only vaguely aware of this binding relationship between what we have been thinking and the resulting quality of our life experience.
Every thought we have ever had is a piece in the puzzle that has made up our ‘life story’ to get us to this exact point in our lives, here and now! As already mentioned, we cannot do or achieve anything without first having a thought.
Your thoughts even led you to read this article. It may have been an unconscious thought or a conscious decision, and the difference between the two options is the key ingredient to your life continuing along a similar path or changing for the better!
The biggest obstacle to changing our lives is that our unconscious mind is controlling 95 % of the content of our lives, by default!
If we are living our lives on auto-pilot, (doing things unconsciously) then we are living life and reacting to people, events, and circumstances, based on habitual learned responses. The downside to reacting in auto-pilot mode is that we have no free will, and therefore no ability to improve our life experience. We will just continue to attract more of the ‘same stuff’ into our lives day in and day out, over and over again!
This is because our unconscious mind has no ability to ‘reason’ for itself. It can only act and direct us towards actions and reactions that are already programmed into it. Therefore, our lives are often repetitive, predictable, and boring.
Luckily, there is an alternative: The way for us to achieve better outcomes in our lives is to actively take control of our thought processes. If we choose to engage our conscious minds we can create circumstances and outcomes that are different from our past responses.
If we can become conscious participants in creating the next event, circumstance, or outcome, we can make our experiences the way we want them to be. But, it is only by being conscious of what we are thinking and doing that we will be able to influence our actions and responses towards achieving our goals….. and along the way, hopefully, we will choose to have more fun, love, and laughter.
Our minds are manifestation machines and create the content of our lives according to our thoughts.
This would change instantly, if, for example, a brick fell on our heads every time a thought of harming another being, or ourselves, (mentally, emotionally, or physically,) entered our minds. Fortunately, the bricks are slow to come. Luckily for us, there is a time lag for us to receive what we have been thinking about. This time lag occurs because we have so many scattered and conflicting thoughts each day. And this is for our advantage because we wouldn’t really want every thought we had to manifest into our lives immediately, would we….. Think about it!
Currently, because the majority of our thoughts are scattered and unfocused, our lives seem to be made up of random events, and it is not obvious how our unstructured thinking has created the circumstances of our lives.
However, if we could focus our thoughts in a singular direction (intention) we would soon be able to achieve our dreams. This can occur because when directed, our thoughts attract to them other similar thoughts, and if we continue to focus on our goals, they become our predominant intention (we achieve that vibration), and therefore, with time they will manifest. The universal Law of Attraction makes it so.
So, why not begin now to consciously direct more of your thoughts into creating the reality of your magnificent self?
How can you change your thoughts to achieve your dream life?
The following are some proven methods that will reprogram your mind and direct you to achieve better outcomes with regard to love, finances, work, family, health, and any other aspects of your life that you want to upgrade.
Having said that, I must stress that: THERE IS NOT A SINGLE PROGRAM IN EXISTANCE THAT WILL DO THE WORK FOR YOU. IT IS ONLY YOUR BEST INTENTIONS AND YOUR ACTIONS THAT WILL RETURN RESULTS TO YOU!
This is true, because of The Law of Attraction….. What we come to believe is real, is what we will manifest.
It’s been my experience that anyone who tells you there is a surefire easy way to change your thoughts to change your world is not being honest.
Don’t get me wrong, change is absolutely possible, and many people are a testament to this fact, including me! However, we will only receive in proportion to our ability to consistently and constantly focus on that which we wish to manifest.
Below are some of the best methods I have used to achieve significant changes in my life, and I am happy to recommend these methods to you.
How to achieve change through the conscious mind:
For the average person, our conscious mind is engaged for only about five percent of each day. So the amount of time we are consciously focusing on our goals is not significant enough to cancel out the vibration of the other ninety-five percent of our unconscious thoughts.
However, we can benefit greatly by increasing the amount of time we are consciously aware of and focusing on our goals to make beneficial changes to our lives.
Meditation: is a great tool that allows us to become aware of our thought processes, to become consciously aware more often, and to implant new beliefs into our subconscious minds. Check out these posts that I have written about how to meditate and the benefits of meditating.
How do I learn to meditate? The 2 biggest secrets to help you learn meditation that actually work.
What is the real purpose of meditation?
Mindfulness: is a very popular method these days that helps us become more aware of ourselves (body, mind, emotions, and soul). Check out one of my posts on mindfulness to learn more about why it is important to get to know ourselves better if we want to have an enhanced life experience: What is mindfulness: How will I benefit by practicing to become more mindful?
Yoga: is like an instruction manual for life on earth. We are given an instruction manual when we buy a car, electronic equipment, a fridge, and even kid’s toys. Sadly I never got one when I was born and I’m betting neither did you. Yoga is not only physical exercise but is a holistic system that encompasses all spheres of our lives and teaches us how to live in balance and harmony and eventually thrive– living our lives ecstatically and with complete awareness. I will write a post soon about how yoga has been such a beneficial and transformational practice in my life.
Creative visualization: is about ‘experiencing’ our goals as already achieved before they actually are. This practice is about ‘becoming’ the vibration of our desired outcomes now, as it is the vibration that we feel that will eventually manifest (The Law of Attraction) the desired outcomes into our future life experience. Check out my post on visualization here:
What is visualization and can it help me achieve my goals?
Other methods include specific breathing exercises and practices like Tai Chi, and Chi Gong.
These methods take time but are well worth pursuing. If you have read any of my other posts you will know that I believe that there is no goal that we should be rushing to complete. Life is a game and it is the journey that is important– each and every experience along the path.
However, if you are like me, you want to get the most out of life! So, luckily there are other techniques that I have used and can recommend that enable us to reach our goals for self-improvement and improved life circumstances more quickly and easily. They involve implanting new beliefs directly into our subconscious minds to upgrade the thought processes we have when we are consciously thinking as well as when we are drifting along, unconscious of our thoughts (in autopilot mode.)
Changing your unconscious programming is the ultimate goal and is the quickest way to achieve your dreams.
As I said before, there is no cheating, and you will achieve results that are specific to you, depending on the time, effort, and belief, that you put into these programs. I wanted, needed, and expected to benefit from these programs and the methods they use, and I did….. and still do.
The Medici Code is a transformational tool that offers a series of theta-wave frequency audio tracks with wealth-building and abundance secrets embedded into them. This ensures the information we need to help us reprogram our minds, to get what we want, is put directly into our subconscious mind- not our conscious mind. This is important because brain scientists know that it is our unconscious mind that is active for up to ninety-five percent of each day.
So, imagine how this can change our lives by overwriting our limiting beliefs about scarcity, lack, and fear and reprogramming ourselves for confidence, wealth, love, and joy. A great product. Check out my review of The Medici Code here, or go directly to their website for more information by clicking here.
The Raikov Effect utilizes brain training techniques including modeling, hypnosis, deep trance states, visualizations, and positive thinking, specifically to train our brains to imitate people we admire. It’s a bit like in the movie, The Matrix, where Neo and his friends were able to download and run any program they wanted with the result of acquiring years of learning within minutes.
The Raikov Effect program aims to change our minds to align ourselves mentally with the goals we wish to achieve. This means that if we take on the mindset that we have already achieved our goals, then they will become our reality. Again, The Law of Attraction makes it so!
I have written a dedicated review of The Raikov Effect training program, and you can read about this life-changing program HERE!
Binaural beats and Isotones: These are brain-wave entrainment sound technologies that work by altering our brain frequency to achieve desired results, like deep meditation, promoting healthy sleep, alleviating stress and anxiety, improved concentration, improved information retention, etc.
I use selective recordings when doing different tasks, and find that tasks like meditating and concentrating are better and deeper when assisted by binaural beats and isotones.
If you are interested in learning more about these tools, check out this website. It has some good information from qualified professionals. https://www.binauralbeatsfreak.com/isochronic-tones/isochronic-tones-vs-binaural-beats
So, what’s next?
All the above tools will enable you to have a greatly improved life experience if you use them as directed and with dedication.
We are lucky to be living in a time when science can prove that technologies like brain-wave entrainment, and techniques like meditation, do have significant, measurable, and positive, results in our lives. But they will only help us if we help ourselves. They cannot do the work for us!
The most valuable skill you can ever develop is that of being able to direct your powerful thoughts toward what you want to achieve. This requires that you be adept at quickly evaluating situations and then giving your full focused attention to what you want. By deliberately directing our own thoughts towards desired outcomes, we will achieve so much more than we could ever achieve by just using our actions to get results.
If you are serious about achieving your goals, I suggest that you check out some of the methods listed above and begin getting more of the enormous creative power already in your brain working for you!
I wish you all the best on your journey through life. Why not make it a great experience?
A terrific article that can help me and others to attain more of what we want and less of what we don’t want in our lives!
A favorite recording of mine that has had a huge impact in my life: “The Strangest Secret” by Earl Nightingale. It was the first spoken-word recording to sell over 1 million copies. As the speaker reveals, the strangest secret in the world is: “We become what we think about.”
Your article is super helpful because it aids our understanding of how to control the things we think about’.
Thanks for the great work. I look forward to reading future articles on your website!
Hi Glenn. Thanks for your comments.
‘The Strangest Secret’ is a great recording, full of wisdom and insights. It amazes me that so many people listened to it, and yet our current reality is one where most people are still unaware of its primary message. Does this mean that those who listened to it did not follow through with the advice given or are there other forces at play in our lives that have successfully over-written the messages and replaced them with their own agendas?
I’m referring to our medical, education, government, and military complexes when I ask this question. Because it is not in the interests of these organizations to have a world filled with individuals who are self-empowered and independent. So we have been conditioned by education and entertainment to believe what they want us to believe…. i.e. remain small and just do what everyone else does, and don’t try to be better or different or you will be punished! ‘We have become what they encourage us to think about.’
I’m looking forward to a time when more people are self-empowered and filled with their own creative potential, compassion, and love for life. Then we can truely create a world where all inhabitants ans species can thrive 🙂
I wish you a great day and a wonderful life, my friend.
Andrew
The most difficult parts are to ban the negative thoughts and to acknowledge the changes. For me, that is. But it’s true our life changes when our thoughts change. I am 90% of the time really happy with my life at the moment.
The 10% is due to COVID. We are in our 3rd lockdown and I don’t have the feeling at all that the measurements are having any effect. And some days I get a bit down because I am starting to feel lonely. Because of the changes in my life of recent years, those periods don’t last very long. But it’s a sign there is still work to do for me. 🙂
So I’ll keep on evaluating my thoughts and try to skip the negative ones.
Great read, Andrew, thanks for the inspiration.
Hi Hannie. Thanks for sharing.
Being happy for ninety percent of the time is a really great achievement. This is what I would focus on and acknowledge, and enjoy. I don’t think any of us can be, or would want to be, completely happy all of the time…. If you think about it, we only know what happiness is because we have experienced contrasting feelings.
Even with something as awesome as happiness, if it was our constant state of being, it would soon lose its appeal.
I have to agree that the Covid situation really sucks, and if you are being locked down for a third time with out any sinifiant effects, that’s really disheartening. It makes me question, what is the real purpose of the lockdowns when they are not doing what they are supposed to do….. prevent the virus from spreading.
There’s still so much to be grateful for and when I want to change my mood, I remember all of the good things in my lfe, and it really does make me feel good 🙂
I hope you have a great day, and wish you all the best,
Andrew
There’s one thing that all people must understand – change is constant. You don’t change overnight, and the people that told you they did probably lied to you.
I found that the best way to strengthen ourselves is to improve our mindset first.
Do things that feel uncomfortable to you (waking up early, running 5km every day, drinking bitter coffee, making your bed in the morning, take a cold shower, etc.)
I know that all of these are just small ‘unnecessary’ things, but they will get us out of our comfort zone and put us into a more focused tunnel vision.
In other words, do hard things that don’t feel natural to you (and you suck at) and I promise that you’ll reap the benefits of your stubbornness.
I like how you say, ‘Do things that you suck at’ and that don’t feel natural. I have to agree, that the more we can break out of our comfort zone, the more we will come to realize that we are not limited by our minds. Change is ongoing as you have said, and we may as well embrace it and see it as an opportunity to get more of the things we want out of life.
Awesome, and I appreciate you taking the time to read and comment on my post.
Have a great day,
Andrew
Hi Andrew,
Another fantastic read and once again something that truly resonates with me.
Funnily enough, I was researching this phenomenon about the conscious and unconscious thoughts we have on a daily basis.
It appears that we can have up to 60,000 thoughts a day (and in the 5% and 95% ratio you have mentioned), up to 80% of these thoughts are negative, and up to 95% of those are the same negative unconscious thoughts we had the previous day. So, basically we are repeating the same negative thought processes to ourselves over-and-over again.
It’s only over the past few years that I have started to come to terms with that I am in control of how I feel.
In fact, something that I have read many times actually makes a lot of sense – if we allowed a friend to speak negatively to us 80% of the time, and they repeated this process day-after-day, they wouldn’t remain a friend for very long. And yet, we speak to ourselves in this exact same way, and allow ourselves to “get away with it.”
I cannot tell you how many times in the past I have ruined a perfectly good mood simply because of something someone else has said or done. It could be something as insignificant as receiving the wrong coffee order at the coffee shop, or somebody I have never seen before in my life (and probably unlikely to again) not saying “thank you” because I held a door open for them. However, these “incidents” would still play on my mind and pretty much take over my day.
A saying I often repeat to myself nowadays, when faced with these same situations is, “You can’t control other people, but you can control yourself”. Admittedly, it took a bit of getting used to, but it has certainly started to pay dividends now.
I’ve mentioned to you before that I still see myself as “a work in progress”, but it astounds me how much I used to allow my unconscious thoughts to rule my life. I’m not saying it still doesn’t occasionally happen, but a lot less that’s for sure.
I must admit that programs like The Medici Code and The Raikov Effect fascinate me, as I start to learn more about the subconscious and unconscious mind.
I have personally used techniques such as meditation, mindfulness, affirmations, etc. and they have certainly made a huge difference, so I can definitely see the benefits of taking this one step further.
Andrew, I thoroughly enjoyed this article, as always.
Partha
Hi Partha. It’s good to hear from you again 🙂
The more I learn about our incredible minds, the more I am blown away by the possibilities that are available to us to create incredible lives!
And then I look at what’s happening in the world around us, at what we are doing to each other as a species, and how we are treating our home, this beautiful earth, and I wonder where has it all gone wrong?
Mystics, wise people, and spiritualists, throughout the ages have been saying that we are the ‘creators of our own reality.’ And now we have scientific research that proves they have been right along……. And yet as a species, in general, we are still denying that we are powerful and we are connected to everyone else, and all of creation. The majority of us seem content to ‘live with our heads buried in the sand’ and deny what becoming more and more obvious with each passing year…. Matter responds to our thoughts and feelings, and our life is our creation, and we have the ability to change it at will!
Haha. I think this would be the most beneficial subject we could teach our kids at school….. Anyway, enough of me ranting on and on.
I haven’t come across this quote before: “If we allowed a friend to speak negatively to us 80% of the time, and they repeated this process day-after-day, they wouldn’t remain a friend for very long.” Awesome. This says so much about our level of self-awareness…. that basically we are living our lives with little to no awareness of our own mind and what we are attracting into our lives. What a crazy situation we have got ourselves into!
I sometimes wish for a ‘quick fix’ to control my mind. But then I remind myself that life is a journey, and if we could get everything we wanted all of the time without having to apply some effort, either mentally, physically, or emotionally, we would soon become bored with life as there would be nothing to challenge us.
So, now I choose to appreciate the challenges, don’t let them affect my mood, and try and make the best out of all situations.
I believe we are all still a work in progress, and this is the exciting thing about being alive….. we will never know everything, and we will never get it finished…. however, we can choose to enjoy the journey 🙂
Have a great day mate, and look forward to seeing you here again!
All the best
Andrew
Hi Andrew,
Thanks for such a detailed reply.
I actually agree that perhaps we should concentrate more on “the workings of the mind” in schools. It would certainly help to make life a smoother journey.
Yes, to be honest, I think many people turn to self-improvement and personal development hoping for a “quick fix”, but as you have alluded to in many of your articles, and as I am now discovering, this is actually a life-long journey.
You’re right now that I come to think of it, we are ALL always a work in progress. I guess some of us are just further along in that life-long journey than others.
Thanks
Partha
Hi mate 🙂
Quick fixes are available….. but they only happen if we are able to have absolute belief in that which we are trying to create. For example, there are many cases where spontaneous healings have occurred. This is possible because all mind effort was focused on achieving a specific outcome….. without any contradictory thoughts. We are all capable of this, however, most of us are not achieving the results we desire simply because we cannot yet use our minds properly!
And this is where the journey comes in….. we progressively learn how to be more aware and how to focus only on the outcomes we wish to achieve….. and then the dream life we wish to be living is ours to live!
I wish you all the best in creating your perfect reality!
With much respect,
Andrew