I've Changed My Mind

There’s a common idea in personal growth that you need to “think positive” all the time.

But most people have lived real life and experienced loss, grief, suffering, stress, rebuilding, and know that’s not realistic. And honestly, it’s not even helpful. The goal when shifting to a positive mindset is not to convince yourself that everything is perfect. The goal is to stop assuming that the worst outcome is the only possible ending. This is what most people’s minds do automatically. A single thought appears and immediately we think "Something is going to go wrong, I’m going to fail, This isn’t going to work out" etc.

The subconscious aspect of your mind does not question your rhetoric, instead it locks onto it. It holds it like a truth and from there, the body and nervous system organizes its response. Your receptors do not know the difference between a real threat and an imagined one. So you latch on to fear and it prepares you for danger. Your breathing get short and shallow, the jaw clenches , and we move through life with the body locked up in all kinds of pain and dysfunction. We will struggle with sleep, or over over eating and drinking to increase the disassociated state from the discomfort of daily life. And we never consider that they way we are habitually thinking is leading our bodies and driving our lives.

When you are living life, are you responding to reality—or reacting to your brain's patterns?

This is where your real work is.

The point is not to convince yourself that everything will be perfect, but instead let go of the idea that failure is the only possible out come. Thoughts are not facts. They are interpretations of data and interpretations can be changed by a shift in perspective. The real discipline isn't in forcing positivity , it is in refusing to let negativity become your default interpretation. Become neutral . See both sides of the coin. Once the brain sees multiple outcomes instead of one threat, the nervous system settles and the body stops acting as if disaster is inevitable. Then you can keep the nervous system steady enough to deal with whatever actually happens

When a negative thought or feeling appears, instead of arguing with it or trying to replace it with something “better,” say something like:

"I recognize that this thought / fear / worry / pain has come up, but I am not attaching to it. I know that there are bigger forces at play which are turning the outcome in my greatest favor in ways that I cannot imagine. "

This shift important.

You are changing your mental patterning. It will be uncomfortable and maybe strange at first but if all you have ever done is negative thinking your whole life, how can it possibly hurt you to try something different now ?

At the end of the day if you cannot change your own mind, then what can you do with it?

At the end of your life if you did not expand your heart and mind in every way possible then what did you do with it?

with LOVE ,

Aja