Our Four Types of Thoughts
We have already discussed in one of the articles that our thoughts translate into our feelings and emotions, which give rise to our words, actions, and behaviors; and our actions and behaviors define our destiny.
In essence, our thoughts create our destiny.
Therefore, it is of utmost importance that we pay deep attention to the quality of thoughts we produce throughout the day as it will define our destiny not just in this lifetime but in our subsequent lives as well.
To make the quality of our thoughts better, it is essential to understand the types of thoughts our mind produces so that we can identify them at every moment and correct our thought patterns.
Our mind produces four types of thoughts.
- Pure Thoughts
- Neutral Thoughts
- Waste Thoughts
- Toxic/Negative Thoughts
We will now understand all four types of thoughts in detail, their nature, how to identify them, their impact on our lives, and most importantly how to correct them.
- Pure Thoughts
Pure thoughts as the name suggests are positive thoughts. These thoughts are of selfless love, compassion, humility, gratitude, service, forgiveness, understanding, peace, calmness, devotion, etc.
Pure thoughts are full of positive energy and they fill our minds and body with positivity. When we practice pure thoughts, they not only benefit us both emotionally and physically but also help our surroundings. People whom we come in contact with or think about also receive these positive vibrations which helps them as well in their lives.
So when we are creating positive thoughts, we are not only helping ourselves but are doing a great service to society as well.
What’s more? When we radiate pure thoughts, people getting those vibrations also send back positive energy to us which in turn strengthens our emotional state even more. It’s always the law of reciprocity at work. Whatever energy we send out, we receive.
Research has shown that people have not just conquered their emotional health, but have also conquered many terminal illnesses with the power of pure and positive thoughts, defying all the predictions of medical science. Medical science often terms these incidents as medical miracles. That’s the power of pure thoughts.
- Neutral Thoughts
These thoughts are of neutral energy. They neither give us energy nor deplete it. They are just neutral.
For example, when we think of our tasks of the day, or we think of how to plan our next holiday, or about our career advancement, the food we will eat for dinner, etc.
These are mostly related to neither any negative aspect nor any positive aspect. They are an important part of life and should get a place in our minds.
However, the problem arises when we start overthinking and getting carried away with these neutral thoughts. We start with a neutral thought but then find it difficult to get out of that string of thoughts which starts to proceed towards either wasteful or toxic thoughts. This pattern then starts depleting our energy.
For example, if we are thinking about a sales meeting we are going to attend today, our mind might get carried away with thoughts like what if the meeting doesn’t go well, what if the client does not give the contract today, what if I do not achieve my sales targets for this month, and so on.
Therefore, it is important to understand that we should practice neutral thoughts as they help us with completing important tasks throughout the day, but we have to be very mindful of them. We should always keep a check on whether we are practicing neutral thoughts for the right duration or if they have started depleting our energy.
A good way to keep neutral thoughts as less as possible is to be more managed with our tasks and goals. Keeping a notepad in our handheld device goes a long way in helping us keep our minds clean for pure thoughts. Once we have written our neutral thoughts, we don’t have to dwell on them throughout the day as we know we have noted them down and when one task gets finished, we can always refer to the list and move on to the next one.
You can even practice this habit for writing not just the tasks, but every neutral thought that crosses your mind. Be it the books you want to read, the movies you want to watch, the places you want to visit, and so on. You got the idea. That’s why making different note folders in your handheld device helps you a lot as it is almost always available at your disposal, so you don’t have to carry those neutral thoughts in your mind for too long.
The idea of this entire exercise is to keep our minds free from neutral, wasteful, and toxic thoughts, and practice only pure thoughts as much as possible.
- Wasteful Thoughts
These thoughts are called wasteful thoughts because they don’t yield anything but only deplete our energy.
For example, if we start thinking about a friend who has betrayed us, or been rude to us. Or a boss who was too arrogant in his conversation.
Why did he betray me? What wrong did I do to deserve this? Why is my boss so arrogant? And so on.
When we get into the what, why, and how of things, we generally produce wasteful thoughts. These thoughts as we can see will yield nothing as we have no control over the situation or the other person, but we end up depleting our precious energy.
Therefore, we should always be aware to spot these wasteful thoughts and take a pause to shut them up. It makes room to again go back to creating pure and positive thoughts. Even if we want to think about the same person or situation, we can create pure thoughts rather than getting engaged in wasteful thoughts. You will notice that the moment you produce pure thoughts for the same person, your mind will feel an instant peace and calmness.
What’s more is that those positive vibrations also reach that person and as the law of reciprocity states, they will automatically start creating positive thoughts about you as well.
Therefore, the power is in your hands to make the best out of any situation in life by practicing the right thoughts.
- Toxic/Negative Thoughts
As the name suggests, these are the most destructive thoughts for both ourselves and the people around us.
Thoughts of jealousy, envy, worry, stress, anger, lust, disagreement, competition, comparison, expectations, pessimism, greed, etc are all toxic or negative thoughts.
These thoughts most rapidly deplete our inner power and of the people around us. One can easily notice the vibrations of both toxic and pure thoughts as they enter into a scene. That is the power of these thoughts. They radiate through vibrations and they not only affect the person creating those thoughts but also the people and things around him.
Did you know that even our food and water also absorb these vibrations of thoughts? That’s the power of our thoughts. They impact every aspect of our lives.
Research says that 85% of the thoughts we produce daily are wasteful or toxic. Therefore we are left with only 15% of thoughts which gets distributed between pure and neutral thoughts. However, our mind has the potential to produce 100% of pure thoughts.
From this, we can understand what is the potential of our mind. Our endeavor should be to achieve the highest potential of our minds. That’s the journey we should embark upon.
We should make it a practice to produce pure thoughts as much as possible, in every situation. This is hard work for the first few days, but as we practice this habit, our minds automatically get tuned to creating pure thoughts for every situation. Then it starts coming naturally to us.
That’s where the true freedom and happiness lies. When no situation or person controls our thoughts but only us. We have the power to produce pure thoughts irrespective of the situation. That is the way to create a beautiful, peaceful present life, and a blissful future destiny.
If you’d like to read more about this topic, please get a copy of the book ‘The Power of One Thought’ written by one of the greatest spiritual teachers of our times ‘Sister BK Shivani’.
Please feel free to share your thoughts on the above.
