Raw Material of Our Thoughts

We have discussed in previous articles that our thoughts define our destiny. Therefore, to change our destiny, we have to change our thoughts.

To change our thoughts, we must understand the sources of our thoughts. Because if we understand why we think what we think, and what is the raw material that goes into generating our thoughts, we can work on the root cause and change our thoughts easily.

There are majorly three types of raw materials that play an important role in shaping our thoughts.

• The beliefs we hold
• The content we consume
• The experiences we hold

Let us understand each one of these sources in detail.

• The beliefs we hold

Each of us has been exposed to life for many years and has formed many beliefs around every aspect of our lives. Two major factors essentially shape these beliefs. The experiences we had in life, and the labels and opinions of others.

For example, we might have come across many instances in our lives where anger came in handy in getting a job done. If a subordinate or a family member was not performing to our expectations, a certain amount of anger might have helped us in getting the job done. This would lead us to believe that anger is sometimes good. It can get the job done. Therefore, that’s a belief we hold now.

Another example would be that someone has continuously looked down upon us, giving us the vibrations of a probable failure, of not being good enough, and so on. This is a common scenario with parents raising their children. Over time, these instances will lead us to believe their opinions to be true. Therefore, we will form a belief that we might not be good enough. Maybe we are headed for a failed life. Maybe everyone is right. This is an example of how labels by others form our beliefs.

The above two examples are of both negative beliefs. However, we hold many positive beliefs as well. The reason for these positive beliefs is also our experiences, opinions, and labels of the society we live in.

Therefore, the gist of the matter is that we hold many positive and negative beliefs in almost every aspect of our lives based on these two factors.

And these beliefs play an important role in shaping our thoughts.

For example, if we hold a belief that anger sometimes is good for getting things done, our mind will automatically create thoughts of anger when the opportunity arises.

Similarly, when faced with tough circumstances, our mind will automatically form thoughts of failure based on our belief that we are a failure.

Now the question is how do we change our belief system that has been so deeply ingrained in our thinking patterns?

We will come to that once we have discussed the other two sources of our thoughts as well, the content we consume and the experiences we hold.

• The content we consume

We are exposed to content almost all our waking hours. Except for sleeping for around 6–7 hours, we are continuously exposed to various forms of content for 17–18 hours every single day.

When we speak of content, it’s not just the active content that we consume through Netflix, social media, YouTube, books, spiritual videos, etc, but we are also exposed to the content that we consume passively.

For example, if two people are discussing a negative aspect of something and we are passively hearing that content, that passive content also gets registered in our subconscious mind and plays an important role in shaping our thoughts.

If we consciously consume high-vibration positive content throughout the day, watch the right spiritual videos, read the right books, talk to positive people, etc, it will have a deep impact on our thinking process. On the other hand, the negative content will also have the same impact on the quality of our thoughts.

Therefore, it is of utmost importance that we consciously refrain from all sorts of negative content such as anger, lust, greed, envy, jealousy, and violence; and consciously make it a choice to consume only positive content such as optimism, compassion, selfless love, services, health, success, etc.

Not just in terms of the digital medium, but we can always choose to stay away from any form of negative gossip. Negative content will only litter our minds with negative thoughts and feelings.

There is an old saying that ‘you are as good as the company you keep’. We should carefully choose the people we spend our time with. There are certain situations when we can not avoid certain people, such as our immediate family. In such cases, if we find the discussion to be negative, we can always divert the discussion to a positive side rather than avoiding those people.

The idea is to consciously work towards consuming only positive content, be it in any form. Digital, books, discussions, etc.

• The experiences we hold

Another major source of our thoughts is the past experiences we hold. Our past experiences are deeply ingrained in our subconscious mind and act as fuel for our thoughts when a similar situation arises.

A classic example is the habit of smoking. Whenever you were stressed in the past, you found that lighting a cigarette helped you relieve that stress, even if for a few moments. Now that experience has been registered in your subconscious mind as a memory.

Next time when you feel stressed, that experience from the subconscious mind will get triggered and will create a thought that smoking helped me last time, it will help me this time as well. So based on that experience, your conscious mind creates a thought of lighting a cigarette to get rid of that stress.

This is just one example but we hold past experiences in almost every aspect of our lives which shape the way we think.

Another example would be let’s say you didn’t complete a particular office task in the past that was assigned to you. When the time came to present that task, you made some lies and got away with it.

Now this experience will also get registered in your subconscious mind that lying may help you get out of trouble if you have not done your job well. Next time when you face a similar situation, rather than taking ownership and facing the situation, your mind will create a similar thought of lying and getting away.

And this repeated thought creation will then become your attitude, which will ultimately define your destiny.

These are just a few examples. Imagine we hold such beliefs and past experiences in almost every aspect of our lives, that have been conditioned for many years. How deeply these beliefs are ingrained in our minds and how powerful their impact can be on our lives?

Therefore, it is very important to pay close attention to every thought and identify the raw material behind that thought. Only then we can remove that raw material from the subconscious mind and replace it with the right thought.

Now, coming back to the question we raised above. How do we change our thoughts?

In her beautiful book ‘The Power of One Thought’ Sister BK Shivani suggests that whenever any thought comes to our mind, we have to ask ourselves these four questions.

• Does this thought make me emotionally stronger?
• Does it make me mentally and physically healthier?
• Is it creating harmony in my relationships?
• Is it making my life simpler?

If the answer to all these questions is yes, then the thought is the right thought and should be pursued further. If the answer to any one of these questions is no, then we have to pause and introspect the source of that thought.

Is this thought coming from a belief I hold, the content I might have consumed in any form, or my past experiences? After introspecting, we will get to the cause of that thought and will be able to rectify that cause.

It’s not a one-time affair. We have to practice this way of thinking our entire lives. The good part is that it gets easier with time as we practice this conscious thinking. And then, it just becomes our natural way of thinking.

We might miss many of our thoughts initially, but if we have resolved to consciously analyze our thoughts, we will soon start to understand the workings of our minds in a way we have never imagined. This will be the start of a beautiful, blissful life.

Please feel free to share your thoughts on this.