Recently, my sister was showing me an exercise to help my back. I was having trouble grasping what she was saying. Suddenly, I jumped off the floor and declared, “never mind, it’s too hard”.
I was shocked and dismayed how quickly the thought “it’s too hard” came up and controlled my choices.
It was this thought that stopped me from doing a lot of things in my life.
We all have negative, discouraging thoughts that inhibit us, make us angry or cause us to worry. There are also thoughts that justify making choices we would really prefer not to do. Being unaware of the thoughts, we still respond automatically. Once we tune into the thoughts, we take back the power to choose differently.
Some examples of discouraging thoughts are; “it’s too hard”, “it takes too long”, “I can’t”, “what’s the use?” or “when I am (fill in the blank) then I’ll be able to (fill in the blank)”. This latter example tells our subconscious that we can’t do this now. Examples of thoughts that justify choices are: “she made me mad so I wanted to (fill in the blank)”, “I had a hard day so I deserve a treat (or a drink)”, or “I’m too tired to exercise today”.
I did get back on the floor and learned the exercise. Will you?