Rid The Mind of Toxic Thoughts
If someone was able to walk with you through your mind, what would they see?
Would it be an inner landscape filled with thoughts of peace, kindness, optimism, positivity, and compassion for yourself and others?
Or would it be a dark world where anger, fear, stress, frustration, toxicity, and negativity run rampant?
I ask myself these questions on a weekly basis. The truth is, no one can see what is taking place within you, yet you can never escape the inner workings of your own mind.
There are times in my mind where it is a dark trail leading towards the root of fear and suffering, and other times, it is a landscape of peace, illumination, and happiness.
For those of us who are willing to walk down a path of mindfulness and self-awareness, we come to understand that the mind can whip up a storm of stress and fear just as easily as it can create an environment of harmony.
The key comes down to us, the Thinkers. The part of us that empowers our thoughts and enables us to shift our focus towards those things that lead to joy, peace, and positivity.
Easy to say, yet difficult to do.
The question becomes, are you happy with what you’ve allowed to occupy your mind?
If not, how can you begin to shift it?
Breaking the Thought Pattern
In my life, there have been days, weeks, even months where I fell into a habitual thinking pattern and didn’t fully recognize my ability to think a new thought.
Instead, the outside world, the news, opinions of others, thoughts of the past, and the limiting beliefs I had about myself occupied my mind so powerfully that I was on cruise control. This is what I like to call drifting.
Has that ever happened to you?
Think about this past week.
Have your thoughts been hijacked or have you fell into an unconscious habitual pattern of thought?
It takes real work to think consciously. The good thing is you don’t have to be able to think consciously for 24 hours each day, I’ve yet to meet anyone who has been able to do that.
You just have to catch yourself when you fall into this habitual pattern of nonsense and toxicity and make a subtle mental shift.
When you make this subtle mental shift, you catch yourself when you start to spiral into the negative. Once you catch yourself, you can redirect your thoughts towards something higher, something better.
This is a pattern interruption.
A pattern interruption causes you to remember you are the thinker of your experience and can focus your energy on whatever thought you choose.
Doing this consistently throughout the day, a new thought pattern emerges and you remember that you have the power to determine what your thought pattern will be, whether good or bad.
You can’t expect to think with more positivity and peace if you’re unwilling to challenge and then replace the toxic thoughts you have today.
3 Keys To Rid The Mind of Toxic Thoughts
1 – Beneath the Thoughts – The best way to rid the mind of toxic thoughts and replace them with the highest and best thoughts possible is to recognize the part of you that thinks the thoughts that flow through your mind. To do this, you must become aware of that space that is beneath the thoughts that you think.
What is the part of you that thinks your thoughts?
Is there a part of you that is deeper than the thoughts in your mind, a part of you that empowers the thoughts that flow through your consciousness?
The answer is yes and if you can access the Thinker, you stumble upon the greatest treasure a human being can find. This is the truth that you are that which empowers the mind, not at the mercy of what the mind is filled with. This is the Thinker.
2 – Assembling Your Reality – Remember, each thought acts as a building block that is used to create the days of tomorrow. The most dominant thoughts fuel our emotions, choices, and actions, all of these things are within our control and act as the raw materials that will assemble our reality.
With this understanding, the question we must ask ourselves is this:
“If I continue to think the thoughts that I’ve been thinking this past month, where will these thoughts lead me 1 year from today?”
3 – Power of Focus & Attention – The thing or things that you spend your day focused on, will eventually begin to grow. Energy flows to where our focus and attention goes. Shifting our focus and attention can help us find the positive, the blessings and the good in even the most difficult situations. However, if you are continuously focused on the negative, while constantly filling your mind with the negative fed to you by the outside world, what do you expect to unfold in your life?
Shift your focus and set your attention on those things that you’d like to see grow in your experience.
The Challenge To Rid the Mind of Toxic Thoughts For Good
As you go throughout the day, make subtle mental shifts to redirect your mind toward the highest and best.
This means, whenever someone says something that gets to you, hurts you or annoys you, redirect your thoughts.
When you remind yourself of your past failures and setbacks over and over again, redirect your thoughts to something better and the possibilities that lie before you.
When you hear the news or read a social media feed talking about all the ills of this world, redirect your thoughts to something better.
If you are willing to do this today and beyond, a new thinking pattern will emerge and suddenly you’ll rid the mind of toxic thoughts.
Your thoughts become things.
Peace. Happiness. Compassion. Respect
Jeffon Seely