A couple of ‘unintentional thoughts’ that I have replaced with ‘intentional thoughts’ over the last few years:
*Limiting thought: “XYZ task will be so challenging…ughhh, I don’t even want to start working on it. (Insert procrastination.) “
*Intentional thought replacement: “This is easy.”
The minute I replace this thought, I feel a sense of calm and empowerment wash over me.
*Limiting thought: “My kids are so loud, all the time.”
*Intentional thought replacement: “I allow an environment where my kids are learning to play, socialize, and voice their creativity daily.”
Immediately, I have more compassion for my kids, and my ear holes.
*Limiting thoughts: “My thighs are not pretty.”
*Intentional thought: “My thighs are strong AF. My thighs are one of the reasons I am so capable of lifting heavy weights, birthing babies, carrying toddlers, and hiking so easily.”
The most valuable thing I have learned in the last couple years is the ability to control my emotions through intentional thinking.
I used to believe that emotions were something that happened *to* me. As if, I could wake up and just see what the Universe gave me for a mood that day, then push through it and wait for it to be the mood I actually wanted. Turns out, if you wait to see what kind of mood you’re in while balancing 4 children, a marriage, 2 businesses, and several employees than spoiler alert: The mood that naturally happens can be stressed and dueche-baggy.
If you had told me that I could control my mood/emotions/thoughts directly, quickly and efficiently, I would have thought you were speaking of witchcraft.
Turns out, witchcraft or not: replacing my unintentional thoughts with intentional thoughts works to align us again immediately.
A couple notes on this:
- Just because we have a thought, doesn’t mean it’s true. We have learned to trust ourselves to the fullest in some areas, and often the most unempowering areas. I may have a thought that says, “This task will take such a long time,” regardless of its truth, I will digest it as absolute (even if it’s realistically a 10 minute task!) So, friends, learn to question and inspect every thought for its validity.
- Replacing thoughts can feel cheesy and fake at first, because you may have spent 20 years thinking your old thought, replacing it with a new one will be foreign. Welcome that, my friends. It is the key to your new outlook. Would you rather be cheesy for a few weeks, or at the mercy of your emotions for life?
- Your new thought will begin to come into your mind easier than your old, limiting thought after each practice. Deciding on and practicing a new thought is literally carving a new neural-pathway. The more you use that thought, the easier you can travel this pathway.
- This is not an invitation to not FEEL your feelings when needed. This is not an invitation to just cover up all emotions with floozy positivity over and over. It is choosing empowerment when there is a choice.
What thoughts have you chosen to replace lately?
Love always,
Becca
