Beth's Ponderings
Words are very
powerful. If you don’t believe me,
please whatever you do, DON’T think of a purple elephant with bright pink polka
dots. I mean it, DON’T think of a purple
elephant with bright pink polka dots. Seriously,
DON’T think of a purple elephant with bright pink polka dots.
I bet the first
thing that popped into your mind, when you read those words was some form or
image of a purple elephant with bright pink polka dots.
Even though I
specifically put the word “don’t” in front of the statement, you still did it. That is because our minds, with their ability
to focus and filter, hone straight in on the more concrete “what” in our
statements - whether spoken, written, or just thought - and not the “action” part,
as it were.
Yet, how many of us
- in conversation with others and, even more often, internally with ourselves -
use phrases along the lines of:
- I can’t
stop worrying about…
- If I only
didn’t have so much…
- I wish I
wasn’t so...
And, like our minds
are designed to do, they completely ignore the first part of the statement or
thought - the part I have typed out - and latch onto the part represented by
the “…”
Those with a more
sceptical outlook will disagree, but just look around you, and at the
situations you are in, and your relationships.
Do you mostly see what you “want” in your life, or what you “don’t want?”
If you are like the
vast majority of the population, you will probably see a lot of what you say
you don’t want, and then you’ll follow whatever latest self-help fad is out
there to bring about a change, only to abandon it, after a few short weeks,
when nothing seems to be changing.
In order to change
the conditions, the “what” in your life, you need to change the words you are
using. As with any habit, you can’t just
eliminate what you don’t want, you need to replace it with more of what you do
want, one word at a time, with gratitude.
Beth
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