How to Stop Empowering “Those” Thoughts

It seems that nearly every type of expert is telling us about the power of our thoughts. Sociologists, scientists, psychologists, maybe our mother…and our thoughts do determine much about the quality of our lives. That’s because they establish our perceptions, which guide our behavior and attitude. As has been said, belief is biology.

 Except we’re giving them way too much power. 

 On a practical level, a thought or belief is merely an opinion. That’s it! Most of us don’t even use the process of thinking to get to our thoughts, we simply assume—unconsciously—that all those thoughts residing in us, and multiplying like so many Star Trek Tribbles, must be fact.

Think again. (Pun intended.)

Most thoughts, which we like to call our beliefs, are no more accurate than unjustified opinions, and worse, are plain out lies.

I was first alerted to the inordinate amount of power we place in thoughts when watching an ABC morning show years ago. George Stephanopolis—who I adore—was interviewing Ted Cruz. Ted Cruz was basically telling the audience why Black people are less fit than white people for intellectual pursuits.

At the end of his dramatic soliloquy, performed in front of an audience, a Black man stood up and laughed. He stated something like, “You know, you’ve pretty much convinced me that I’m not smart because I’m Black.”

You see, dear Ted had begun his argument with an assumption and then built a paradigm based on an opinion, not even a research study.

There are a lot of crazy-a paradigms in the world right now, especially where I live in America. Why do people adhere to insanity? It’s not that they are insane, or very much, anyway. This is the way that we energetically construct a paradigm.

Start with a thought/opinion and turn it into a belief.

String a bunch of similar opinions together to create a thought form. (Think a pearl necklace.)

Tangle up a few thought forms (pearl necklaces) to formulate a pattern.

Glue together your patterns and voila, a paradigm.

Once a single opinion ends up as a paradigm, very few people question it.

You all know what I’m talking about.

 When growing up, I was told that because I read too much my eyes would wear out, or if I picked off a mole it would turn into a wart, or if I offended my Grandmother Marie she’d stick me in the shed for days on end. (Maybe, maybe that last one had a grain of truth.)

 There are obvious not-trues, although children tend to believe that if an authority decrees such nonsense, it must be right.

 Now delve into even more dangerous opinions.

 How about that statement from dad, that you’re too silly/stupid/smart/whatever the case to make it in the world? These kinds of ideas often get reinforced by several sources of the so-called font of wisdom.

 What opinions lie under the most persnickety and painful pearl necklaces choking you? Unearth them. Go ahead! Then decide not to empower a single one of what is probably inevitably a lie and decide what ideas you do want to create your life from.