Anatomy of Thought
In my experience it is extremely important to be ever vigilant for the quality of the thoughts I am thinking. You will read elsewhere on this site that what you think is what you become.
Thoughts are things. They have power unto themselves. They have consequences directly associated with them.(ref. Dr. Emoto) The greater the emotional charge fueling the thought, the greater the impact of the consequences.
Thoughts are like boomerangs. You can never really give anything to anyone except that you are also giving it to yourself. In a very real way, my thoughts define my life and my life experiences. Setting clear intentions continues to be very useful to monitor and manage my thoughts.
It makes no difference if the thoughts are verbalized or not.
Every thought has 2 components ... emotional and physical. The physical component, is the substance of the thought and the emotional component is the fuel that gives the physical content impact. It's like the steering wheel points the car in a direction and the accelerator causes movement in the specified direction.
The emotion you feel is always about the vibrational variance between where you want to be and where you are. If you’re out of balance, there are only two ways to bring yourself into alignment: Either raise your expectation to match your desire—or lower your desire to match your expectation.
When I was younger, living at home, I had a sister (Nancy, 1946-2020) with whom I was very close. It was always clear to me that she wanted to see me happy and we spent a lot of time together. When I did something stupid, Nancy would often blast me with "Richard, you dumbbell!!" and she would say it with considerable energy and focus. On the surface, Nancy was calling me stupid. But her energy was loving and it came through in her tone and demeanor. Her delivery of the otherwise derogatory comment was paradoxically nurturing. This scenario has a much different metaphysical outcome (for both of us) than if she had been blasting me in anger.
In the section of this website entitled "Love is Key" I discuss briefly that it is even important to kill mosquitoes with love. In the physical, we are a mass of atoms and molecules and I think of our brains as chemical computers. When we think thoughts, those thoughts are represented in our bodies as very specific chemicals.
Consider that emotions are either positive or negative ... Loving or fearful (anger, hate, etc.are all faces of fear).
Negative thoughts are stored as noxious chemicals in our bodies. Over time, as we grow older and have more and more thoughts, the undesirable chemicals accumulate and manifest as sickness and disease within our bodies.
The good news is that Loving thoughts are also stored as specific chemicals in our bodies and they accumulate as well. The Loving chemicals are not only benign but are also restorative such that they have the capacity to heal by counteracting the noxious chemicals of the negative emotions. Loving thoughts also have the ability to dissolve Karma.
The better news is that even though you cannot always control what happens to you, you can always manage what you think about what happens to you. And what you think about what happens to you sets the stage for what happens next. In this context, every instant presents an opportunity to improve your life experience.
I think that this is why Jesus reportedly taught us to "forgive" and to "turn the other cheek" and "the wages of sin (error thought) is death". My thoughts may or may not impact on the subject of my thoughts but it will definitely impact on my personal emotional and physical health. Everything that we think comes back to us sooner or later. Our self talk is our vehicle that carries us forward. Intention is our lighthouse in the storm. The way I feel is my infallible barometer. Meditation allows me to go within and clean up my state of mind.
Let's briefly discuss mindsets and paradigms.
In the late 1970's I returned to school. For the previous 10 years I had been practising as a Professional Engineer. In 1979 I won an academic scholarship to go to Georgia Tech where I studied Human Behaviour. It was the worst of times. It was the best of times. (To be clear, I consider it the most wonderful/empowering experience of my academic life.)
The experience, especially the first 3 month quarter, was outrageously painful (ref. Anatomy of Pain). Later it dawned on me how very different the required mindsets were of the two disciplines.
Engineering has a mindset of a profession of science where 1+1 is always equal to 2. I know of no exceptions.
The mindset of a Behaviourist, is that of a profession dealing with human personalities where 1+1 is rarely equal to 2. When you put 2 people together to collaborate, they might generate more than twice the output of 2 personalities working separately (if they are compatible) or they might generate less than the output of 2 separate personalities (if they don't get along). To make our discussion even more complex, the results can vary greatly with time and circumstances. It depends on what is happening in their lives and in their respective environments as well as how completely they communicate.
The point I make here is that mindsets and paradigms can be empowering (in application to specific tasks) but they can also be limiting (in cases where creativity requires us to think outside the box). The additional point I would make is that mindsets can be managed. I need not be a victim of my thinking. My past does not define my future unless I choose to do nothing (ref. Divine Inspiration). I can be guided by my vision of the future rather than my memories of my past.
Awareness of my current thinking and conscious monitoring (then consequent managing and revising) of those thoughts can spawn Joyously apocalyptical experiences.
I went to the woods to live deliberately.
To suck on the marrow of life and
Discover more of what life has to offer.
And not, when I come to die, discover
That I had not lived.