Train Your Mind: Claim Your Power

by Dr. Glenn R. Williston

An important Truth of Life can be found in many ancient texts, including the Bible, the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Bhagavad Gita, the Koran, and the writings of Confucius, to name a few, as well as in the philosophies of many native cultures. This one Truth acts as a guiding principle for all conscious individuals and cuts through dogma, depression, and distraction:

"As a man thinketh..., so is he."

Our thoughts are powerful, always healing or hurting. So, it is our responsibility to know what we are thinking at all times. We must catch all the hurting thoughts and neutralize them.

Thoughts produce our lives through "attitude." And from our attitudes come our perspectives. The old expression, "perspective is all." is obvious in the different ways people view the same event or situation. For some, the glass is always half empty, and for others, it is always half full.

Worry is often at the core of thought processes for those who see the glass half empty. Many people spend their whole lives worrying. They move from one issue to another in a never-ending saga of inner turmoil. Why do some people worry about virtually everything while others are able to dismiss worrisome thoughts? Several factors are involved:

• childhood models of adults who were always worried
• habit pattern, reinforced over the years
• lack of understanding of the nature of worry
• lack of awareness of mental activity
• neuro-hormone imbalances (low thyroid levels, depression, etc)

Worry consists of negative thoughts, and negative thoughts are hurting thoughts. Negative thoughts distort reality and keep us stress-filled, lonely, and afraid. And negative thoughts do not bring Peace on Earth. Our goal should not be positive thinking, either. It should be accurate thinking.

To become more familiar with the negative thinking components of worry, note below the various categories into which negative thoughts fit. Each day recognize each and every thought that fits one of these categories and neutralize it by "re=thinking" it accurately.

• JUDGMENT: automatic judgment of self and others. Fear of others judging you. Gossip!
  1. Negative: I'm disgusting with all this weight. (hurtful of self and others)
  2. Positive: I look great with all this weight. (does not heal because you do not believe it)
  3. Accurate: I need to lose weight to feel better about myself. (healthy, healing self, others, and the planet)

• COMPARISON: A set-up for judgment. Seeing self as defective, comparing self to others and aspects of one's life to other's.

• PERFECTIONISM: An unconscious drive to be perfect and do everything perfectly. Nothing less will do... focus on the goal only and missing the journey. Only end results are important.

• BLACK & WHITE THINKING: Seeing everything in terms of extremes only. Everything is wonderful or terrible, right or wrong, good or bad, now or never, never or forever, etc.

• EXAGGERATION: Distorting facts for effect, attention, approval, etc.; includes deceit and telling "white lies."

• STEREOTYPING: Fear and ignorance cause the mind to put people into convenient known categories, ignoring the beauty of individuality and uniqueness.

• JUMPING TO CONCLUSIONS: Predicting outcomes (future-thought) with a lack of information and/or distorted reasoning. Expectation and disappointment often follow.

• EMOTIONAL REASONING: Letting emotions (over-reactions) give a "picture" of "reality" and believing that picture as truth. Emotions give us signals and do not give us the full picture or even an accurate picture of reality... only one small part.

• EXPECTATION: Expecting negative (or positive) results based on fantasy or fictional thinking. Expectation is never accurate and leads to disappointment. Expectation should never be confused with expectancy. Metaphysics teaches us to have a sense of wonderment and expectancy. Simply stated, the difference is that there is no disappointment with expectancy since it is a state of mind rather than a negative thought trap.

• DISQUALIFYING THE POSITIVE: Rejecting positive statements or experiences by insisting that they "don't count" for whatever reason. Helps to maintain a victim position and low-self-esteem.

• SHOULD STATEMENTS: Variations include "shoulda, woulda, coulda." Works like a whip against self and others to reinforce guilt and shame. Weakens self-esteem. Many thoughts may take this form, unbeknownst to the thinker.

• PROJECTION: Finding flaws in others that are really within self. Consider statements about others as important information about self. Examine thoughts and statements to find projection.

• DENIAL: Refusing to see something because it is too painful to do so,... avoiding pain.

• ASSUMPTION: Accepting automatic opinions about self or others and opinions from others as true without considering facts. Evaluation is different from opinion.

• PERSONALIZATION: Being convinced that others' comments and actions (or lack of) are directed towards you. You see yourself as the cause of all problems and probably take more responsibility that you should as a result. Guilt, fear, and shame also result. Often indicates a victim position, a lack of boundaries, and suggests passive/aggressive behavior. It is a version of playing God... thinking that the universe revolves around you.

• JUSTIFICATION: You assure yourself that what you think and do is correct, and you know you are not being honest with yourself or others. Similar to rationalization and intellectualization.

• DEAD ENDS: Thoughts that produce "no-win" situations and have "no" solutions create dead ends. These thoughts produce imprisonment in tension and set the stage for emotional and physical dysfunction. For some people, dead-ends become a primary style of thinking. Difficulty making decisions, feelings of helplessness, hopelessness, and depression result. Types of dead-ends include:
  1. Lose ends: unfinished thoughts -- "What am I going to say to her?" Never let a thought go unanswered in your mind... ever!
  2. "Yes, but." A "but" can block movement ahead in life.
  3. Complexity and Complication - Making something into a soap opera with all the high drama, complexity and crisis.
  4. Circular Thinking - around and around we go, and where we stop no one knows.
  5. Rehashing and Thrashing -- you already have the answer or solution or you do not have enough information to make a decision or find the solution yet you continue to go over and over the same issues.

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