Are you bombarded with unwanted thoughts all day long? 

Do you wish that you could control what you think? 

What would you do with the ability to allow your thoughts to flow through you and not to dwell on them? 

Having power over your thoughts will give you the ability to move forward. To get yourself unstuck out of situations.

To create the life you desire, get rid of those debilitating, overwhelming thoughts that keep you stuck in life and replace them with powerful, positive thoughts that will motivate you and keep you going. 

Here in this article, we’re going to talk about where our thoughts come from, and we’re going to discuss how our thoughts change us physically and mentally. We’re going to I will give you several steps to challenge and change your thoughts. Let’s get started. 

The Origin of Our Thoughts

Thoughts are developed by what we hear, by what we see, by what we taste, by what we smell, by what we touch.  In essence, thoughts generate through our experiences utilizing our five senses. 

Our thoughts come from our experiences. 

I always tell people, and I work hard to do this myself; watch and pay attention to what you see and hear. We can control what television shows that we view. We can control the music that we hear. We have to be careful because it will reside within our thought life. Whether knowingly or unknowingly, it will take up residence there. 

I know, we’ve all experienced times where we’re driving down the street or walking somewhere, and all of a sudden, this thought pops into our mind from something that happened years ago or something we heard years ago.  Remember, things that we take in are still there. Whether we can recall them or not, they are still there.

Through our experiences, we begin to generate thoughts about ourselves, people, God, and the world around us. 

According to research, we have 12,000 to 60,000 thoughts per day.  And of those thoughts, about 90 to 95 percent are repeated thoughts.  Around 80% of our repeated thoughts are negative. That’s why we must begin to work on our thoughts. 

How do thoughts generate? Pay attention to your thoughts and begin to notice them. 

Here is another thing I want you to notice. As I said before, about 80% of our thoughts are negative. If your thoughts are about 80% negative, what percentage is your self-talk ‘negative’? 

• Become aware of what you tell yourself, especially about yourself. 
• Become aware of what you tell yourself about those around you. 
• Become aware of what you tell yourself about family. 
• Become aware of what you tell yourself about your circumstances.  
• Become aware of your self-talk and begin to notice how much of it is negative.

Our self-talk generates from our thoughts.

Recognizing Your Negative Thoughts 

Now, Cognitive Behavioral Therapists have a term for our negative thoughts. It’s called ANTS.  Dr. Amen from the Amen Clinic referred to ANTS as Automatic Negative Thoughts.

Not all of your negative thoughts are bad. Sometimes our negative thoughts create this awareness within us that something needs to change.

For instance, you may have a negative thought about the engine light going off in your car. That should create awareness in you like, “Oh. I need to go get that checked out.” Or, you may have a negative thought about all the orange barrels on the road that they’re working on, but that stirs within you the need to be careful, be mindful, pay attention and slow down while you’re on the road.

Begin paying attention to the thoughts that are not pushing you forward or creating awareness to move forward or do something different. I want you to be aware of the ones that are just playing around over and over, the ones that cause you anxiety, the ones that cause you depression, the ones that cause you to become angry, the ones that cause you to remain stuck in life.  

How do our thoughts change us?

On a physical level, we must understand our thoughts’ impact on our lives. A lot of times, we go around thinking, “Oh. It’s no big deal, it is just in my head, and it’s not harming anybody. I’m not doing anything wrong.” Still, begin to recognize that your thoughts negatively or positively impact your physical body down to a cellular level. Our thoughts trigger all kinds of bodily responses. Let’s first start with our brains. 

There’s a chemical reaction going on within your brain based on the thoughts you’re dwelling on. When you dwell on thoughts, our brains releases chemicals based on that thought. If that thought is positive, our brains release positive chemicals, ones that make us feel happy. If that thought is negative, our brain will release chemicals that can harm us over time.

That’s the start; it’s what our brain does.

Our brain also sends signals throughout our bodies, throughout our central nervous system, and it tells your body whether you are in danger or whether you are safe.

Now, I need you to understand your brain does not know the difference between a thought and an experience. When thinking about a bad experience that you’ve had, your body relives that experience all over again.  

How Our Thoughts Affect Us

I want you to begin to think about what are your thoughts doing to your physical body? Is it changing my blood pressure? Is my heart rate going up? Is my digestive system tense and has shut down?’ What is it doing to your body? It does have an impact on your body. 

Be careful because we become what we think. Our brain begins to create neurons, neural transmitters, and pathways based on our thoughts. Once those neural pathways connect to other neural pathways within our brain, that thought becomes physically part of us. 

Another thing it does is it releases hormones that our body may not need so much of it. Like for instance, cortisol, which helps us deal with stress.  If thoughts are always stressful, cortisol is constantly released, which becomes harmful to our bodies. 

Remember, you are a powerful individual, and you have the power to change your thoughts. You can control what you think, and you can challenge your thoughts. You are more powerful than your thoughts. Remember that as we talk. I want you to remember that mind, body connection. Your thoughts begin in your mind, but they connect to your brain by choosing what you’re going to do with them. 

You are the representation of your thoughts. 

Now, can all of that be changed? 

Challenging and Changing Our Thoughts That Will Benefit Our Lives Positively

Let me explain to you how our perception plays into this. We can look at the same thing and have two different perceptions of it. Say, for instance, many people use the glass half full ‘scenario.’ You can look at that glass as, ‘Wow! That’s half full, and I still have a lot to go.’ Or you could look at that glass as, ‘Oh. That’s half empty. I only have a little bit more to go, and then I’m all out.’ Or, your perception could be such as mine. You may look at a glass half full, and you may say, “Well, that glass is full. Why? Because it has half water, half oxygen, and I need both to sustain my life.”

 You can have a different perception than just the glass half empty, the glass half full, and recognize that glass is full and both are life-sustaining substances that every human being needs. In essence, it all depends on your perception of your experiences. How are you experiencing life? 

When you go for a walk, how are you experiencing that walk? Are you just playing over scenarios in your mind? Or, are you taking in the leaves wrestling, the birds chirping, the squirrels running around, the nice crisp air that you’re inhaling? Are you allowing your senses to enjoy your experience as you walk? Or, are you playing negative scenarios over and over in your mind? What is your perception of that walk? Did that walk cause you more stress, or did that walk cause relaxation? And it depends on the focus of your mind.

Step 1. Think About What You Are Thinking About

The first step I always tell people when it comes to challenging and changing thoughts is to think about what you’re thinking. Sometimes our thoughts just casually come and go. Sometimes we’re thinking about things, we’re not even really paying attention to what we’re thinking about, but I want you to begin to think about what you’re thinking. Become self-aware!

Step 2. Journaling

How do you start doing this? 

If you have time, especially in the mornings, I suggest getting a journal and writing down your thoughts. Journal your thoughts and what keeps playing over in your mind. If you have a lot of time in the morning, I would suggest you do what Julia Cameron calls morning pages, and then some people call it a ‘brain dump.’ I always recommend people take a couple of minutes out of their day, or if you got more than a couple of minutes, go for it and then jot down your thoughts.  

Write down every thought that comes to mind.  If you have time, you may want to do those two or three times during the day, but that is if you have time. Those are the thoughts we want to start to put on trial. So, taking the time to write about what you’re thinking about will be vital in recognizing your thoughts and your thought patterns.

If your thoughts may trigger past or current trauma, seek help from a therapist. Something deeper you need to explore and work through. I am going to suggest you take the time to seek that help to work through it. It’s all about being free and moving forward in life.  

Step 3. Put Your Thoughts on Trial

I use this term all the time in counseling; putting your thoughts on trial. When you place your thoughts on trial, don’t become overwhelmed; pick one or two that disturbs you. Let’s put that thought on trial. 

This is what you can do:

1. Write down the thought.
2. List your feelings about that thought. What feelings does that thought generate?
3. Decide if that thought is true or a story you tell yourself.  
4. If it is true, decide: 
   • Is it a problem that needs to be solved?
   • Are you rehearsing your past?
   • Are you trying to predict the future? 
5. If it is a story, you are telling yourself: ask yourself, ‘why am I making up this story in my head.’

It is a lot of work to put your thoughts on trial; it is. It’s challenging because you have to dig deep and think about what you’re thinking about and think about your perception of the situation that causes that thought. 

Now that you have all the facts about your thought, decide what you will do with it:  continue to dwell on it or gain a new perspective about it.