Thought Check, A Kaizen Vision Practice
Is your ‘thought theme’ strengthening you or weakening you?
To find out, I recommend doing a Thought Check.
Ask yourself :
- Am I feeling Good, Happy?
- Am I feeling Excitement?
- Am I feeling at Peace?
- Am I feeling Doubtful, Scared?
- Am I feeling Sad?
- Am I feeling Anxiety?
It is said that we have between 50,000 to 70,000 thoughts a day. It would be crazy for us to try to “think” about all of our thoughts.
We have new thoughts, old thoughts, random thoughts, reoccurring thoughts and we have thought themes.
For my single friends, their thought theme is about finding their life-mate. For my unemployed and unhappily employed friends their thought theme is about finding their next career. Lately my thought theme has been on having a child. Health, Finances and Future are other common ones.
The thought theme can be productive or destructive. The best way to determine if it’s a productive, worthwhile one is to …ask yourself :
Are my thoughts empowering me and supporting me in a way that I feel good?
Or
Are my thoughts scaring me or causing doubt? Do they make me feel sad?
When our thoughts are weakening us we can choose an affirmation to help us change direction.
My recent thought theme has been mostly anxiety thoughts about having a child, so the affirmation I find helpful is “I choose peace, I choose trust, I choose God. All that unfolds for me is for my highest good and the highest good of all concerned. I trust in the divine.”
Another great affirmation to create more a more productive thought is:
“I am so grateful. I am so blessed. The direction of my career is unfolding perfectly it’s already happening.”
Or
“ I am so blessed. My life-mate already exists and I’m so excited to meet him/her. I am so excited, I am so blessed.”
I’m also a fan of
“I am divine health personified. I am pure health and well being.”
Our thoughts create a momentum in whichever direction they are headed. If we do a “thought check” periodically throughout the day we can be in control of the direction we’re in. If our thoughts our destructive we won’t get a great result and we certainly won’t get a lovely journey.
When our thoughts are strengthening us we feel good. There is a feeling of excitement or peace about our thought theme (life-mate, career, future, health, finances etc… ) When our thoughts are weakening we do not feel good about it.
The best way to stay alert to you thoughts is to check-in with your emotions, do your “Thought Check”. Once we are aware, we can exchange the thought for a better one.
What is your current thought theme? Is it positive, negative, or both?
Do you use an affirmation, if so what is it?
{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
Checking in with our thoughts and choosing better thoughts/affirmations makes such a difference in how we feel and in the overall quality of life. To me it’s sort of like steering a car vs. taking your hands off the wheel and letting it crash it into something. I’m not 100% by any means, but I do check in with myself fairly regularly. What I do is to ask myself, “what am I feeling and why?” This helps me choose more supportive/true thoughts, as well as notice physical things that may be affecting me, such as needing to get up and move around, get a drink of water, etc.
.-= Jean Sarauer´s last blog ..The Clue Train is Coming to Town =-.
Yes, it is absolutely like steering a car or crashing into an undesirable reality – so true!
When I wake up in the morning before getting out of bed I say “Thank you God for this beautiful day, thank you for my wonderful children and all my family and friends”. As the day progresses I may meet with doubt, get ticked off about something, be irritated at what a friend may have said, but then I say to myself – “ok now take me (the I) out of it” and once again thank God for his blessings. Sometimes it may take a while longer than another time but it works and I feel good.
Your inspiration today is beautiful the heart of daisey’s is a peaceful, loving picture. Thank you.
It is funny that sometimes it takes a bit longer…but the fact that it always works is what matters. :) Glad you like the heart of daises
Wonderful thoughts! :)
Thank you Kim, It’s great to connect with you! Thanks for stopping by.
Brilliantly simple Aileen! A thought check, what a fabulous idea. We check our eyesight, we check our blood pressure, we check our waistline, we check our inbox and mobile phone for e-mails and texts but never think to check what we think. If we are to really go on a diet maybe it should be a thought one made up of the good stuff like empowering beliefs, upbeat outlook and good self-talk. Hey, you’ve got me thinking…..the right way!
.-= John Sherry´s last blog ..4 Benefits of being an Early Bird Riser =-.
Hi John,
I love that thought diet – ” made up of the good stuff like empow er ing beliefs, upbeat out look and good self-talk” a far more fun diet than the others I’ve done :)
Thank you for your comment!
Aileen,
I love your blog and your very poignant and concise way of putting things. I think I will learn a lot about life and about blogging by visiting your lovely space. I, too, believe our thoughts are very powerful. I think it extends to language too. You can almost here why someone is having a tough time in the words they choose — which likely extends to their thoughts. A little of your thought checking would do us all a world of good. Thanks again for this.
Katie
Hi Katie, Thank you for your kind words & for stopping by :)
Hi Aileen, I loved this post. You come right to the point. We absolutely have to check in and turn that ship around and make a correction before we go to far off course. I think affirmations are amazing. I love the ones you’ve given us as examples too. I stress out over the lack of time to complete all that I have to do every day. My affirmation is: I always have more than enough time to do all that I want to do.
.-= Angela Artemis´s last blog ..A Meditation on Meditating =-.
uue, I like that affirmation! I’m going to share that one with my beloved time is his biggest stress’er ‘ too.
Most of us are so preoccupied with reacting to life that we have forgotten that our thoughts give color to our reality. It is indeed wise to check our thoughts and see if it benefits us or not. I’m sure it is to our advantage if we change our thinking for the better. :-)
I like the way this is framed. It reminds me of something I listened to on “Big Think” – http://bigthink.com/ideas/16660 – 5 ways to be happier.
One of the proven 5 ways was to keep a notebook and every night write about everything you were grateful for, as you mention here.
Definitely on to something awesome here, nice post Aileen.
.-= Ross Hudgens´s last blog ..Let’s NOT Do Lunch =-.