"Thought is energy. Thought can be more powerful than electricity and faster than the speed of light. Thus pure thought attracts possibilities, repels unwanted negative energies, creates beauty and heals. Thought plays the biggest role in our daily life, ... and is not just an abstract of existence." ~Burt WilsonLast night, while sitting here at my computer, pondering the concepts of thinking and thought, I looked over at three of my dogs and two kittens laying in various positions of deep sleep, and I smiled. The kittens were curled up against one of the pup's belly, the other pup had his leg across his neck, and the third dog seemed to encircle all of them. Looking at the first pup, the one in the center of the pile, I said, "Looks like everyone loves you, don't you think?" He cracked his eye open to look at me, thumped his tail once, then went back to sleep. Out of that whole pile of animals, only he stirred. Rudimentary, yes; but a clear example of the power of thought.
Thoughts About Thinking
Science has no real idea of how or why we think, though they have found that anxious and shy people have a more active amygdala. They speculate about neurons firing to receptors, the energy conducted by chemicals in the brain, but have only begun to scratch the surface of understanding thought.
Psychology tends to focus on the emotions, whether as a direct reaction to thinking or just feeling alone. There have been attempts to fill the gaps in the definition of thinking with concepts of intuition, feeling, perceiving, sensing, reasoning, etc.; but they only describe patterns, not actual thoughts. Philosophers such as Descartes exclaim "I think; therefore I am." And that's as close as we've gotten to knowing how our brain works.
Some people may be better thinkers than others, and some may be worse. But, it appears that everyone thinks. Thinking is not taught, but we can learn to improve our thinking.
How to Improve Thinking
To realize the power of thought, you need to improve your ability to think. It can be done! Concentrated thought is behind creativity, productivity, manifestation and action. It's worth the effort to give your thinking a solid workout. Here are some suggestions.
Stop limited thinking. You'll know right away if you are limiting your thinking if you say, "I don't believe that," or "I doubt that." What you are doing is slamming the door in the face of learning something new. Take the time to soak it all in and assess the validity of it later.
Observe. There are so many things we take for granted. We walk by the majority of our environment without a second glance. Look around and really look at what is there.
Attention. If you drive the same way to work every day and observe, the next day, if you pay attention, you'll notice the subtle changes. The deli's parking lot has more cars on Wednesdays than it does on Mondays. There's a two-wheel bicycle in the yard of a house that had a Big Wheel the day before. The flowers around the fountain have bloomed.
Retention. Make a point to remember what you see. It helps to think it through a little and relate it to what you already know. For instance, the child is growing up fast to graduate to a bike already and think back on what it was like for you to learn to ride a bike. If you're short on time, you know to stop at the deli on Mondays.
Concentration. Control your thoughts instead of your thoughts controlling you. Focus on the task at hand. If your mind goes off on a tangent, steer it back on track. Repeat as necessary. Having control over your thoughts with the ability to focus, you'll find that you'll also be able to switch to another task easily.
There is More
Pure thought is behind pure actions - "As a man thinketh; so is he." Impure thoughts lead to destructive, harmful actions. It is up to you to decide which way your thoughts lead you. Pure thinking is trying to think of others first, to be considerate. If you are thinking of the person you are disagreeing with first, you won't be thinking negative, destructive thoughts, and the disagreement won't turn into an argument.
Yes, there is more. A lot more. You'll begin to realize the true power behind thinking, and there will be no limit to what you can do. As Mr. Wilson says, "thought plays the biggest role in our daily lives."
A fantastic post! I enjoy your bits in the middle of horses, although I do like the horse bits but knowing nothing about them is hard to comment. Your bits in the middle give me a chance to give back. :)
ReplyDeleteI had a similar experience once with my dog, who is now seven but at the time was a pup. He was sound to sleep, and I was just reading a book about how animals can read your mind. So I tested it, and thought a very excited "would you like a biscuit?" in my head. Immediately he looked up with the expression that says "are you kidding me, of course I would?!" I didn't know if he really heard me or not, but I gave him a biscuit nonetheless, just to be sure. (That wasn't the only time I've had animals seemingly read my mind, but your story reminded me on this one.)
There are theories that claim the whole world is "nothing but" materialised thoughts. A thought sets off a series of events that lead to something else coming to existence. But it can be immaterial too, like what I have noticed that if I am completely bored with my job, and want to get rid of it, I have always managed to be laid off seemingly without fault of my own. (That's important, because mom wouldn't be too nice to me if I would quit a job.)
Thinking is by far my favourite thing to do, and computers aid in that a lot. Writing in particular. Writing helps to put thoughts in order, and there's nothing better than thoughts that are in order. ;) (My room, on the other hand, isn't.)
Hi Sebastyne! Good to see you again!
ReplyDeleteDogs are very receptive to focused thought. Cats are too, but they don't want you to think they are receptive.
There is much more to the power of thought than I wrote about here, but these are very good ways to get your mind sharp as a tack and ready to go beyond. If I didn't do the focus one, I never would've gotten this little post finished!
Writing is yet another way to sharpen your thinking. You have to have your thoughts in order to be able to write them. It helps in processing difficult situations and making decisions too. With your thinking working for you, your imagination becomes productive instead of flights of fancy too. It's worth the effort!
I used to look at my dog and think, "Want to go for a walk?" She'd do the whole tail wag and jumping... I knew she understood me without my having said a word.
ReplyDeleteLater I read a book..."Power of Intention" maybe it was? [I start jumbling them up when so many have the same or the similar - message.] Or maybe it was "The Sense of Being Stared at"?
Either way...the message was that dogs knew when their owners were miles away and coming home. [Now that I think about it, pretty sure it was the former...] and that the intention - intentional thought if you will - of the owners reached the family canine.
With the recent understanding of light/particles and quantum mechanics in the field of neuropsychology is it so hard to believe that thoughts are more powerful than "just thoughts"?
How they can influence outcomes or be "picked up" by others [being HSP this is usually the term I use]...
With science telling the tale as closely as it has been progressing...it's moving further from parapsychology [the who-doo voodoo of the HSP - as I believe it to be - or Law of Attraction believer for example] into, at least the quantum field research of science as, a legitimate understanding of neuroscience.
This post is as powerful as the power of thought. To some, it might be seen as a coincident that the pug opened its eyes and looked at you when you were addressing it. In actual fact, I believe that somehow the pug 'received' your thought. Crazy? Its amazing how things worked sometimes.
ReplyDeleteThe point which you made about 'stop limited thinking' is very valid. A lot of times, happened to me too, people tends to question or doubt. If Walt Disney ever questioned about his idea of disneyland, children and adult would not be enjoying in his theme parks today. We are the only one limiting our own thought.
It cannot be stressed enough how important concentration and focus are. If I remember correctly, Think and Grow Rich has a whole chapter on focus.
Last but not least, you made an interesting point on pure thinking - thinking of others first. If we can do that, then indeed we will not have negative or bad thought about other. Interesting concept. For myself, I like to see things from others' perspectives so that I can understand how they look at things.
@ Samsara, Steven Hawkings has made tremendous strides into bringing Psychology and Science closer together. I read a book about Quantum Psychology too. The Theory of Everything with its Imaginary Time still has a ways to go though.
ReplyDelete@ BK, I left a comment for you and called you MK. Sorry. I'd say this post goes very well with your post about Everything Happens for a Reason! It would be interesting to see what Frankl would've come up with if he had incorporated pure thinking into his Logo Therapy!