Patheos

BuddhistCatholicContemplativeEvangelicalGeneral ChristianHinduJewishLatter-day SaintMuslimNew VisionsProgressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Patheos

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos Patheos on Facebook Patheos on YouTube

Purpose and Possibility

Thought power

Last updated on: March 13, 2015 at 8:29 pm   by Guest Contributor

Thought power 2015-03-13T20:29:46-06:00 Guest Contributor

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

It has been estimated that we think approximately one thought per second. That comes out to approximately 60,000 thoughts during the waking hours of each day. Now, stop and think about how many positive, empowering thoughts you’ve had in the last day or two. Can you remember any at all? Is it a lot or is it just a handful? And if it’s just a few positive, empowering thoughts, thoughts that are focused on achieving the life you desire, then what are all those other thoughts about?

Are your thoughts working for you or are they mostly working against you? Even if you sit down every morning and evening for fifteen minutes with a list of positive goals, and even if you visualize each of those goals in vivid detail, and even if you positively focus your thoughts on them, that’s only 1,800 thoughts out of 60,000 for the day. So what are you thinking the rest of the day?

All too often, we’re thinking things such as: I can’t, I’m afraid, I’m worried, I’m angry, I don’t like this. We’re busy thinking of how to get even, of how to appear as something we’re not, we’re all too often worried about things that are probably not very likely to happen, we’re focused on what we don’t have rather than on what we can accomplish with what we do have. And these negative thoughts, just like any other thoughts, have enormous power. The more of them we think, the more power they gain. The more frequently we think them, the more influence they command.

The amazing thing is that every single negative thought can be replaced by a positive thought. “I can’t” can be replaced with “I’ll find a way to.” “I’m afraid of” can be replaced with “I’m preparing for.” “I don’t like this” can be replaced with “Here’s how I’ll make it better.”

Whether you like it or not, whether you accept it or not, whether you do anything about it or not, your thoughts have a major impact on your life. So it makes sense to make use of those thoughts rather than letting them bring you down.

If someone handed you sixty thousand dollars one morning, would you spend the day throwing fifty-five thousand of those dollars in various trash cans? Of course not. You would most likely use the money to improve and enhance your own life and the lives of those around you.

So what are you doing with the sixty thousand thoughts you think each day? Are you throwing away most of them on destructive negativity. Or are you making full use of those thoughts to improve your own life and the world in which you live?

Typing characters on a computer’s keyboard does not cause words to be printed on paper—the computer’s printer, not the keyboard, does that. However, typing the characters on the keyboard determines precisely which words will be printed onto the paper. In the same way, thinking does not make it so. Your actions are what make it so. Thinking, however, directs and controls those actions. So although thinking does not, in and of itself, create anything tangible, thinking determines what does get created.

As such, there is enormous leverage associated with your thoughts. Leverage occurs when a small effort produces a large result, and nowhere is the possibility for leverage greater than with thought. A small change in thought, which takes almost no effort at all, can produce an enormous change in the quality of your life.

Uncategorized

Previous Post



December 17, 2014

The opportunity of change

Next Post



December 19, 2014 Get back up


Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 June 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013




TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Above all else, guard your ____, for everything you do flows from it.

Select your answer to see how you score.

Words Actions Heart Mind

Related posts from Purpose and Possibility

New Visions

Reason to persist

Purpose and Possibility

New Visions

Positive news

Purpose and Possibility

New Visions

Initiative

Purpose and Possibility

New Visions

Accepting disappointment

Purpose and Possibility

TRENDING AT PATHEOS New Visions

Did Prayer Cure His Cancer? Or Was It...

At 4 AM one morning, Joshua W. Brown’s wife awoke to a...

8 Ways a Near-Death Experience Rewires the Soul

Does Consciousness Survive Physical Death? After 50 Years of Research, Dr. Raymond...

Holy Longing: What Our Restlessness Is Telling Us

“One can find so many pains when the rain is falling.” -John...

The Making of a Dumbass

  What this is NOT about.  This blog is definitely not about...

Who Told You That?

Who said the Israelites were God’s chosen? That’s right, they did. Who...

The Spirit World Is the Real World: God...

A Monk’s Wisdom on Body and Spirit I sit with Brother Martin...

view all New Visions blogs

Patheos on Facebook Patheos on YouTube

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Copyright 2008-2026, Patheos. All rights reserved.

Subscription Support Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In

Follow Patheos Patheos on Facebook Patheos on YouTube