Do you ever notice when your thoughts start to go in one
direction, thoughts of the same nature start to flood your brain? Especially negative thoughts? I found this online so it must be true: “In
general, people have negative thoughts because they suffer and
because they have fears. Humans, unlike animals, can extrapolate from their
present circumstances and believe that they can predict the future. When things
are going well, the future looks bright, when they are not, it looks dark.” I would say after talking with so many of you
through our workshops, and privately, that statement rings true for you, it
certainly does for me.
What if we think of our brain as a search engine that houses
all the thoughts and memories we have created in our lifetime and that every
time we have a thought it’s like telling the brain to find more supporting
“facts” for that thought? Our brain
doesn’t distinguish between positive or negative thoughts, not it’s job, so if
you think you’re not doing well in your WW plan right now, your brain will provide
all sorts of past thoughts and memories to prove what you’re thinking is true! Now, as I’ve said before I am not a doctor
(but still desperately want to play one on TV) however I’ve lived in my
brain for a long time and I’ve observed the search engine that is my brain in
action many times, so I know this is true for me.
You know the ads that pop up the side on your Facebook page
or in online articles you click on? How
ads for shoes, dresses, linens, wall art, that you love, show up even though
you are not looking? Everything you search for on the internet is stored so the
next time you make a similar search you are instantly offered sites that
support that search. I picture my brain working the same way; when I think
I’m failing because I’m not getting enough exercise my brain instantly
downloads thoughts to support that argument:
how hard can it be to go for a walk every day lots of others do it, lots
of easy online workout classes and plenty of time to do them, I’m not disciplined
enough to do wall push-ups that’s why my arms are so flabby and the fat still
hangs over my bra because I’m too lazy to join the plank challenge….one thought
after another proving my actual thought: I’m failing again because I’m lacking
in one way or another. Does this sound familiar? The real problem isn’t whether or not we’re
lazy or undisciplined, the real problem is that we believe it to be true.
And why do we believe it to be true? Because our brain supplies the “facts”
which support that argument. And round
and round we go.
For the past few years in WW we’ve been working on changing
our mindset, I think it’s safe to say we all now accept that is a
mind-game. So, we work on thinking
positively, we post positive quotes and we have moments of genuinely believing
we’re on the right track this time, but somehow, we often find ourselves back
on the familiar negative merry-go-round. Why? Because if you could search the
cache of your brain, for every 1 positive thought you have, you could have 200
negative ones; which ones do you think your brain is going to present to you
first? When you google something do you
go to page 5 or 12, or do you only look at the first page of sites?
The good news? We are
not our thoughts, we are the observer of our thoughts and we are in charge of
what we tell our brains to search for; I hardly ever see pops of animal print clothes
or red boots on my Facebook page anymore.
Why? I stopped searching for them
and Google stopped sending them to me.
“The goal is to be the observer of your thoughts and not let
your thoughts control you.”
Deepak
Chopra
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