Your Life is What Your Thoughts Make It
photo credit: Okko Pyykkö
I drew upon the philosopher who ruled the great Roman Empire for the title of this article. Yes, Marcus Aurelius said: “Our life is what our thoughts make it.”
Probably the most vital lesson we can learn in life is the importance of what we think. Some say that if they knew what you think, they would know what you are. Indeed our thoughts make us what we are. If we think failure we will fail. If we think of lack and worry we will have lack and worry. If we think happy thoughts we will be happy.
When you consider that a man walking on the moon, a city skyscraper, the greatest works of art, literature and film all germinated from a single seed that is thought it is easy to understand the true power of our thoughts. Thoughts are things and they affect other things, other very real and material things that we generally consider solid and stable. Our modern world is a virtual reality. You only have to walk in a modern city to see this. Everywhere you turn from the concrete underfoot to the skyscrapers, cars, mobile phones, chairs, clothing, bikes and so on. All of these things were first and foremost a thought.
You may have heard of elite athletes making use of mental rehearsals. This is being touted as a decisive element that separates the elite from the rest. Importantly mental rehearsal is not visualization where you observe yourself in a particular situation. Rather it has been found to work best if the athlete imagines the sport event as though they were actually competing, as it would appear from their perspective.
Scientists have looked into what is actually going on in the body when someone goes through a mental rehearsal. They hooked volunteers up to electromyography (EMG) and monitored the results while they went through mental rehearsal. They found that the electrical impulses being sent to their muscles were just the same as if they were actually physically performing the action. Quite simply the electrical activity produced by the brain is the same no matter if we are actually doing something or just thinking about doing something.
Try this on for size. Another study had volunteers imagine flexing one of their biceps as hard as they could five times a week without actually physically doing anything. The results are astounding. The volunteers had a 13.5 percent increase in size and strength of their bicep after just a few weeks. The effect lingered for three months after they stopped the mental training.
It becomes clear that the singe biggest challenge facing us is choosing the right thoughts. So how should we handle the very real problems and stresses that confront us daily? Dale Carnegie suggested that we should be concerned about our problems but not worried. For him concern meant realizing what the problems are and calmly taking steps to meet them. Worry on the other hand is no more then futile mental running is maddening circles.
The fact is some situations and events in life are as they are. It is our particular attitude, our thoughts, about the events that befall us that color our personal reality. The French philosopher, Montaigne, said: “A man is not hurt so much by what happens, as by his opinion of what happens.” Your opinion is the one thing that is in your control and it is that one thing that will make your life what it is. Most often, though, it appears to us as if our feelings regarding our state of affairs is not in our control. Many people feel as if life is doing them.
How then can we regain control over our own feelings in regards to our affairs? After all it can seem an impossible task to fly in the face of very real troubles and deep worry. Well, there is a most excellent feature of our body that we can make use of. It is essentially a feedback loop. Even if you feel you have no direct control over your feelings you still have control over your physical actions. Therefore, if for example you are feeling burdened by worry, sit up straight, place a big broad smile on your face, take a deep breath, sigh it out, and hum a happy tune. Maintain this for 60 seconds and I guarantee that before that time is up you will feel much better. It is in fact impossible to remain unhappy while acting out the symptoms of being amazingly happy. From this you will have regained control over your thoughts.
I will leave you with a lengthy quote from James Allen who wrote a book called As a Man Thinketh:
“A man will find that as he alters his thoughts toward things and other people, things and other people will alter towards him…Let a man radically alter his thoughts, and he will be astonished at the rapid transformation it will effect in the material conditions of his life. Men do not attract that which they want, but that which they are…The divinity that shapes our ends is in ourselves…All that a man achieves is the direct result of his own thoughts…A man can only rise, conquer and achieve by lifting up his thoughts. He can only remain weak and abject and miserable by refusing to lift up his thoughts.”
The power is in your own hands. You are ultimately responsible for your own state of being. Your life is what your thoughts make it.
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September 1st, 2008 at 12:32 pm
I just wrote a post very similar to this one – you quoted Marcus Aurelius, I quoted Epictetus. The ancient Greek and Roman philosophers formed the basis of all later philosophical thought in the Western world.
Great post, Thanks, Tom
September 2nd, 2008 at 6:38 am
I’m glad you enjoyed it Tom. Great minds obviously think alike!
September 3rd, 2008 at 10:00 am
I liked your post. Mental training is key to unlocking your potential. I think for many, it is a matter of “un-learning” habits that become road blocks. I have a brief post about de-motivating yourself.
September 5th, 2008 at 4:24 pm
Nice article. Attitude and mental perception are everything. I am showing my age but it reminds me of the childrens book The Little Engine that Could. The engine was trying to get up a big hill and kept repeating “I think I can…I think I can”. I know its a corny example but positive thinking and associating with people with the same positive attitude will take you far in life.
September 6th, 2008 at 2:20 am
Thanks Marley. I had never thought about The Little Engine that Could. Clearly someone who knew what they were on about wrote that and sadly perhaps now it is just a children’s tale to those who tell it. As opposed to a story with a teaching message.
This reminds me of a study I read once. They tested positive and pessimistic people on a swim team. While the swimmers were doing laps they were told their times. The researchers purposefully told them all that they were slower then what they actually were. As a result the pessimistic people in general swam slower then what their actual real time was previously when they swam their next lap. The positive people all swam faster then their previous real time.
Pessimists often call themselves realists and of course they are. However their own personal reality is not necessarily the way in which reality has to be. In the study the pessimists gave up and so proved their own pessimistic view of the world to themselves.
September 9th, 2008 at 12:17 am
[…] How to Boost Your Self-Confidence and Success Sep.09, 2008 in Confidence, Happiness, Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), Personal Development If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my free RSS feed. Or you can subscribe via email by using the form on the right side of this page. Thanks for visiting! photo credit: Dawn Ashley I am a strong believer that we are each masters of our own world. Even those who don’t think they are have a deeply causal impact upon their own world. Many such people have a victim mentality. They feel life is doing them and so life does them. Their mentality is that of a victim and so they become victims and are victimized. How could it be otherwise? This points to a very important conclusion about life – Your life is what your thoughts make it! […]
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October 3rd, 2008 at 2:05 am
Hi Stephen,
I like this post and love Marley’s the Little engine that could- this took me back to teaching pre schoolers and the many simple messages that come through in children’s picture books.
The law of attraction matches those thoughts, and reflect whether we have a high vibe day or a low vibe one.
Be Abundant
Suzie
October 3rd, 2008 at 2:48 am
Hi Suzie,
Thanks for your comment. I’m glad you enjoyed my post!
I checked out your blog and it appears that you like me are a participant in Jenny’s Heroes of Healing.
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