You are Not Your Thoughts, Attracting What You Believe

[ButterflyWoman]

http://fractalenlightenment.com/32362/life/you-are-not-your-thoughts-attracting-what-you-believe

I found that a very well-written article. I've known for a long time that thoughts just happen and that I didn't have to pay attention to them or believe them, but it's easy to get drawn into, nonetheless. For me, this article was a sharp, clear reminder, and definitely a sign/message to me. I thought some other folks might like reading it, too.

[WhiteMonkey]

This article says it again. The first time I herd this was in a book from osho where he mentions that thoughts are flying around and wentune into them loke a radio. So depending on our setting we get different thoughts.

This are a few exercises I made according to this topic.

Thought setting
Try to change your reciving. I try every day I can to always change my thoughts to good once. For example you see a person you think strange person automatically. Try to stop your thoughts in str and change them to nice person and feel yourself happy. Do this a few days and you refive different thoughts.

Thougt reading
Try this experiment. When you hang out the next time with your friends try to empty your head from all your thoughts and make the thought cinema exercies or simply watch your thoughts. It will happen quite frequent that you will observe a thought and in the same moment one of your friend will speak it out loud. Just try. Bigger groups are preferable.

....maybe I should write all my texhniques in one thread hehe

All the best

[ButterflyWoman]

I don't try to change my thoughts. I just try to regard them as a kind of "noise", and only pay attention to the ones to which I choose to give energy (note that resisting is ALSO giving energy to something). I can often get into a place where the thoughts in my head are like a television on in the background. I'm aware of it, but don't have to pay any attention to it or give it any weight.

[dontco]

This article is definitely a keeper :-) I remember reading Seth, who said thought float around the room. I guess great minds think alike (but now this sentence becomes a paradox! :P). I find it interesting that my professor, when he spoke about OCD (an anxiety disorder with intrusive thoughts) said people who have it- have, let's call it "bad thoughts", to simplify. But he said that regular people also sometimes have the same kind of thoughts sometimes, and they just don't give them that much attention as folks with OCD do.
I think the idea really fits what the author wrote. The more attention you give to the "bad" thoughts the more you get them.

[ButterflyWoman]

I find it interesting that my professor, when he spoke about OCD (an anxiety disorder with intrusive thoughts) said people who have it- have, let's call it "bad thoughts", to simplify. But he said that regular people also sometimes have the same kind of thoughts sometimes, and they just don't give them that much attention as folks with OCD do.
Absolutely. I don't have OCD (somewhat surprisingly, given my personality and background and other related things), but I do have panic-anxiety disorder and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. My first big breakthrough with that was realising that I didn't actually have to BELIEVE the panic. Yes, I felt it, yes, my heart was pounding, yes, I wanted to run and hide, yes, I felt extremely paranoid, BUT, maybe it was just my damaged limbic system reacting to a threat that wasn't actually real. That first little inkling of that was the beginning of being able to overcome (it work with PTSD flashbacks, too, most of the time, though they can be very subtle and harder to reccognise).

In other words, by just not believing the brain signals (Panic! Run! Bad stuff is happening! Hide! Flee!) I slowly got on top of the situation. Took a long time, but it's pretty rare now that I have panic attacks, and it only happens when I'm out of balance between the Observer point of view and being in the thick of material reality, so to speak. I'm getting better and better at being able to just ignore it when my poor, damaged nervous system starts misbehaving. ;)

The same is true, of course, of any kind of thought, any kind of emotion, any experience, really. You can choose to believe in it, give it a bunch of significance, resist it, take hold of it, all sorts of things. You can also just let it be whatever it is and not invest energy in it. This is the path to dissolving attachments, beliefs, all of that. And if nothing else, it's kind of amusing to just step back and watch reality as if it was a television show. ;)

[dontco]

Thank you so much for explaining. I wish you didn't have to go through all of this :/ But now you are brave and strong and wise. And by passing your knowledge- you're making a difference in the world.
I have OCD (even though I got away easy... some people have to wash their hands 100 times a day or other stuff). I think I might have told you about it before? anyway- I tried what you said- and it seems to help! it really does, so that's great. Thank you :love:, I love you :-)
I will try to pass it along if I will know someone who will have this kind of "thought problems" (in times of stress- at least for me- it can really come up to feeling I am locked up inside my own head).

[ButterflyWoman]

Thank you :love:, I love you :-)
You're welcome, and I love you, too. :)