I Say I Want This, But Then I Think That

This morning in our Geotran call, we talked about the thoughts we have that go against what we say we want.

It is easy to have an intention. It is easy to say, I want this to work out, I want more ease, I want something different in my life.

And then, often without even noticing, another thought comes in that quietly moves us in the opposite direction.

For example, I wanted to eat healthy and at the same time, I would think and say that I hated cooking. So I started by changing what I said to I am becoming someone who enjoys cooking. And when my brain would try to tell me that I hate cooking I would repeat to myself, I am someone who enjoys cooking.

I watched a TED Talk this morning that inspired our conversation. In this talk, there was this idea that we are always creating results, whether we are aware of it or not. That means that our thoughts are not neutral. They are part of what we are participating in.

So it becomes less about trying to think “positive thoughts” and more about taking responsibility for the direction we are reinforcing.

If I say I want to have strong muscles, and then spend the rest of my day being annoyed at the fact that it has not happened yet and everything I do seems to lead nowhere, I am entertaining thoughts that contradict my intention. I am participating in something different than what I intended.

What we explored this morning was the moment of noticing.

Noticing when a thought appears that is not aligned with what we want, then stopping and choosing something else.

It is easier if you have a preselected thought that you can repeat to yourself like a mantra until your brain moves on to a different subject. And if you can, use positive points for both the old thought pattern and the new one, so you clear the stress linked to it at a cellular level.

This is not about doing it perfectly. It is about participating more consciously in our own lives.

Sometimes the shift is not big or dramatic. It is simply the willingness to notice, to interrupt, and to choose again.

365 days of Self-Love and wholehearted living Day 40

In the reading portion of my miracle morning, I read this quote:

“Choice is the greatest power. It is even greater than love, because you must first choose to be a loving person.” (Caroline Myss in book Sacred Contracts)

In Geotran, the basic tool (positive points) is about love, forgiveness, and choice. The founder of Geotran, Dorothy Wood Espiau, wrote “Choice, the most misunderstood of words, means for you to consciously choose something.”

I believe the power of choice refers to the ability to choose the lens through which we see the world and our circumstances. 

My dad gifted me a book titled Happy People Don’t Care if it’s the Truth, They Tell Themselves Nice Stories (title translated from French). To me, this book is about the choice I make around how I explain things to myself.

My point about choice: choosing how I see things requires enough inner peace to not be swept up by emotions / reacting to them. 

As I am reflecting on the power of choice, I am appreciating the increase of choice I gained from practicing Geotran. I feel I am more in choice around what people say. I choose to not react and even thought I still react sometimes, I react much less and not as often as before. 

I think that developing our ability to choose consciously is part of developing a resilient spirit, letting go of numbing and powerlessness in the 10 guideposts for wholehearted living. 

Do you see places in your life when you do not feel you have choice?