Something to think about

“ One’s own thought is one’s own world. What a person thinks is what he becomes.” - Hindu text from the Maitri Upanishad, nearly 3,000 years old.

“ We are shaped by our thoughts. We become what we think.” - Buddha writes in the Dhammapada, c 500 BC.

"Cogito Ergo Sum" ("I think, therefore I am.") - René Descartes (1596-1650)

Sages, philosophers, psychiatrists, and ordinary folk have said it for millennia, “Be careful of what you think”.

Sigmund Freud recognized years ago that thoughts, manifested by behaviour, are founded in the belief system. His opinion of the necessity to understand our beliefs gave birth to the psychoanalytic process, where adults spent years in analysis, seeking the root cause of their beliefs, by attempting to remember and dissect their childhood.

Some theories suggest that the foetus is able to sense the world while still in the womb. While that idea may be disputed, the fact that infants start to formulate their opinion of the world, as soon as they leave the birth canal is not. Language is not necessary to imprint the psyche.

The beliefs that make up how we perceive the world are firmly established by the age of three. As our intellect develops, our set of beliefs modify slightly, nonetheless we will always view the world according to the colour of own personal lenses. The colour instilled by the original beliefs.

What are our options? Is it sitting on the analyst’s couch, a la Woody Allen the only way to improve our lives? Or, do we continue to blame our parents for their lack of parental skills?

Or, do we assume responsibility for our lives and refuse to be driven by unknown forces in our subconscious?

Ancient sayings were right we are what we think, because thoughts generate actions; actions have consequences; which generate thoughts, which generate actions ad infinitum.

To improve our lives we must change the patterns of behaviour. By making a conscious effort to change our thoughts, we are taking a pro-active approach, which, can effect an immediate change in behaviour. The secondary benefit is that as we attempt to reprogram ourselves to change old unwanted behaviours with new, it becomes easier to identify the belief that fueled the thought.

Once implanted beliefs surface, they can be challenged, by holding them to the light of the present, and their validity assessed. Either saved or discarded.


Without being able to shed the light of the present on set beliefs, adults will continue to behave like children, not being aware of the forces that drive them.


Exercises

1. Whenever you find yourself repeating an old behaviour, ask yourself, why, what is the belief behind the behaviour.

2. When overwhelmed by negative or oppressive thoughts, remind yourself:

I am the master of my thoughts!