Your thoughts are processed in the mind and understanding how your mind works will empower you to manage your thought patterns more effectively. The brain has three states: the reasonable, the emotional, and the wise mind. All people possess each of these states, but the majority of people operate in a specific one most of the time.
An individual uses their reasonable mind when approaching a Situation intellectually. They plan and make decisions based on the facts. The emotional state takes charge when feelings control an individual’s thoughts and behaviors. They may act impulsively and give little consideration to the consequences.
The wise mind is the balance between the reasonable and the emotional states. This is where individuals recognize and respect their feelings, and can respond to them rationally.
You should take care of your thoughts because they form your words; they, in turn, make your actions and your actions, in turn, become your habits, which create your character that determines your destiny.
The Secret to Controlling Thought Patterns
The mind is continuously processing information; deleting, editing, prioritizing, everything stored in it on a subconscious level. Your core beliefs and values filter all information before turning it into action. These core values and beliefs of people vary from person to person, hence the difference in people’s reactions which are reflected finally in their outcomes.
A child is born without values and beliefs. They develop in three different stages as the kid grows.
- The Imprint Stage
From the day you are born until the age of seven, you are like a sponge that absorbs everything around you. Typically you accept much of what you absorb as accurate, especially when it comes from your parents. Unfortunately, the confusion and blind belief associated with this period can lead to the early development of trauma and other neurological problems.
The crucial thing within this period is to gain an understanding of right and wrong, good and bad. You use your feelings as a guide or monitor of responses from your parents, to determine what is right and wrong. During the imprint period, children are ‘all ears’; they’re listening and taking in everything that’s going on around them.
They pay attention to everything, in particular, the emotions coming from those around them. They translate ‘anger’ to mean ‘bad’ and ‘laughter’ to mean ‘good’. Children want to understand what their parents think to know what they should think and will often accept their parent’s beliefs without questioning.
It’s important that you diligently pay attention to a child’s life at this stage because it passes quickly. Children love stories, games, songs, etc. which are creative tools you can use to help teach sound values and beliefs. The most crucial period, being the age of two to four when most of the significant imprinting occurs in a child’s life.
During this stage, they take in information without analyzing. So if a child learns that they are ‘bad’ during this crucial stage of their life, they will be likely to take this literally and are unable to put it into context. As a result, they go on to believe that they are a terrible person, as opposed to what is real.
2.The Modeling Period
From the age of eight to thirteen, children copy others. They usually model their parents, but will also copy other people who they look up to or admire. This phase is kind of like trying on different sets of clothes to see how they feel as supposed to just blindly accepting everything.
You more than likely have memories of people who have significantly influenced you. Whether it’s primary teachers, parents, friends, or public figures, who seemed so knowledgeable, even more than your parents. At this stage, children start to pay attention to their friends, family, and heroes, carefully watching how they behave.
At around the age of ten, they begin to emulate their heroes. The environment surrounding a person has a potent effect on them. Most people believe that they become who they most admired at the age of ten.
3.The Socialization Period
From age thirteen to twenty-one, young people strongly influence their peers. During this phase, they often group with like-minded friends, in search of ways to break away from the conventional model or mindset that they’ve experienced in their early life.
Other influencing factors at this stage include the media, in particular those parts which seem to agree with the values of their peer groups. At this stage, people develop relationships and social benefits. Past the age of 21, their fundamental values are not likely to change unless a drastic emotional event or effective coaching occurs.
Understanding your core beliefs and values is the first step to managing your thought patterns. Adopting strong values and beliefs that support your dreams and ambitions, is a great way to be in control of how you reason and interpret information. One should be aware of any limiting beliefs that you may be holding against yourself or others that is causing you negative thoughts.
You may have developed your own set of mistaken beliefs through hearing direct messages from other people or through your reactions to being criticized by people, ignored by others or by being rejected. Unfortunately, what tends to happen is, in holding these beliefs you act in ways that confirm them; this becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
It’s crucial that you understand how your own set of mistaken beliefs came about before you can go about reprogramming yourself with more functional and supportive beliefs.
The Conclusion
Most often limiting beliefs you have about yourself are the root cause of the negative thought patterns you experience on a daily basis. Most of them are not even real, and being aware of these patterns will help you to challenge your reasoning, and find ways to change them into supportive programs.
When indeed you manage to change your thinking, your feelings will automatically adjust, and you will adopt a positive physiology ideal for success to thrive. Purpose, to discover the beliefs that are holding you back from achieving the things you desire and replace them with more supportive ones.