[02/07/23] Mind Body Monday: Why I am struggling to heal
Oftentimes when we are trying to heal our bodies or reduce our anxiety or depression we come across negative repetitive thoughts that seem to increase our pain. It is as if our minds are stuck in the groove of a vinyl record that plays the same song over and over again.. See if any of these tunes resonate with you…
“My back will never stop hurting”
“I can never get out of this debt”
“I will always be afraid or anxious”
“This person will never love me or treat me like i want”
“I will never be free of this disease”
“No matter what I do, My body will never look like I want it to”
Etc. etc.
Unknowingly, unconsciously we say the same thing over and over again. Not because we want it, not even because we can’t think of what to say differently. It is because our minds have created beliefs. Habits of thought based on what we have seen or are experiencing in this moment. And that feels powerful and true and inevitable.
Even though these beliefs are contrary to our wishes we continue to sit in their energy because it is hard to create new ones. Why? Because our old beliefs carry so much momentum behind them. Think of it like a bank account of the mind. A Thought account, lol. Every time we have experienced Anything similar to the thoughts I mentioned we have made a deposit into this thought account, adding to our belief systems.
SOme of these mental bank accounts are even created in childhood. We imprint on the belief systems of our parents, their words their behaviours and their beliefs. If our parents were poor and complained about how hard it was to make money, we could have been born with a thought account labeled poverty. If we were born seeing a lot of illness, then we could have a thought account of dis-ease.
Take a moment and think about what your childhood was like. What the beliefs you were born into were like. How many of them have you unconsciously continued to believe throughout your life? How many have you overcome and created your own beliefs about? If you are like me I imagine that there are many things you heard or saw when you were growing up that you decided would never be your adult life. Hopefully you have mastered many and closed those negative thought accounts.
However, it is I could idea to do a mental inventory and see if you have unknowingly become a product of these thoughts or carry your own account with them still. A good way to double check is to ask yourself if you have beliefs or behaviours that closely align with things you didn’t like about your parents or whomever you were raised around. Are you similar to them in ways you don’t want to be?
If you have challenges and obstacles to health and happiness that are not reflections of those you were imprinted with, then in many ways those are easier to overcome. Again beliefs are habits of thought, so the good news is our thoughts can be changed! Yay!
So, why haven’t you changed them even though you know they don’t serve you.Why does it feel that you are mentally obsessed at times with things you don't want. Here is why…These thoughts have a lot of momentum behind them, and that energy feels like it is where your focus should be. These bank accounts are rich with negative thoughts. This fullness keeps pulling you back and back to your fears. You feel like that energy is manifestation. It is so great. It is so full with all that you don’t want, it pulls at you.
The account with your desires however, while maybe feeling equally large, doesn’t carry the “richness” of your BELIEFS. They may hold your dreams, your prayers and your wants, but they don’t have the power of your belief behind them. Thus they don’t have the energy to draw you into rumination and repetition the way your negative thoughts do.
We conflate thought with belief but it is NOT the same. Our thoughts are endless and the majority of an unmastered mental mind is often filled with negative and anxiety producing thoughts.
Scientists have stated that the average person has about 12,000 to 60,000 thoughts per day. Of those thousands of thoughts, 80% were negative, and 95% were exactly the same repetitive thoughts as the day before.
Think about that! The tendency of our mind is to replicate again and again the same thoughts we always think. Our greatest obstacle to healing is our own minds! It is not the actions of others. It is not our bank account, it is our beliefs, the habits of our thoughts.
So how do we change this?
We must start with learning how to observe our thoughts without making them irrefutable beliefs.
Recognize the tendencies of our mind when we are afraid.
Build practices to manage stressful thoughts, and learn how to reframe them. Thought reframing is the process of replacing negative thoughts (which can worsen things like anxiety, depression, and pain) with more helpful thoughts.
Here are some quick examples of how you can reframe your thoughts to focus on what you want, rather than what you have.
For chronic physical pain.
Take a day or even a moment when you are feeling better than you have and think and speak about it in gratitude and with belief.
Say, “I love that I feel better today and I believe that I will continue to feel a little better every day.” Or “My body is strong and getting stronger all the time.” Even if it may seem hard to imagine, but that is okay keep saying it! It will build it’s own momentum with repetition and begin to create a different groove in the record. Different pathways in your mind, and a different reaction in your deep limbic system which will start making immediate changes for the better.
Stop talking about what is wrong and focus on the moment that was right until you build up your thought account with memories of pleasure instead of pain.
Here is an example of reframing your experience with money:
Say, “I love the feeling of not having to worry about money.” or “I always have more than I think I have, or It will cost less than I think it will.”
If you want some more examples of how to break through your negative thoughts and create a new Thought Bank, message me in the chat right now! Or if you are not watching me live you can contact me through the link I will put there for you.
https://calendly.com/thoughtpaintherapy/free-breakthrough-healing-session