By Books Author Denise Turney

It sounds too simple. Change your mind and you will change your life. Just the words sound so simple, it’s hard to believe that thinking differently could actually create new experiences. Yet, if you consider how your mood shifts as your focus alters, you may start to see the connection between thoughts and experience. But how do you change your mind?

Change Your Mind – Linking Thoughts and Experiences

Admittedly, it’s not a straight line and it doesn’t happen absent awareness and honesty. Even more, changing your mind gets harder if you engage in habitual thinking or repetitive emotional states. For example, if you focus on work as soon as you wake in the morning, you might teach your brain to feel stressed or overwhelmed early in the day.

If you don’t practice awareness, the next step you take might see you aligning strong emotions to specific days of the week, times of the day, people or places. Should this happen, you could convince yourself that Mondays are challenging, that long vacations are bad and that your in-laws are mean people. That’s how easy it is to train your brain to link emotions and people, places, days and experiences.

Here’s more. The University of Minnesota shares that, “Thoughts are mental cognitions—our ideas, opinions, and beliefs about ourselves and the world around us. They include the perspectives we bring to any situation or experience that color our point of view (for better, worse, or neutral).” Furthermore, it’s shared that, “if you are aware of your thoughts and attitudes, you can choose to change them.”

Stop Habitual Thinking and Repetitive Emotional States

So, how do you stop habitual thinking and repetitive emotional states? For starters, stop being afraid of yourself. Stop letting your thoughts scare you. To do this, sit and honestly watch what you’re thinking.

As you observe your thoughts say, “I seem to be thinking about.” Clearly state the thoughts that are passing through your mind. For example, you could say, “I seem to be thinking about paying the rent. I seem to be thinking about mowing the lawn. I seem to be thinking about breaking up with my boyfriend.”

Let the thoughts pass, observing them as if they are no more than clouds floating across the sky. Notice if your emotional state isn’t starting to calm.

Do this for one to two weeks, investing two to three minutes in each sitting.

Then, observe your thoughts for up to three minutes. Afterward, repeat a positive statement about yourself and what you really want. An example could find you saying, “I am the Creator’s holy daughter. I am a limitless being, created to do great things. I am living in peace and joy, filled with love and managing a successful five-star restaurant.” These simple acts are effective ways to change your mind.

Reward Yourself When You Change Your Mind

Rewards for changing your mind don’t generally just show up. In fact, it could take up to 30 days to shift, to start witnessing an external payoff. To notice the rewards, get clear about what you want.

In other words, discover your destiny. To do this, think about what consistently causes you to feel joy and peace. Also, write down activities that motivate you toward positive action. These activities come with their own built-in motivators.

Examples of these activities include singing, wood carving, painting, teaching, public speaking and conducting research. For me, it’s writing novels.

Your passions are linked to your destiny. To discover your destiny, you may have to spend 20 minutes a day meditating or quieting your mind. It’s so worth it.

Why Discovering Your Destiny Is Important

Why? Once you discover your destiny, the rewards of doing what it takes to change your mind become powerful motivators. More reasons to discover your destiny include:

• Fulfilling your destiny brings you joy – Your destiny is not a burden. Joy, peace and love are hallmarks of destiny living.
• Revisit your childhood – Remember what you loved to do when you were a kid. When you discover your destiny, you can let your inner child play, explore and thrive.
• Removes confusion – Discovering your destiny gives your life an anchor, removing confusion about why you are here.
• Direction – Although it could take years to fulfill your destiny, once you discover what your destiny is, it may be easier to know what to do next.
• Purpose – Knowing what your destiny is gives your life a powerful feeling of purpose.

Change Your Mind to Interrupt Limiting Thoughts

Another benefit of discovering your destiny has to do with limiting thoughts. Despite your best efforts, there may be times when you doubt yourself. There may be times when fulfilling your destiny seems too hard. This is when limiting thoughts could interrupt your progress.

Here are ways to interrupt limiting thoughts, catching them early. The sooner you become aware of limiting thoughts, the sooner you can change your mind with lasting success. Therefore, catch yourself early and start replacing limiting thoughts. Toward this effort, you could:

• Listen to meditation tapes that affirm that you can receive and do what causes you to feel joy
• Visualize yourself doing and having what you want, what is related to your destiny
• Stay free of trying to figure out how you will fulfill your destiny step-by-step. Instead, focus on what you want and accept that you are worth receiving what causes you to enter into joy and peace.
• Forgive if you are holding a past experience against yourself or someone else.
• Get out of your head and into your life. Okay. This may sound like an oxymoron. Yet, it isn’t. To remove limiting thoughts and change your mind, don’t over think. In other words, don’t try to figure everything out. Good living calls for courage and trust, not constant planning.

Should you struggle to trust while you’re trying to change your mind to change your life, replay a time in your life when you exhibited courage. Replay a time in your life when you did trust and a situation turned out good. Give yourself proof that you can do it.

Your Life Matters

Additionally, take small actions toward what you want. For instance, you could apply to work for a research firm if doing research work is connected to your destiny. That’s a step of trust. Keep applying to firms until you land a gig. Then, keep applying to different jobs at the firm until you gain the research experience that you want.

Who knows?  You might end up starting your own research company and doing life changing work. The key is to keep trusting and to keep taking forward steps. Here’s another tip. Do yourself a huge favor and treat yourself and others with love and respect. Also reward yourself when you complete small actions that get you closer to fulfilling your destiny. Acknowledge the good that you’re doing.

However easy or hard each forward step is, keep going. Your life matters. You deserve to experience the life that you want. You should live the life that you came here to live. Most of all, you are so worth it.