Where Do Thoughts Come From?
A big part of controlling your mindset is learning about your thoughts.
As you read this post, you’ll have thoughts coming left & right (depending on how tamed your mind is).
If your mind is untamed, then you may need some time to bring yourself back on track.
All good homie, I ain’t judging you.
Here’s the beauty though…
When you bring some attention to how your thoughts work, you gain power over them.
You remember that one time when you would act naughty as a kid when your mom was on the phone?
It’s because you knew she couldn’t discipline you because she was talking to someone else.
But when she was OFF the phone, that’s when you went back to your best behavior.
Thoughts are sort of like that.
Getting OFF the phone is equivalent to understanding how thoughts work…
That’s when you gain control.
What you do next is up to you.
You can go about your day, or learn to control the thoughts.
In this post, I want to answer a very basic question: where do thoughts come from?
By understanding this, you will realize how your internal world operates.
This understanding gives you the first step in your journey to controlling your mindset.
What are the Traits of the Mind?
Before I talk about thoughts, it may be best to start off with the mind.
No need to understand the mind TOO much.
But just understand the 2 traits.
Your mind is:
- Wavy & full of pictures.
What exactly does this mean?
That means your mind is normally in motion.
Sort of like shaking a bowl of water.
How hard you shake it depends on the shakiness of our mind.
A committed meditator has fewer waves than someone who fills their mind with junk & can’t focus.
Other than the wavy nature of the mind, it also has pictures.
The pictures are what we consider a thought.
A thought is conscious awareness of the picture.
Our thoughts can have patterns or it may be all over the place.
One second, you may be thinking about an email you have to send.
The next second, your mind is on an ex.
And then, you are like ‘oh shit… I have to focus.’
The nature of the mind is to be wavy & flash pictures.
The overall purpose of mediation is to just slow everything down.
Slow down the waves & have more congruency over the pictures you see.
After some time, you are AWARE of when your mind has drifted & then you can bring it back under control.
And even after more time, calm & control becomes your baseline state.
Where Do Thoughts Come from?
So now that you understand the nature of the mind, you may be wondering…
‘Well, what fills up the pictures of the mind?’
It comes down to your external environment & memory bank.
Sometimes, I marvel at how similar humans and computers are in certain ways of life.
It’s as if humans were subconsciously making computers as a mirror image of themselves.
The 4 main components of a computer are:
- Input.
- Process.
- Store.
- Output.
It’s virtually the same core concept of a human.
You input data thru your 5 senses (seeing, smelling, tasting, touching, hearing).
The senses are processed by your conscious mind.
Those events are stored in your subconscious mind.
And you may output them later on via a story or some form of language.
This cycle explains the thoughts you are experiencing in your internal world.
If you notice the pattern, your thoughts predominantly come from your external environment or past.
And thoughts which hold more weight (thoughts which keep popping up) are the ones where FEELINGS were involved.
So you’ll probably think more about you getting in that vicious car accident last week more than brushing your teeth this morning.
The stronger the sensations of emotions, the more likely the thoughts are popping up.
Now mind you, these are your thoughts at a BASELINE state.
If you are someone who doesn’t engage in any mental workouts, then you will typically loop thoughts which are of moments in the past or happening now.
‘Wait, so can I condition new thoughts as well?’
Yep.
Conditioning New Thoughts
The reason people visualize is to train their brain.
Training your brain is a process.
If you are new to visualizing, then start off light.
Try to visualize an apple before you try visualizing things you have never seen before.
This is my personal philosophy of course.
When I first started visualizing, I tried imagining 10 different images that I have never seen.
Just ended up confusing myself.
Start off light, and work your way up.
Over time, once you graduate to nuanced images, you feel empowered.
At this point, visualize images that make you FEEL.
Seeing the pictures & feeling the emotions allows you to rewire the circuitry of your internal world.
You start noticing a lot of new thoughts.
Thoughts that may not have necessarily happened in the external world, but has happened in the internal world.
Remember, your subconscious mind cannot tell the difference between real or imaginary.
But also remember, visualization is a tool to amplify an improving lifestyle.
If you just sit on your ass, visualizing, then you may get new thoughts, but it’s not necessarily making your life better.
Truly invest in a skill & keep trying to improve from there via visualization.
The consistent practices of visualization rewire the circuitry of your internal world.
Consistent practice in a skill AND visualizing, allows you to notice something.
‘What?’
You start becoming more creative.
It’s as though there is a field of information out there not visible to our eyes.
And your renewed internal world is able to TUNE into those frequencies.
A lot of artists say the image flashed into their mind & they were just an instrument in delivering it.
There are levels to this of course.
To get to this state, you need a solid baseline of fundamentals, reps & consistency for your craft.
But at least you have hope in knowing that you can ADD new thoughts.
How to Understand Your Thoughts
Communication skills comes down to turning your mind and thoughts into words.
So if you find meditation boring, then journal, get a Twitter, start a podcast, etc.
I highly recommend meditation in tandem to everything else.
Meditation is a cornerstone habit that allows you to understand how your thoughts work.
That’s when you realize how your mind operates.
A strong understanding of your mind makes other parts of your life much easier.
Understanding the subjective world improves your grasp of the objective world.
Only you can understand your mind, no one else.
So begin learning from your thoughts by understanding your thoughts.
The more you understand how your mind works, the easier it eventually becomes to break down how you want your future to unfold.
Thoughts Come and Go
Remember this, thoughts come and go.
But it’s always strategic to build a life mission to cater your thoughts around.
Same with electricity.
At a baseline state, the electrons in a copper are just moving around aimlessly.
It’s when a battery is added with a lightbulb & closed circuit, that allows the electrons to move in one direction.
Directionless electrons are good as useless.
Electrons with direction powers the technology that you possess today.
Give direction to your thoughts.
But first, learn how your internal world works.
Do that, and you’ll feel much more in control of your mindset AND confidence.
Call that a 2 in 1.
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– ArmaniTalks 🎙️🔥
