Many teachers over the centuries have told us that our thinking defines our lives. To change our lives requires us to change our thinking. The first precept of Huna – Ike, states that the World is what you think it is. Our life is the result of our thinking and our thoughts.

There are many ways of saying the same thing. We become and are what we think about the most. The thing is, we spend most of our day and night stuck in the loop of our old thinking patterns. These patterns are embedded in the neural structures of our brains.
Think back to a time when you embarked on a journey of changing your thinking. How much time, each day, did you devote to the change? I would venture, not that much. That the habits of your past thinking patterns soon took back the gains you’d made.
So how do we break out of the old thought patterns? The well trodden neural pathways that support the current thinking?
In a previous post I talked about how many hour, minutes or seconds we have available to us in a day. The thing is, we are mostly stuck in thinking the same old thoughts.
As I mentioned we have 24 hours in a day. That equates to 1,440 minutes or 86,400 seconds. Take time off for when we are sleeping. That still leaves us with roughly, 16 hrs, 960 mins, or 57,600 secs.
Over a week the numbers look like: 112 hrs; 7,980 mins, or 403,200 secs.
So, the question becomes, how much of this time is spent in the past, or on stories or negative thinking? Maintaining the old neural paths? Focusing on the things that you don’t want verses focusing on the things that you do want in your life. Things life positivity, love, happiness, health, wealth, peace and equanimity, courageousness, persistence, focus, productivity etc.
The more time we spend focused on the new, the new thinking, the new us, the stronger becomes the new neural paths and networks that reflect our new thinking. Spend more than one or two seconds on your new thinking habit. Five to fifteen minutes at a time is good. As it first thing in the morning and last thing at night just before you drop off to sleep
One key point is that the thinking time needs to be focused. Focused solely on the new. No other thinking, no distractions: cellphone, internet, calls, trying to do something else at the same time. Just focused thinking on the new thoughts and thinking patterns that you are wanting to adopt and be.
Another is to remember to smile and be interested in the new you. To have a strong desire for the new you and that you’ve got this!.
until next time
metta
Garth