Level up your thoughts and life today

Are you ready to uplevel your thoughts? You can either subscribe to your current pattern of thinking and remain as you are (and hey, if your thoughts are working for you — amazing, I'm cheering you on!), or you can develop the mindset muscle to be aware of your thoughts and change them so you can create the reality you desire. If you have chosen the latter and you're ready to uplevel your daily thoughts, here are five steps you can put into practice starting today!

According to Dr. Joe Dispenza, an international lecturer, researcher, and author focused on teaching the world how to empower and heal our minds through meditation and mindfulness, 90% of the thoughts we think today are going to be the same as the thoughts we think tomorrow. In other words, the majority of our thoughts are habitual…there are patterns to them.

IDENTIFY HOW YOU FEEL

The first step in up-leveling our thoughts is to identify how we feel in any given moment to get clear on what's creating those emotions in the first place.

When you feel a negative emotion, identify what that emotion is (i.e. fear, anger, sadness, anxiety, worry, etc.). Notice where in your body you’re feeling that emotion. For me, I usually feel negative emotions in my chest…it usually feels tight and like I can't get a full breath of air into my lungs. This immediately signals to me that I'm thinking thoughts that are not serving me and encourages me to do some further investigation. TLDR: Our emotions are our guideposts.

IDENTIFY WHAT YOU’RE THINKING

Once you've identified your emotions, pause and ask yourself, “What is it that I am thinking about? What are the stories I am telling myself about me/my partner/my experience/my future etc.? How am I perceiving this moment? What am I making this situation mean about me?"Once you've started to identify those unhelpful thoughts, move onto the next step.

For this step, I highly recommend getting a dedicated “Mindset Journal” or creating an account on Penzu to have a dedicated online space to capture your thoughts on a day-to-day basis.

WRITE DOWN YOUR UNHELPFUL STORIES

Once you have a journal handy, write down the thoughts you noticed in step two. The act of writing thoughts down is helpful because it puts your thoughts in physical form. When you journal consistently, you will notice the thought patterns that are causing your negative emotions. You may even start to notice themes like having financial scarcity, relationship challenges, work woes, and more.

REFRAME YOUR THOUGHTS

Step four is to reframe your negative thoughts into new, empowering thoughts. You can do this with the use of positive affirmations, which interrupts our negative thinking patterns and floods our subconscious with thoughts of the new reality we wish to create. Research has shown that doing this repeatedly can form and strengthen neural connections to "rewire" our brains.

Questions to consider: What thoughts and beliefs would your highest self need to have in order to create the life of your dreams? What would you like to start believing about yourself and your capabilities from this point forward? What would you say to a friend who had similar negative thoughts?

Example: Instead of: “I can’t make the income I desire. I grew up like this, and it’s the way things will be forever." Try: “I am creating a plan to make the income I desire. I have the power to change my reality. I am worthy of abundance in all forms, including financial abundance.”

If you are having difficulty in reframing your thoughts, add “I am choosing to believe…” before your statement to make it more believable to your current self.

CHOOSE PROGRESS OVER PERFECTION

Upleveling our thoughts takes practice and discipline. It is not a matter of running away from our negative thoughts and emotions, it’s about noticing them, disconnecting from them if they are not helpful, kind, or true, and choosing differently…time and time again. Practice your new, empowering thoughts and statements as frequently as you can. Create a new discipline of speaking and thinking more kind and helpful thoughts that create positive emotions and future actions.

YOU ARE NOT YOUR THOUGHTS

Finally, I want to leave you with this. You are not your negative thoughts. When you start to decondition the thought you grew up with and the ones you’ve adopted in your adulthood using the steps above, you can create whatever reality you desire. Truly. You can change your self-image. You can change your life.

It all begins with a choice. A choice to put these five steps into practice. What do you have to lose other than your negative thinking, love?

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