Thinking Out Loud

We are in charge of what we see. If what we are seeing isn't true for us then we can change our perspective and adopt new views. Here's a cool quote by Abraham Lincoln: I shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors, and I shall adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to be true views. What if what you believed to be true, simply wasn't? How often do we challenge our views? I'm reading a wonderful book called Excuses Begone: How to Change Lifelong Self-Defeating Thinking Habits by Dr. Wayne Dyer. In the book, Dr. Dyer encourages the reader to challenge their habitual thoughts instead of simply accepting them as "gospel truths." Too many of us have allowed our culture, habitual thoughts, parents, teachers, bosses, etc. to determine our truths. What if they are wrong? What if what you have come to believe simply isn't true?  Do you have a process to examine the truth of your thoughts or believes? You can easily start discovering your truths ...

I'm amazed at the power of thought. Change your thoughts and you really will change your life. I was driving to work today dreading the tasks that laid ahead. I haven't, for a LONG time, had a dreadful feeling about going to work. It's not normal for me to feel this way as I'm usually excited to get to the office and attack my day. So what did I do? Well, I simply noticed the dreadful thought and decided to change it. It was that simple. I'm not a fan of arguing with my thoughts--I realize they come and go. I am, however, a firm believer in discarding unwanted thoughts. My thought process goes like this: Thoughts emerge I notice them I bring awareness to them and try to understand their genesis I don't judge them as either good or bad, but I do decide whether it's a thought I want to run with or leave behind If it's a thought I want to drop, I create a new thought to replace the spontaneously generated thought I'm not a fan of lett...

Hello I am telling you about the truth. All things are truthful. Bananas, flowers, paper towels (they help a lot), and last of all cats and mongooses. Today we went to Hanauma Bay. It has very strict rules that you have to follow. I can relate this to someone I know, but I can also relate this to the gospel truth. I feel like the gospel truth is not just LDS or Christianity, I feel like it is all religions, all lives, and all things. The truth is whatever YOU believe. Anywho, at Hanauma Bay we went snorkeling and I couldn’t see because the water was really foggy. So I decided that it meant I needed to change my perspective. I stopped snorkeling and played mean babysitter. I also saw this one really cool fish that I thought was a hallucination but when I touched it  I realized that is was a true fish, but then it flew away. I can relate this to someone seeing something and thinking, “is that really there, or is it something I just see because everyone else is looking at it?” I tho...

I've been thinking a bit about relationships. I'm seeing them differently than I've ever seen them before. First, I realize that relationships are created in our minds. What we think about our relationships defines them. If I think my daughter is ungrateful, I will see ingratitude in all her actions. If I tell myself my coworker is annoying, I will find him extremely so.  And so it goes. What we think about others creates how we relate to them. So why not think happy, positive, loving thoughts about the people we relate with? We absolutely have the power to create amazing relationships by changing the way we think about our relations. Second, I've been thinking about the importance of loving the people in our life for who they are, not for what we need them to be. People need freedom to be who they want to be. If you love someone, you don't try to change them. That isn't love. Love is accepting someone for who they are and where they are right now. Love know...