The Process of Change

Want to stop biting your nails? How about quit smoking? Perhaps you would even like to change your thought patterns in order to assist in your own medical treatment. All of this, and so much more, is possible once we learn how to focus on positive thought patterns. On average we have 50,000 - 60,000 full and complete thoughts every day. Of those thoughts, because we are such creatures of habit, only 5% are new. In other words, 95% of the thoughts we have today are the same thoughts we had yesterday. In order to change that percentage, we must first change the thoughts we chose to focus on. As creatures of habit, we do choose the thoughts we focus on. There are four ways we can choose to handle those thoughts: 1) We can focus on the thought, which is not terribly productive. Focusing on negativity simply creates more negativity. This kind of thought builds upon itself until it causes stress, which eventually leads to health problems. 2) We can choose to release the thought. Simply by letting go we can begin to make room for new, more beneficial thoughts. 3) We can modify the thought. Instead of thinking "I'll NEVER get this report done! My boss is going to kill me, we're going to lose the account and I'm going to be jobless by noon!