Thought in Action

By: Lynne Hoft, EdD & Vivian Hildebrandt, MA

Richard Carlson gave us a great insight when he said, “Thought is not something that happens to us, but something that we do. It comes from inside of us, not from the outside. What we ‘think’ determines what we see – even though it often seems the other way around.” Thinking is automatic; it’s going on all the time.

Where do our thoughts come from? We each have a thought bank that we carry around with us that contains all of our beliefs and thought patterns. It also contains all that we’ve learned at home, at school, and in our communities. Our thought banks contain only what we have experienced in the past.

We also have another source of thought that we call Brilliance. Brilliance is our connection to a higher dimension of thought, awareness and consciousness. It only occurs in the Now and always leads to the most expanded viewpoint.

Understanding thought is critical. Our knowledge of how thinking works determines the degree of power we have over our lives.

How can we distinguish when we are caught up in our thought bank or when we are connecting with our Brilliance? When you are worrying or feeling unsure, angry, or depressed you are caught in old habits of thinking from your thought bank. When experiencing a sense of peace, of confidence, and certainty, you have tapped your Brilliance.

Thinking about thinking is a learned habit and the biggest barrier to accessing Brilliance. We’ve been taught to “think about it”, to think about everything. All of this thinking keeps us in the past and blocks the path to Brilliance. Learning new habits will prevent this tyranny of the thought bank.

Learning to quiet the mind is very important. Taking slow deep breaths or simply listening to your breath stops the thought flow. When we are quiet we can hear our intuition, the voice of Brilliance, giving us new ideas and solutions.

Many people are unaware that it is our thoughts that create our lives. We are creating all the time. Thoughts are ‘just thoughts’ until we put our attention on them, activating them into expression. If we are on auto-pilot we have abdicated our ability to choose what we create and are at the mercy of the media, advertising, our colleagues and our families, even our two-year olds. Just look around at the world today and see what extreme unconscious thinking creates.

We can change the world by learning to connect with and maintain our Brilliance. This can be done in many ways. Centering exercises like meditation and yoga help us to relax and be present. We can stay in the flow by being in nature, walking, running, playing basketball or engaging in any activity that puts us in the now. Smiling at yourself and others, laughing often, and celebrating every step of the way move us into higher vibrations.

Brilliance is the path we must take to experience higher consciousness.

When we become conscious of our thoughts and choose to put our attention on our Brilliant thoughts we elevate our expression and move into higher states of being. We truly can bring heaven to earth.

Back to Brilliance © 2011

Just before the holidays, we were guests on the GGM Radio program, Heart and Soul, with Rev. Bee Delozier. We have given links to this interview at the bottom of this note.

Awakening Light by Rob Adamso

In the interview we responded to a number of unique questions. Listen in and learn what motivated us to undertake the study of innate Brilliance that grew into the Brilliance Formula we promote today.

• Learn more about Brilliance and how to discover your own Brilliance.
• Understand your thinking process and how to avoid getting caught up in thinking about thinking.
• Learn the three basics to overcoming stress through the Brilliance connection.
• Find our how to access your own personal truth through Brilliance.

Recognize that Brilliance exists in the 5^th dimension. It transcends this world of duality. Explore how to resolve your thoughts and feelings to move into this state of expanded knowing.

Here is the link for you to listen to the interview now:

Because anger is so common in relationship problems, it needs attention.  To truly master our relationships, we need to master our feelings of anger. These feelings are easily triggered because of our conditioning and anger frequently hides deeper feelings we are afraid to share. Because our anger response often is harsh, explosive, and quickly gets out of control, it is imperative that we recognize its source.

Any negative feeling is attached to a pattern of thinking and belief about ourselves or others. Anger is attached to a thought, and a thought is just a thought until we give it life. The impact on relationships from anger—explosive, seething, sulking, or hostile—is devastating. Quiet anger is no less destructive than noisy anger. Whether anger is triggered by an old belief pattern or is purposely used to control others, it is a destroyer rather than a builder of relationships.

It is possible to master our feelings of anger. Any negative feeling is telling us to check our thinking. Anger is showing us that our thought system is in control and we’re out of control. We need to know our own flash points and learn to identify our early physical symptoms if we want to stop the process and avoid angry outbursts. If you find yourself clenching your teeth, tightening your fists, or shaking, take a deep breath, relax, and check your thinking. Ask yourself: Is making this thought right worth damaging my relationship with this person? Could I share this thought or resolve this situation another way without anger?

Once you gain the ability to catch your anger before it gets away from you and to look at the thoughts that are triggering your anger response, you’ll realize that these thoughts really weren’t all that important. They didn’t reflect your values. They weren’t justified. They certainly were not worth destroying a relationship.

Anger is a kind of rejection that pushes people away and resolves nothing. When we shift from the thought patterns behind the anger to our Brilliance, we receive the gift of acceptance. We can accept that we have different viewpoints, different experiences, and different realities. We may still have problems to resolve, but through our wisdom and understanding, we can access the best solutions. We can defuse our anger and create better relationships.

Excerpted in part from Activate Your Brilliance, Back to Brilliance ©2007.

Stress is epidemic with no relief in sight. Hundreds of books have been written, hundreds of drugs have been developed, and therapeutic programs flourish. We’re lost in the capitalism of stress.

There is a new approach that can stop stress in its tracks. When you understand thought and its creative power you can free yourself from its clutches. Your time belongs to you. Your bruises heal and your energy surges. Hope returns and your heart sings.

How Thought Works

The first step to eliminating stress in your life is to understand how thought works. Brain research shows that each half of our brain supports a unique function. The left brain is analytical, sequential, and organizes our lives. The right brain is associated with intuition and creativity. Author Richard Carlson gives the mind two distinct functions which correlate. The computer mind is that part of our mind which organizes and stores information. It collects all of our experiences, everything we have observed, and generations of family and cultural beliefs. It also stores our behavior habits, like brushing our teeth or driving the car, without our having to think much about it. Our transmitter mind connects us to our natural brilliance and creativity. It provides new answers and insights that move us to a new level of expression.

Our reality follows our thinking. When we’re thinking “aint it awful”, it seems awful! When we think “I’ll never get this done”, we probably won’t!  And when we think “Why are they doing this to me?” we give up our power and feel like a victim. Years ago Flip Wilson played a female character on his weekly television show. He wore a curly grey wig and a big housedress and strutted across the stage saying, “What you see is what you get – what you see is what you get!” This was a perfect metaphor for understanding how thoughts become things. The more attention we put on a thought, the quicker it becomes a reality.

So what is stress? Most people think stress is an event or circumstance in their lives that creates tension, anxiety or worry. When we see stress as something outside of ourselves, we tend to think there isn’t much we can do about it except live through it. There is a new view of stress. Even with physiological or mental stress related to a near accident on the road or the death of a loved one, there is a way to prevent long-term stress reactions. Stress is a feeling that comes out of what we are thinking. Shifting a thought is a simple solution to resolving stress. For example, when we shift “I’ll never get this done” to “I’ll do one piece today and get help with the rest tomorrow” the feeling of stress disappears. Stress is a feeling that comes from what we think about an event or circumstance; stress is not the event or circumstance itself. We can control the thoughts we pay attention to regardless of our circumstances.

Check Your Thoughts

The second step to eliminating stress is to identify the perceived cause of your stress by checking your thoughts. We use the word perceived here because our perceptions are filters of thought that we carry from past experience. Perceptions are the way things look, formed out of our conventional belief systems. Just because it looks a certain way, doesn’t mean it is. Here we’re talking about thoughts stored in our computer mind, thoughts connected with our past experiences. We are talking about our thoughts, interpretations, and perceptions rather than the event or circumstance that triggered our stress. When you are feeling stress and want to change that feeling you must learn to check your thoughts, the source of long-term stress.

Thoughts Become Things

Understanding that thoughts become things is the third step to eliminating stress. Today athletic trainers coach their athletes to visualize the success they want to achieve. They are taught to see every part of their performance from beginning to end in their mind’s eye, until it becomes second nature. Combined with strength training this process has pushed the envelope beyond all previous records. Anything becomes possible through this focused thinking. The average guy or gal, without this training, tends to focus more on worries and concerns than success. When you focus on the struggle to pay your bills, the conflicts in your relationships, and the insecurity in the job market, then you create that reality. Your bills will increase as will the conflicts in your relationships. Your job may end sooner than you’d like. It is really important to recognize how thinking correlates with the reality of our lives.

There is a parable about a famous landscape painting that has one small flaw down in a corner. At first glance the painting looks perfect and filled with beauty. Once the flaw is pointed out, for some, the painting loses its power. Because those viewers have focused on the flaw and lost sight of the incredible beauty of the whole, that beauty no longer exists for them. Our lives can be incredibly beautiful. When our thoughts magnify the flaws, we miss the beauty all around us.

We’ve all experienced feeling stressed, and stress has been so normalized by our culture and the media that we now expect to feel stress. It is up to us to choose if we want to live out our lives feeling stressed-out, irritable and cheated of the life we had hoped to have. Using this new approach to eliminating stress can give us the access and energy to reawaken our creative and lighthearted selves that are awaiting the chance to come out and play the game we call life at a higher and fuller level.

Excerpt from ACTIVATE YOUR BRILLIANCE, Back to Brilliance ©2007

When we have situations in our lives that could be precursors to stress we have been conditioned to solve those problems with the computer part of our mind. We go back into our storage banks to find a similar situation, and then pull it out and say “here’s the answer”.

Most often those old ways of dealing with things don’t apply in the new situation because we’ve grown and changed, and circumstances are different. Trying to meet today’s problems from the computer mind is a surefire formula for creating stress and distress.

There is another habit of the mind at play here. It is what we call thought attacks. When you are lost in spinning worries and concerns you are really having a thought attack. While your thoughts are circling around a worry, you aren’t going anywhere. But your life force and energy are being drawn into that whirlpool and being wasted. The more you can recognize and catch a pattern, the faster you can move to clarity and action.

Here’s an example of how thought attacks might occur.

• A sales person has often made sales and lost sales.
• They might receive a call that tells them a sale they had counted on was not going to occur. They might have thought “I was counting on that sale and it just fell through; I can’t believe it!”
• Then as they continue to think about the situation another thought might follow: “Oh my gosh, what am I going to do – I have all my bills plus the new car payment due in two weeks.”

Those two thoughts have created a momentum and they are off and running into the future:

• “Now I have to cancel the roof project on my house – and it will probably leak again this winter if the snows are anything like last winter” and
• “My spouse is going to be upset, big time upset!”
• “The economy is getting worse. The stupid politicians never get the stimulus packages going in time.”

When one thought is given a lot of attention, it can attract a dozen more of the same kind of thoughts. When this happens, one is caught in a full-fledged thought attack, with the computer mind fully in control.

Keep in mind, the chain of thoughts described above started with a message received in a two-minute phone call.  When we take the ride into a thought attack, anything else going on in our lives is up for grabs. We may be worried about our child, toddler or adolescent. Whether it’s their health or grades or attitudes, looking at any concern or worry often attracts the “maybe’s” and “could happen next” thoughts that lurk in our old patterns or in what we observe in the lives of others close to us. We are fueling thought attacks faster than the speed of light and feeling the stress that accompanies the growing numbers of spinning thoughts in our minds.

Our thoughts are the foundation for how we experience our lives. Once we know how thoughts create our lives, it is easier to understand how thoughts create our stress. We have a choice. We can either spin around in our worries and concerns, or we can learn to get back to our Brilliance, and access the thoughts that will create a life of satisfaction and ease.

Excerpt from Stop Stress Guide, Back to Brilliance © 2009

Our first response is to turn off the TV or blame someone or something for the horrible news. Perhaps you have thrown up your hands, like us, and said “How could they be so stupid?” or “How could someone do such a thing?” If we take the time to go to the next level of understanding and responsibility, we may find that we, too, are implicated; we, too, are a part of creating the world we see on our TV screens.

For every person slaughtered in a foreign genocide, we can identify a thought we have held – a thought that diminished another in order to raise our own esteemed status a little higher.  For every report of shaken baby syndrome and the subsequent shattered lives, we can locate that short but strong impulse to shake someone, to wake them up, to shut them up, that we have felt inside of us.

As the health care debate in congress continues, so does the tenor and tone of the accusations and discord. It looks like everyone is out there looking for the dirt on everyone else. All are hoping to gain some fame by broadcasting the inflammatory findings that will turn the tide, or at least make a big splash.

What is going on?  What do we need to understand at a new level? How can we create a world that is not distinguished by the most brutal events, but rather the most brilliant?

What IS going on? Our consciousness, the level and focus of our thoughts, beliefs, and feelings, is creating what we see around us. We tend to separate ourselves from these ‘bad’ events and we believe that we could not or never would engage in such occurrences.  Yet when we examine our thoughts in detail, we find that we engage in destructive habits of thinking every day.

We are part of the whole; we are connected to everything around us. We must change ourselves, our consciousness, before we can change the world.

There is more than we can see as this is a time of great change. There is a dynamic healing occurring as we come to understand that our thoughts contribute to the outer reality of life on earth. With our uplifted and expanded awareness of how it all works, we are creating this cleansing and healing. Much of the negativity that we perceive at this time is connected to this releasing of old habits of thoughts and patterns of being in the collective consciousness.

What do we need to understand at a new level? In all cases, we need to understand that everyone is doing the best they can with what they have. This understanding includes ourselves. We are all working with worn-out thought systems that need a fresh infusion of universal Brilliance. This natural Brilliance is what we breathe everyday, what we see as nature rejuvenating the earth in each season, and what is at the center of each atom that forms us.

How can we create a world of Brilliance? We need to be aware that as the dark clouds of old thinking dissipate, we have the opportunity to create a truly brilliant world. We are creating a world that reflects the best in each of us individually and collectively. This new understanding moves us into harmony with ourselves, and then with all of life.  The Time for Brilliance is NOW!

Now that we are adults, we get to play at the same game. Often we are playing unaware that we are pulling to us the aspects of life that we focus our thoughts on. It is quite amazing and is equal in accuracy to our childhood pastimes.

Now, what are we saying?  Take a look at your day’s high points and low points.  Jot down a few of the strongest elements of your day. Then ask yourself: “What thoughts did I pay attention to today?” and “How do these thoughts relate to the most memorable incidents of my day?”

We create the flavor of our day through our thinking as surely as a magnet will always attract metal.  Our accumulated thoughts, our Mindset, can be put to good use to create our lives.  Check everything around you – what does it look like, sound like, feel like? The quickest way to discover where your attention has been is to look around you. You have created this with the magnet of your mind.

P.S. You can always shift your focus and put your attention on what you want the most. This will surely change the picture of your life.

The experts say that we are designed to experience stress and react to it. Stress can be positive and intensify our awareness. If you have ever played soccer or softball or tennis or any competitive sport, you know this kind of stress is actually exhilarating and can bring out our best efforts.

However, the stress we feel from job pressures and demands is not exhilarating. The stress you experience when getting bad news about someone you love might feel like a ball of fire in your gut and a tightness that takes time to release. The stress many of us have felt in long-term bad relationships can even lead to emotional disorders because our chronic stress reactions haven’t been released or resolved.

In other words, the stress that continues unabated, that we can’t get relief from, becomes distress to our bodies. That’s the kind of stress we have to get a handle on. If we don’t, we face the consequences of anger, depression, high blood pressure, and many more health problems.

Statistics say that 60-90 percent of illness is stress-related. Would you like to avoid that statistical outcome? We have found that we can change our minds. In other words, we have to change what we are thinking to get some real freedom from long-term stress.

Let’s say you have a demanding and harsh boss who is high on criticism and low on positive acknowledgement. Over time you vacillate between being angry and complaining to others, to personalizing his/her behavior and thinking there is something really wrong with you or your abilities.

The tension, anger, anxiety and hopelessness spin around you. The job you thought was great has turned into a nightmare. And your friends and family are feeling the brunt of your unhappiness.

Can you step back and take a deep breath? Your boss is in charge of his/her behavior and his reaction is coming from his own set of beliefs and thoughts. Any number of people could have your job and be treated exactly the same way as you are being treated.

Can you change to a new thought: “I will do the best I can because I want to do my best”. “My boss doesn’t know how to handle stress and it’s not my fault”.

With new thoughts, you will experience some immediate relief in your reactions—less anger and tension. You have to be persistent in keeping your attention on these new thoughts. But changing your mind will bring more stress relief that you can imagine.

Can you stay in a poor work environment long term? That will be your decision. It’s hard in today’s workplace one may feel trapped by your need for a paycheck, health insurance or other benefits, and will put up with extremely negative conditions. You may feel uncertain as to what a next career move is and delay making a change. If the situation is intolerable, then looking for a new job could be your best plan.

Keep checking your thoughts and changing your mind whenever you are feeling stressed. If you don’t believe it will work, experiment with the little stuff that bothers you. Change your mind about how every little thing ‘should’ be and insert a new thought that is more flexible. Changing your mind works, if you work at it.