By Leah E. Reinhart
What is Intentional Thinking
Intentional thinking is simply, thinking on purpose, not letting our brains run a muck. Our brains are very powerful and is constantly thinking and processing information from everything surrounding us. Because of this, most of us aren’t intentionally thinking about anything. Most of us may be responding to what ever stimuli is demanding immediate attention. So what is this “intentional thinking” I’m writing about, one might ask? It’s about you deciding what to types of thoughts you want roaming around in your brain and if they are enhancing your life.
Anxiety is one of most common diagnosis out there. With all the latest pills to control anxiety, it doesn’t seem to go away. (I am, by no means, downplaying mental illness and chemical imbalances and if you’re suffering from anxiety please see a medical professional to get help). Most people describe anxiety as a deep fear around thoughts that won’t shut up and promote fear-based thinking with every negative “what if?” scenario, creating mental and physical anguish. This happens most when you’re tired, hungry, or as a reaction to a unpleasant experience (not talking about major chemical imbalances in the brain). All of us can relate. One might ask how to snap out of it when life is crumbling down around you? I didn’t say it was easy.
Life is Falling Apart
Of course it’s easiest to think on purpose when life is going smoothly, but what happens when a major incident strikes your life? You get caught up in a scam, you get dumped, you lose your job, or the worst, you lose a loved one? There’s plenty more that can go wrong in life, these are just a few of the common ones used as examples. Each of these scenarios can have a catastrophic emotional impact.
You will need to feel your feelings because nothing good comes from stuffing them. At some point they will need to be released and if they aren’t, they can show up in your health or attitude. That doesn’t mean you forget, it means that you can move forward. The hard truth is your life is important and the world needs what you have to offer or you wouldn’t be here. The next hard truth is no one can fix you, except you.
I’ve been on this planet almost 55 years and you can’t be here that long without facing scenarios like the ones I mentioned, in fact I think I’ve experienced all of them, ugh. What helps me during a time of frustration is searching for a solution. Focusing on a solution rather than the problem is how I can move forward. It keeps me from being stuck in the hamster wheel of unhelpful thoughts. That is an example of intentional thinking.
You Can’t Change the Past But You Can Change Your Mindset
The Power of Now is one Eckhart Tolle’s best sellers. It talks of learning how to live in the now. Think about for a moment. Remember from previous blogs, your brain doesn’t know the difference between the past or the future. It only lives in the present. So why do we live almost everywhere but the present? Living in the past can cause great depression by reliving trauma from either childhood trauma, a relationship that soured, getting into legal trouble or plain trouble, or worse, being responsible for someone’s death, or a death of a family member, friend, or child.
All of the examples are traumatic. And we cannot change anything in the past and there is a time to grieve and process those traumatic experiences. What we can do in the future, (much easier to say than to actually do) is live in the moment by intentionally being present in your current situation, where none of your past lives. Meaning all of those negative things aren’t happening in that specific moment.
If you must relive your traumas of your past, do it with the intention of learning. Did you learn how to avoid legal troubles by not breaking the law? Are you so stuck on the person that broke your heart that you can’t allow someone else to come into your life that is possibly better? Some things are much harder to get over than others. That’s why it is imperative that one should learn how intentional thinking works. You are the operator of your brain which controls thoughts. Not the other way around. If you don’t get ahold of your thoughts, your past will continue to haunt you leaving you depressed and feeling helpless.
The Future Can Bring Excitement or Anxiety
I tend to live more in the future than the past. That’s my go-to. The future offers me hope and is a much better place than my past. Yet, I realize the future can be a great catalyst for anxiety for some people. The future is full of the unknown, causing panic. After all, fear of the unknown scares or worries a lot of people.
One way to calm those nerves is, at least for me, to set goals. I have a lot on my list and I’m not the type of person that doesn’t mind if I don’t complete every task on the list, so this isn’t for everyone. When I write goals or work on a vision board or meditate or pray for what I want, I’d say I get what I asked for about 80% of the time. When I don’t get something, it’s usually the Universe pointing me in a better direction. Believe me, it can be really trying. With a little patience, something I struggle with, things have a way of working out in the end.
Your Brain Doesn’t Know Past or Future
The best part of now or the present is you can put your intentions on what it is you want. It can be anything and extravagant as you’d like. Dream big. Your brain doesn’t know if it’s actually happening or not. There’s been studies on athletes that visualize and how it’s helped them in competitions.
I have a client that has a PhD in neuroscience and I asked her why so many people have depression or anxiety while being on medicine. They answered that it isn’t the meds not working, but the thought patterns haven’t changed or been filled/replaced with other thoughts. We live in a world of duality. There’s good and there’s bad and everything in between. With that being said, the negative scenarios that I addressed in the previous paragraphs isn’t your whole entire life. There has to be good in it somewhere where memories from the past that are joyous. It’s time to bring those memories up and focus on those than the depressing ones.
The Truth about Thoughts
The truth about thoughts are that you can only have one at time. And for those with ADHD, you may have rapid fire thoughts, but there is only one thought at a time nevertheless. There are going to be times when you feel helpless and sometimes when your are empowered. We all know which ones feel better. One thing to note here is that you can’t control spontaneous thoughts when they first appear, but you can recognize them for what they are and go from there.
It has been said that there are only two basic emotions, Fear and Love, which makes sense to me. (I don’t know if that’s actually true). Every emotion you feel is defined by that with a spectrum. Emotions are energy in motion. Thoughts have energy like anything else. Negative thoughts that cause anxiety or depression are coming from a place of fear; hate, sadness, lethargy, anger, jealousy, superior, inferior, are all rooted in fear. The opposite it true for positive thoughts creating hope and inspiration; energy, passion, excitement, joy, happy, confident, happy for others, are all rooted in love.
Living in a World of Duality
We are a whole person living in a world of duality, which means we are capable of experiencing the exact opposite emotion of whatever emotion we are feeling; i.e. if we are the sweetest, kindest, and thoughtful person, you are capable of being the coldest, meanest, and uncaring person, because that makes you whole. You can’t have light without dark, etc. With this knowledge, we must consciencely or think purposefully on whether we chose to come from a place of love or fear.
Incidents may require us to come from a place of aggression which comes from fear. We are designed to have self-preservation from harm. Duality isn’t defined by good or bad. I think that’s a human condition, to judge. Just because something is dark, like the night, is that defined as bad? Same goes for light. Like the day, is only good? They just are. We’re the ones that attach emotions and labels.
Wonder if we took an experience that triggered great remorse or sadness all those things rooted in fear and turned that experience into a positive learning experience, or use your story to help someone else as they are going through their negative experience. That’s how you can come out of fear-based thinking and fall into a love-based one. It all starts with an intentional thinking.
On the Lighter Side
Okay this has been a bit heavy, but I wanted to address the deeper topics so you wouldn’t think I was only talking about life being peachy every day and that magical thinking will make all of your dreams come true. We know that’s simply not the case. Life is messy at times. And you won’t get out of this life without experiencing some negative moments.
But look at all the positive things that come out of intentional thinking. Great inventors came up with solutions to problems and have made our lives easier. You don’t think that someone was fed up with washing clothes on a washboard? Now we have washing machines and I bet that was designed out of frustration. And look at our lives now and how great the inventor must’ve felt knowing how he contributed to making life easier for the many. Again, not all problems have to end without a happy ending.
Like I said earlier in this blog, you are the only one that can fix your life, there is no other truer statement in this blog. We are in this world for some reason or another and this world does not adapt to you. You must adapt to it. Learning how to think intentionally gives you power. When you look for solutions on what you seek, you will find them. It takes patience, because things or manifestations have their own gestational period. Opportunities or people will come your way.
I’ve talked about the reticular activation system in previous blogs; where our brains have to decipher which information to absorb, by taking in what’s important to us at the time. Think of when you buy a new car, then you see that same car and color everywhere. It’s not that people love your style, it’s just you’re noticing those cars because of it being on your mind.
Building New Habits Are Possible with Effort
Building new habits will take time and effort on your part. I happen to be one of those people that wake up happy and excited for the new day. I’ll stay pretty happy until something brings me down, which I feel lucky to be born with. I realize many people don’t wake up excited for the day or happy and have a hard time getting excited or trying something new. Those personality types will have to work harder to develop some new habits.
You can lead a horse to water and make them drink it, is contrary to most beliefs. You have to change their environment and have some patience to get them to do it. Deprive the horse of water and put them in a hot stall, and they’ll drink the water. If you are uncomfortable enough in your situation, you will want to make some changes. Unfortunately, it takes hard situations to want to change for many. You know about rock bottom? But rock bottoms are not always necessary to motivate change in a person. My motivation came from my clients. I’d ask them questions about themselves and how they had made their lives. People love to talk about themselves. That’s one way to get your brain thinking.
Nowadays there are plenty of ways to gather information. YouTube, TikTok, Google, Etc. If you want to have more charisma, start by thinking how someone with charisma acts. Then mimic those traits or actions. If you want to be rich, research what rich people do and a how they started. You’ll be amazed at the download of information and ideas you’ll receive when you give your brain a specific topic. It may feel weird to mimic someone at first, but once you do this daily, you’ll develop this new habit. They say it takes 28 days to develop a habit and 90 days to hard wire it into your brainwaves and synapses.
Anyone Can Do This
By focusing and researching topics or things about a life you desire, is thinking on purpose or intentionally. By doing this exercise, you won’t have time to think of every depressing moment in your life. Again, you can only have one thought at a time. You might even begin to feel excitement throughout your body, which feels way better than lack of motivation or jealousy.
Anyone can do this. It isn’t magic or only for those :deserving” it. We all have the same amount of hours in a day, we are all exposed to tons of negative information daily, we’ve all had a less than desirable job at one time, and some will experience more tragedy. With information at our fingertips, we have the power to control what we let enter our minds. We all can feel in our bodies if something is making us motivated or dragging us down. You have a choice. I’ve turned my life around many times. If I can do it, anyone can.
In my memoir Manifesting Me: A Story of Rebellion and Redemption I explain when I noticed how to use the power of intentional thinking. Click on the links below to get a copy on this site or Amazon.
https://wellnessgardentoolshed.com/product/manifesting-me-a-story-of-rebellion-and-redemption/
It’s not only moving that creates new starting points. Sometimes all it takes is a subtle shift in perspective, an opening of the mind, an intentional pause and reset, or a new route to start to see new options and new possibilities.
Kristin Armstrong
I hope this helps enables people to find their own power and control of their feelings and desires. Feel free to share it with someone you think might benefit. Thank you for taking the time to read this blog. Let me know what you think in the comments. Cheers.
