Here is why you have to think about what you are thinking. Daily!

“Thoughts are real, physical things that occupy mental real estate. Moment by moment, every day, you are changing the structure of your brain through your thinking. When we hope, it is an activity of the mind that changes the structure of our brain in a positive and normal direction.”
― Caroline Leaf, Switch On Your Brain: The Key to Peak Happiness, Thinking, and Health

It’s real physical matter

The idea we have about thoughts is that it is “nothing”. It is something floating in the air. More importantly, it is something out there. Not in our minds. It “pops” into our minds. Cartoon and comic book characters have this thinking bubble hanging over them and then their thoughts are in them.

This may have created the idea that thoughts are outside us. Something we do not have control of. I know you can see it in your mind now. It’s those thinking bubbles that look like clouds. It usually is those two small “clouds” and then the big cloud with the thoughts in it. Do you see it?

The more you think about it, excuse the pun, the more you understand that thinking must be “something”.

Thoughts are what then?

Thoughts are basically electrochemical reactions. Here is an explanation by an expert.

“They’re really just electro-chemical reactions — but the number and complexity of these reactions make them hard to fully understand…” –Elizabeth Dougherty, MIT School of Engineering

We have about 100 billion nerve cells (neurons) and they are interconnected by trillions of connections called synapses. These connections transmit about one signal per second. There are specialized connections that send up to 1000 signals per second. Do the math on that one!

“Somehow… that’s producing thought,” says Charles Jennings, director of neurotechnology at the MIT McGovern Institute for Brain Research.

There is a lot of debate about what thoughts are but basically, it is an electrochemical reaction. So it is something psychical happening. It’s not just a bubble somewhere.

Can you control your thoughts?

The age-old question. Do our thoughts control us or do we control our thoughts?

When our body receives a stimulus we usually start a thinking pattern. If you smell food you automatically start thinking of food, sometimes you even get hungry. Certain food smells even create emotions.

But what happens after that initial stimulus and thought?

This is a study field on its own. How to control our thoughts. We know that there are many thoughts going through our minds every minute. Some are unconscious. Only a few get to the surface. So what do we do with those we are aware of?

If a soldier goes into battle and sees blood, destruction, and mayhem does he flee? Why not? Yes I know it’s his job but also he has been trained and most importantly trained how to think.

The paramedic at an accident scene helps he does not just look away or run away. He has been trained on how to think in that situation. Because of his thinking, he is doing. The bystander is frozen by shock. The paramedic is saving the life. Yes because of his training but also how he was taught to think during his training.

Create your world

The latest research supports the notion that we have a natural ability to change the brain and body by thought alone, so that it looks biologically like some future event has already happened. Because you can make thought more real than anything else, you can change who you are from brain cell to gene, given the right understanding. – Joe Dispenza

You can create your world with the way you think. This sounds so abstract and airy-fairy. Something you may hear from a world-famous motivational speaker or a backyard soothsayer. Not believing either one of them deeply truly fundamentally.

Dr. Caroline Leaf is a cognitive neuroscientist with a Ph.D. in Communication Pathology and a BSc Logopaedics, specializing in cognitive and metacognitive neuropsychology. She is a bestselling author, mental health & mind expert, and researcher. Dr. Leaf is also one of the first in her field to study how the brain can change (neuroplasticity) with directed mind input.

One definition of neuroplasticity is that it can be described as brain plasticity, neuroplasticity, or neural plasticity, it is the ability of the brain to change continuously throughout an individual’s life.

Build the positive highways in your head

If you realized how powerful your thoughts are, you would never think a negative thought. Peace Pilgrim”
― Caroline Leaf, Switch On Your Brain: The Key to Peak Happiness, Thinking, and Health

If you want to change certain things in your life you can. It starts with your thinking. Not easy but doable. Start building that positive neuro-pathways. Strengthen those positive thoughts how fragile they may be.

Be aware of how you think and what you think.