Lesson: Thought Training
We can train our minds just like we train our bodies.
The brain is a muscle. Thought patterns, like all muscle movement patterns, can be practiced and trained.
Remember the last time you watched your favorite team win a game? Or got freaked out by a horror movie? Or imagined something bad happening to someone you love?
What was that like?
Specifically, how did your body react?
Maybe your heart beats faster. You start sweating. Feeling excited or anxious, as if you were actually scoring that winning goal, or running away from the guy with the axe.
When, in reality, those things were imagined. Nothing was really happening to you.
Whether the event is real or imagined, the responses in the body are the same. Those body responses are real.
The brain uses the same parts to imagine things as it does to actually experience them. To the brain, thoughts, observations, and emotions are always reality.
The mental game is powerful
The "mental game" means: What are you imagining? What thoughts are you focusing on?
The mental game is critical in reaching goals.
If you focus on your destination and mentally rehearse how you're going to get there, you're more likely to succeed.
If you focus on being a problem-solver, someone who meets challenges with resilience and creativity, that's what you will be.
On the other hand, if you focus on "failures" or setbacks (whatever you imagine those to be), your body and behavior will respond. Negative thinking could leave you feeling physically paralyzed or stuck.
You can change your thoughts.
With practice, the patterns you have of beliefs, thoughts, and perceptions of the world can all be changed.
The practice can start with questions:
What thoughts and mental images am I creating?
Do they help me?
Are they focused on success and resilience?
When I dwell on them, how does my body respond?
This is a practice of taking ownership of your mental environment and the reality it creates.
