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This episode is for anyone who wants to expand their heart, Improve their empathy response or grow their self-awareness. I'll share a five-minute practice you can use to improve in all these areas.
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SHOW NOTES
Quotes:
“Be a master of the mind, not mastered by the mind.” Zen proverb
"Whatever we plant in our subconscious mind and nourish with repetition and emotion will one day become a reality." - Earl Nightingale
“Man conquers the world by conquering himself.” Zeno of Citium (Founder of Stoicism)
Resources:
The Strangest Secret book - by Earl Nightingale
The Strangest Secret video by Earl Nightingale.
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There’s a Zen proverb that guides us to, “Be a master of the mind, not mastered by the mind.”
Welcome to The Soul Podcast. I’m Stacey Wheeler.
This will be a toolbox episode. If you want to expand your heart, improve your empathy response, or grow your self-awareness. This episode is for you. Today I’ll share a tool to help you do all those things. And all it takes is a bit of self-awareness.
Earl Nightingale said, "Whatever we plant in our subconscious mind and nourish with repetition and emotion will one day become a reality." Nightingale is widely considered one of the fathers of personal development. His book, The Strangest Secret has been called one of the greatest motivational books of all time. I’ll share a short video of his famous speech on the The Strangest Secret in the show notes.
Nightingale’s message was always related to the idea that our minds control our destiny. Our thoughts steer our lives. He knew that our lives could be altered through our thoughts. And Nightingale was speaking from experience.
Earl Nightingale was born in Los Angeles in 1921. His father abandoned his mother around 1933, as The Great Depression gripped the United States. Earl was around 12 at that time and his mother relocated the family to a homeless encampment in Long Beach, California. When he was 17 Nightingale joined the Marine Corps -and by fate was on the USS Arizona during the attack on Pearl Harbor. He was one of fifteen surviving Marines aboard that day. He stayed in the Marine Corps through the conclusion of the war. In that time, he had developed a strong understanding of the power of attitude. He realized our thoughts guide our actions. And he understood that we determine much of our fate in life through the way we choose to think. He had become so successful by the time he was 35 he nearly retired at that young age. Instead, he shifted his focus and started telling people about his discovery that the power is in our hands -and in our minds.
Looking at this from a spiritual perspective, we can say that we’re put here in this place, in this body, as an opportunity to do our Soul’s best work. Is there any better tool to guide our Soul’s journey than the way we choose to think? So, today we’re going to look at a small thing you can do to control your outcomes. All this happened through recognizing your thoughts.
In this 1-day exercise you will intentionally recognize your thoughts and judgements of others. For one portion of the exercise go to a public place alone. Order a coffee, a snack or something else that will allow you to sit a while. Notice the people around you and recognize the thoughts that emerge. As each thought emerges remind yourself, “that though is me.” Every thought, concept, idea or judgement is a snapshot our self. Every thought you think is about you… not about the person who triggers the thought.
And you may suddenly recognize the things you reflexively think but don’t normally notice. And you may find that those thoughts are less than kind. Now (to be clear) I don’t want you to be unkind to yourself here. Don’t start to think unkind thoughts about yourself. Those too, are thought you should recognize… unkind thoughts of yourself as well as others. These thoughts aren’t healthy. But they are useful.
They are useful because being aware of your thoughts allows you to reprogram the way you approach the world through your thinking. And reprogramming is simple. All you must do is recognize and release the unhelpful thoughts as they come up.
Are the thoughts Judgmental? Sexist? Racist? Do you look at some people with pity? It’s vital to be honest with yourself. It’s okay to have the reaction you’re having to people. But you must recognize the thoughts and release the judgements.
While writing this I did this exercise. For 1 minute I wrote down one word that came up each time I saw another person pass by the window where I sat. The words that came up were:
Old, Sad, Gay, Friendly, Pretty, Criminal, Lonely, Grandpa, Sweet, Homeless, Smart and Genuine.
Do this exercise for a minute and see what happens.
Recognize the negative words that emerge. Then ask yourself if you have any judgements about yourself in those words that emerged. This is especially helpful in the words you see as negative or judgmental. In my list I recognize someone I reflexively think of as old, and the word Grandpa pops up when I see a father of a young child who is older man. I recognize the word Grandpa is a judgment of him having kids as an older man. It is uncomfortable to recognize but I must admit that those are also judgments about how I feel about getting older. It is a projection of my own stuff on others. I could go down the list and pick out elements of myself that I judge and project. IN doing this I bring those things to light and I’m able to them be aware as they surface in the future.
But doing this exercise one time is not enough. You must consistently steer your mind to change the course of your thinking. But it doesn’t take much time. Do this exercise for 1-2 minutes a week. Just long enough to create a list of at least ten words (the more words the better). Then sit with those words and ask yourself what projections you have of yourself, which are creeping into your judgments of others.
ADVANCED TECHNIQUE –
One you’ve done this exercise, recognize and notice the kind things you wrote and consider the people you wrote those things about. Notice how the people you think kind thoughts of are attractive to you in a way. Just as the people you wrote the negative things about are repellant in a way. I wrote the words: pretty, friendly, sweet, smart and genuine about five people I saw. And each of those people were someone I saw as likeable. A person I felt I could have a conversation with. While the people I felt harsher thoughts about were not people I would want to talk with. Our kind thoughts are what we want to expand. The way we do that is by recognizing the then releasing the judgements we carry about ourselves. When we do that, we start to drop the judgements we have of others.
I challenge you to do this exercise four times. You can do it once a day or once a week. It should take no more than five to ten minutes each time. One or two minute to write down your words as you see people and the rest of the time to analyze your thoughts around the words that came up.
Journal if you like. It’s been shown that writing helps you lock in ideas more. Thoughts sometimes don’t stick. Writing helps your observations stick. It leaves a stronger memory on your brain when you are more actively involved in thought.
So, do it today. See what happens. And let me know in the show notes how it works for you.
Zeno of Citium said,
“Man conquers the world by conquering himself.”
Today, recognize and start to conquer your thoughts.
