Don’t think about an orange monkey.
I think this might have been the statement that changed my life. No joke.
Language is powerful. I realized, without a doubt, that almost everything that I said in my head and out loud was wrong.
This may seem like an exaggeration. But, it is true. I was thinking and speaking in opposition to what I wanted to achieve. I was designing a future that I didn’t want.
Your brain cannot process negatives. Let’s take the example, “Don’t think about an orange monkey”, you first have to think about an orange monkey and either cross it out in your mind or think about it and then insert another image.
The statements in my head had went like this…
“I don’t want to fail.”
“I don’t want —– in my life.”
“I can’t have chips, pizza, chocolate!”
If you look at those statements, realize that your mind makes a mental image of each one. In reality your brain processes each statement as a picture. Each picture elicits an emotion, then formulates a suggestion. It was my own negative self-suggestions that my mind translated into these statements.
“I want to fail.”
“I want —- in my life.”
“I want chips, pizza, chocolate!”
Well you get the picture. I got absolutely everything that I didn’t want. You see what your mind focuses on tends to be realized. You have to think about what you want, not what you don’t want. Create your reality by fantasizing your goals as images in your mind. See it, hear it and feel it, and generate a real emotional responses to what you really want to achieve. Your mind perceives this as actually real and fixates on making it happen.
So rewind in your mind…Do you ever remember fixating on a negative suggestion like I did?
Have you ever worried about failing a test…? And then you failed the test. Thought about a food that you shouldn’t eat …and then you ate the food. Worried about lack of money…and then you had no money.
You can never eradicate negative self-talk completely. You are human after all. But, it is far healthier to acknowledge the negative thought and let it go, then replace the thought with what you want. This is simply thought recognition. Everything you think and imagine is suggestion. So make sure what you are thinking and imagining is congruent with what you want.
The simplest, and one of the easiest ways to begin formulating useful suggestions for yourself is taking what you don’t want and changing it to what you do want. Ask yourself what you often say or think to yourself. Is it what you want? Or if you are indecisive as to what you do want, you can just acknowledge that what you are thinking is not useful and ask yourself what the opposite of that suggestion is. Create suggestions around what your goals are, or what you really want your life to be like.
Building Basic Suggestion
Keep it simple – Keep your suggestions a simple as you would tell a small child.
- Be specific – State what you want.
- Make it present – Make the suggestions in the now.
- Attach emotion – Make the suggestion emotionally significant.
- Make it a picture – Use phrasing that makes a mental image or picture in your mind.
- Eliminate negatives – Keep the suggestions positive. Eliminate can’t, don’t, won’t etc.
Repetition – Get in the habit of repeating, it is the mother of all learning.
The Golden Key
It is irrational to believe that you can just use suggestions and change your life. Positive thinking, suggestion and self-talk is only the beginning pieces of the puzzle. You cannot design and create the life you want by simply thinking about it. The magic is in the ACTIONS you take AFTER you give yourself the suggestion of success, or suggestions of what you want!
The key to YOUR success is DOING the suggestions! Go create and DO! Take action on your future Now!
