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Not Just A Thought!

"Mun jite jag jeet"
To conquer the mind is to conquer the world.
- Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji

What we think about ourselves becomes the truth for us. Every thought we think is creating our future. Each of us creates our experiences by our thoughts and our feelings. The thoughts we think and the words we speak create our experiences.
No matter what the problem is, our experiences are just outer effects of inner thoughts. Even self-hatred is only hating a thought you have about yourself. You have a thought that says, "I’m a bad person." However, if you don’t have the thought, you won’t have the feeling. And thoughts can be changed. Change the thought, and the feeling must go.
This is only to show us where we get many of our beliefs. But let us not use this information as an excuse to stay stuck in our pain. The past has no power over us. It doesn’t matter how long we have a negative pattern. The point of power is in the present moment.
We may habitually think the same thought over and over so that it does not seem we are choosing the thought. But we did make the original choice. We can refuse to think certain thoughts. Look how often you have refused to think a positive thought about yourself. Well, you can also refuse to think a negative thought about yourself.
Stop for a moment and catch your thought. What are you thinking right now? If it is true that your thoughts shape your life, would you want what you were thinking right now to become true for you? If it’s a thought of worry or anger or hurt or revenge or fear, how do you think this thought will come back to you?
It is not always easy to catch our thoughts because they move so swiftly. However, we can begin right now to watch and listen to what we say. If you hear yourself expressing negative words of any sort, stop in midsentence. Either rephrase the sentence or just drop it.
Imagine yourself in line at a cafeteria, or perhaps at a buffet in a luxurious hotel, where instead of dishes of food there are dishes of thoughts. You get to choose any and all thoughts you wish. These thoughts will create your future experiences.
Now if you choose thoughts that will create problems and pain, that’s rather foolish. It’s like choosing food that always makes you ill. We may do this once or twice; but as soon as we learn which foods upset our bodies, we stay away from them. It’s the same with thoughts. Let us stay away from thoughts that create problems and pain.

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