We all have a mind. And we all use a mind.

But, the majority of us are using our mind wrongly in ways we don’t realise. That’s because we do it every single day as an unconscious habit so that we barely notice it. Thinking that has developed into an unhealthy pattern.

Some limit us very little. Personal trains of thought that can be annoying or quirky but do no overall harm. There are others though that change everything. They kill our hopes, depress our moods, and redefine our life to the negative. Of these, there are 3 keys ways we use our mind wrongly that keep us stuck on the floor rather than climbing much higher.

So, read on and see if you too use the trouble making three in your mind.

Like most people, chances are you do.

1. They believe their thoughts.

It is a modern myth that thoughts can’t be stopped.

The belief (a thought in itself) is that the thoughts are created by the mind which is formulating them all on its own. It’s like a ghost in the machine and out of control. The result are thoughts we don’t like or agree with but have to accept. We are victim to them rather than the owner of them.

That idea couldn’t be more wrong.

Thoughts are generated from our own patterns of thinking. Over time this develops strong neural pathways across areas of the brain like a trail worn away through the woods due to regular use. Without realising every time we have a negative or dismissive or despondent thought, the neural pathway is triggered to fly these to our conscious awareness. The response to this trigger are thoughts that seem to come from nowhere we believe we don’t want. Except we effectively delivered them in the first place.

The good news therefore means as we started the whole ball rolling, we don’t have to believe them at all. We might have changed our viewpoint since we constructed our previous neural messages or circumstances may have changed from when they were initially formed. Or perhaps we have just matured up. We can always change what we want back again. Simply keep telling yourself when a thought pops in that you don’t like, ‘I don’t believe that, I believe this’, and add the new thought then and there in its place. Replace, renew, reinstall.

You will be on your way to building new neural pathways with every new thought you have like adding a brick to a sturdy wall.

2. They use them to fear rather than to imagine.

The future hasn’t happened yet, so what will happen?

A question first encountered by our neanderthal ancestors as they fumbled their way through early Earth. For them though there was a very real prehistoric threat that they would end up as some creatures dinner. It’s pretty obvious we don’t live in such times anymore. Well, not physically, but mentally many people still do.

Modern mindsets remain in threat mode on a virtual permanent basis. They have become overstimulated due to 24 hour news, the negative media, fake social media posts, constant world issues that now effect local lives, and a general worry about where life is going. Fear has become their not very good friend. The one their mind spends far too much time in the company of.

Remember, the mind can be directed.

It obeys what we use it to look for. And it’s looking for not the very best. With constant everyday use at seeking the wrong, the worrying, the dangerous, and the problematic, it has become skilful at finding them. Or to be more exact, finding them when they are not even there. Thus we live in a mindset of vague concern and background trepidation forever anticipating some downfall is coming. We hear T-Rex’s hunting for us.

The mind needs to be reversed. If we can see all manner of potential harm it can also be switched to finding all manner of possible good fortune. It’s only a matter of guiding the mind to see where the sun could shine and not where the dark clouds could gather. They are one and the same just the other way round.

Let the mind wander to imagine the best and beneficial, the fantastic and the fantasy.

It’s good for our health, good for our mind, and very good for our future.

3. They use it for the trivial.

We typically have 30,000 thoughts a day.

That’s a lot. It seems a lot more when you consider that at least 75% of those thoughts are often of the same variety. And that variety, when not relating to concerns as mentioned above, are usually centred around the unimportant and trivial.

We waste our head space with thinking that just doesn’t matter to our lives.

You know the sort. Hey, you may have the sort. Frustrated with traffic. Down about the weather. Work colleagues being annoying. Our sports teams performances. Politicians we don’t like. A favourite TV show has changed times on the schedule. Busy at the supermarket on the days we are free.

In the big scheme of things (having a better life), they are basic and negligible for ruining our future. They mind wind us up, but they ae hardly earth shattering. Everyday pains rather than major hurdles to happier life.

We focus our minds so much on the trivial it hasn’t got time or a chance to start contemplating something different. Something like following up our ideas for a business, working on investing to retire early, writing the book or the music we always wanted to, and other various good life building actions.

The mind can’t work well when it’s held prisoner by minor nothings. It works best and most potently when it’s free to fly to greater possibilities.

Dump the dump thinking, harness the higher mindset.

Three to be free.

There’s your three to be free.

Three antidotes to bad mental activity. Three keys to developing a mind that’s going to help you, not hold you back. Get your head back in the good game by using your mind for what it’s meant for. Potential, advancement, and progress. There’s another three, the three you will end up with if you get started today and using the mind right.

Why wait, your future will only be waiting if you do.

Photo attribute – free to use under the Pixabay content license by martymaine.