This morning while getting ready for the day I was listening to a show with inspirational music and thoughts called Music and the Spoken Word. There is something really fabulous about starting your day off with beautiful music and inspiring words. It definitely helps you get into the right frame of mind to face the day ahead. As they were closing the broadcast they shared the following message “Don’t believe everything you think.” I had been expecting them to finish that sentence off with the words “you hear” so it caught my attention when the end of the sentence was “you think”. Here is a portion of what they shared:

“We’ve all heard the wise advice “Don’t believe everything you hear.” But there’s also wisdom in a similar idea: “Don’t believe everything you think,” because some false information may come from our own thoughts. We may think things about ourselves and others that simply are not true—thoughts like “I can never change” or “I can’t forgive this person” or “I’m not good enough” or “She doesn’t like me.” The danger of such thoughts is that they don’t stay thoughts for long. They can quickly harden into beliefs that affect the way we see the world. Soon those beliefs become actions that can limit our progress, damage our relationships, and hinder our happiness.”

They went on to say that when we have thoughts about ourselves or others we really need to ask ourselves if that thought is actually true or not, and we need to ask ourselves if we have evidence to support that its true, and we need to ask ourselves if there could be some other explanation rather than the negative thought we are having?

Far too often we allow negative thoughts to enter our head due to fear and/or insecurity, and often times we’ll even allow our thoughts to be on worst case scenarios when the reality isn’t anything even slightly close to that. Which is why the advice they shared today is so helpful. We DO need to force ourselves to rethink our negative thoughts before we accept them as truth. We need to always be willing to consider other, more positive explanations.

They ended their broadcast by asking if it is time we debunk the myths in our own minds?…I say yes, it is! And doing that would be the perfect way to start off this new week – debunk the myths and remember, “Don’t believe everything you think.”

Have a great Monday everyone!

~Amy Rees Anderson