Hello everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Mind Guy Podcast.  I’m going to tell you something, my ego took me out the past couple of years.  It really was a sneaky bugger.  I was on a good role with these episodes and then all of a sudden, bam, my negativity sunk me into a hole.  I’ve been doing a lot of personal work on myself and I can tell you I have learned a lot.  I learned that at a young age I developed this coping mechanism of going into my head as a means of avoiding my problems.  I thought the problems in my life would just go away if I ignored them and I can tell you that doesn’t work.  I learned that everyone thinks a different number of thoughts every day and some don’t have many and others have a ton, like me.  I am an excessive overthinker and I’ve created some new strategies to stop doing that.  I do want to get to this episode.  I want to share with you that you think you are your thoughts and I want to tell you that, you are not your thoughts

     We go through life and we have things pop in our head all the time.  We have this tiny little voice, or a big voice that says things to us and we listen to that voice.  Oftentimes we are going after things we want in life but this voice in our head tells us that we can’t have it.  The voice will say that I can’t do it or I am not capable and we listen to it, as if it’s true.  It’s not true.  Your ego is the one that brings all those thoughts into your head, it creates stories.  It is constantly making up things in order to prevent you from moving forward in life.  It’s not designed to be a bully, it just wants to keep you safe.  It thinks if it makes up a story it will protect you, by preventing you from putting yourself into a potentially dangerous situation.  For example, you might feel anxious about going to a networking event with other entrepreneurs, because you might say the wrong things, your ego doesn’t want you to feel disappointed or less than, so instead of opening a wound of hurt,  it uses anxiety to prevent you from going to the event altogether.  Those negative feelings are always associated with thoughts, the thoughts are filled with excuses, reasons why you shouldn’t go to the event.  One of those reasons might be, nothing will come from the event so let’s not waste our time and energy on this, let's focus on something else.  Let’s do something that will be more productive, even though networking is probably one of the best ways to grow your business. 

     We have 15,000-60,000 thoughts a day according to the national science foundation. That’s a lot of thoughts, if you listen to those thoughts, they are going to keep you stuck in life,  they are going to hold you back and it’s going to create suffering.  Everytime you engage in those thoughts it kicks you out of the present moment.  Those thoughts are either about the past or the future, yet life is happening in the now.  All the stories that your ego tells you, you have to remember that they are just not true, they simply, utterly are not true and you must not give those thoughts power.  The more you engage with the ego’s thoughts the further away you will be from what you want. I assure you.  

     Think about the single mother who lives paycheck to paycheck.  Near the end of the month that single mother is worried about how she is going to pay all the bills, how she is going to feed her kids, and without knowing it she is thinking about the future, and is filled with stress and anxiety, but she is also thinking about the times she didn’t have enough to pay for everything and that turned into a lot of disappointment and feelings of failure.  Here is the thing, all those stories she is telling herself, they aren’t doing her any good.  They are creating more of what she doesn’t want, yes wherever you put your attention and focus is what gets created.  It’s the law of attraction.  Negative emotions combined with negative thoughts, creates more of what you don’t really want.  We all do it unfortunately because we don’t realize that the voice in our head is our ego, it’s not us.  If we stay in a powerful resourceful state and stay present in the moment, the right solutions and actions will take place and the bills will get paid.  Yet we think we need to use the ego’s fear tactics in order to take action.  

     The ego is a reaction mechanism that brings a lot of unpleasant feelings and we don’t have to go there.  Instead we can handle our problems in a powerful resourceful state, like being assertive, calm, and confident.  This is the difference between successful and unsuccessful people is the state they are in.  If you can stay in a positive state as often as you can, everything will seamlessly work out for you, yes you will have problems, but the way you handle those problems will be much different than someone who remains in a negative state.  Chaos is not fun and if you are dealing with internal chaos, any problems you try to solve will also feel chaotic and likely take more time to resolve.  

     The things we have control over are not what they appear to be.  We are only truly in control of our internal worlds.  Your thoughts and emotions.  The way you behave and the way you act are a reflection of your internal world.  Life is going to happen and how you want to experience that life is really all you have control over.  Are you going to love it or hate it or something in between?  Everyone has problems, it’s just that people’s internal experiences are different when problems arise.  Some people avoid their problems.  Others love to solve problems, it makes them feel good about themselves.  Some resolve problems with a lot of anxiety, others do it quite calmly.       

     This is one of my favorite analogies of life.  What if you don’t really have control of what is going to happen in your life?  Yes, a lot of it you can predict, but you don’t know when the love of your life is going to break your heart, you can’t see that coming, or when a child will die, or if you come down with an unexpected illness, don’t worry you are safe and healthy now and for the rest of your days.  Here is the analogy.  Life is like a roller coaster ride.  The tracks are already laid out, the question is how do you want to experience the ride?  Do you want to be holding onto the rails, panicking and screaming for dear life or do you want to trust that you are safe and everything is going to be just fine the entire ride and you will be able to handle the unexpected flips and turns, therefore you can put your hands up cheering and smiling with joy?  This is what you have power over.  It’s the internal experience you have that makes it enjoyable or not. 

     Happiness is a state of mind and that is the truth, it truly is a state of mind.  Never forget that.  You could choose to be happy right now, although if you are engaging with your egoic thoughts, thoughts that are constantly looking for perceived threats in your environment or thoughts trying to make you better through guilt and shame, then it will be pretty hard to be happy. Even prideful thoughts which come from the ego is not the best feeling.  It’s a better feeling than guilt, but check the next time you are full of yourself, does that actually feel good at your core?  

     So what are you supposed to do?  It’s simple if you are willing to make the time.  You can just ignore those thoughts and stop paying them any attention.  You have to be diligent.  Just like picking berries in a blueberry patch it’s a very methodical and tedious process.  You have to remain aware of your thoughts and choose to disregard them.  I’m talking about those thoughts that bring pride and guilt, and negative emotions like anger, sadness and fear and those emotions come in many different forms, fear contains panic, terror, anxiety, worry, and stress.  Just as an example.  

     These are the thoughts that keep you from the present moment.  Everything is always working out for you in the present.  If you can get really good at being in the present moment then you will thrive in life.  Allow yourself to thrive and just be in the moment, things will always work out for you in that state.  I guarantee it.  That is the podcast. If you want to learn more about getting a 1-1 breakthrough session, a 10 hour process of clearing out the past in order to clear access for a bigger and brighter future, then you can go to the mind guy.net and book a consultation.  You can also go there to book a call if you are interested in the NLP Practitioner certification program and the mystery schooling workshop.  Both will blow your minds and will change your lives forever.