How You Think – Thinking About a Better Life is part three in a multiple-part series.
Thinking about a better life? We understand the physical laws such as if you plant a seed of corn, you will harvest corn or if you put your hand in a fire you will burn your hand. Unfortunately, many of us were never exposed to the idea that good thoughts will produce good results, bad thoughts will produce bad results, and ugly thoughts will produce ugly results. Results can be identified as feelings, actions, or the circumstances in which we live.
On the positive side, this truth is understood by many happy, healthy, and wealthy people.
It’s understood by people who have a better life.
When we are not living in alignment with this principle, we will suffer, and this can serve you. If you know something is wrong and you do it anyway, then you will feel some type of pain. If you want to make your life better, you will learn the lesson. When you live in accordance with the laws of pure thinking and living, you will no longer suffer. Allen gives us the example that there is no need to burn away the impurities found in unprocessed gold if that gold is already pure.
If you are living a wonderful and blessed life, it is the result of thoughts that are good and productive. If you are suffering, it is a result of your thought-created mental state that manifested itself into your present circumstance.
Thinking right will produce a blessed life consisting of pleasure, contentment, and good fortune. This life will be best enjoyed when your riches are used wisely and rightly.
A poor person lives a distressed life when they believe that they do not deserve the life they are living and place blame on others for their circumstances. They will continue to live this “wretched” life until they accept responsibility for the condition of their own life.
You were meant to live a life a happy, healthy, and prosperous life. If you can control your thinking, you can live a “rightly conditioned” life.
Indigence, which is a level of poverty in which real hardship and deprivation are suffered and comforts of life are wholly lacking, and indulgence, which is excessive or unrestrained gratification of one’s own appetites, desires, or whims are the two extremes of bad living. They are both equally unnatural and the result of mental disorders. You were meant to be happy, healthy, and prosperous.
You were meant to be happy, healthy, and prosperous!
You can begin to find the life that you were meant to live when you stop whining and complaining and cursing about the life you hate and begin searching for the truth about why you are not living the life you were meant to live. When you begin to learn why you are not living the life you were meant to live, you will stop accusing others for the life you are living. You will begin to think encouraging, supportive, and honorable thoughts that support yourself and others around you. You will stop pushing back against the circumstances, but find ways to use them to help you discover the assets you already possess. The deeper you go into this discovery of yourself the faster you will move toward the life you were meant to live.
The dominating principle in the universe: is not confusion, it is law. The soul and substance of life is not injustice, it is justice. The Devine force in the spiritual government of the world is not corruption, it is righteousness. This is the truth and all you have to do to understand it is to right yourself. During the process of changing your thinking towards other people and things, other people and things will change their thinking and actions toward you.
It is easy to prove the truth of this law. You can see it in so many other people who have discovered how changing their thinking helped them find the lives they were meant to live. When you deliberately begin the process of examining how you think, you will understand how your thoughts affect every part of your life. You will be amazed how fast this transformation will take effect in the mental and material conditions of your life. Many people believe their thoughts can be kept secret, but they cannot, our thoughts emerge into habits, and our habits result in the life we live.
Allen gave us this list of thoughts and what they bring as a result of us thinking them.
Negative thoughts:
- Bestial (no sense of right and wrong) thoughts crystallize into habits of drunkenness and sensuality (gratification of the senses), which solidify into circumstances of destitution and disease
- Impure thoughts of every kind crystallize into enervating (causing one to feel drained of energy or vitality) and confusing habits, which solidify into distracting and adverse circumstances
- Fear, doubt, and indecision crystallize into weak, unmanly, and irresolute (uncertain) habits, which solidify into circumstances of failure, indigence (a state of extreme poverty), and slavish dependence
- Lazy thoughts crystallize into habits of uncleanliness and dishonesty, which solidify into circumstances of foulness and beggary (a state of extreme poverty)
- Hateful and condemnatory thoughts crystallize into habits of accusation and violence, which solidify into circumstances of injury and persecution
- Selfish thoughts of all kinds crystallize into habits of self-seeking, which solidify into circumstances more or less distressing
Positive thoughts:
- Beautiful thoughts of all kinds crystallize into habits of grace and kindliness, which solidify into genial (friendly or cheerful) and sunny circumstances
- Pure thoughts crystallize into habits of temperance and self-control, which solidify into circumstances of repose (a state of rest) and peace
- Courage, self-reliance, and decision crystallize into manly (your best possible self) habits, which solidify into circumstances of success, plenty, and freedom
- Energetic thoughts crystallize into habits of cleanliness and industry, which solidify into circumstances of pleasantness
- Gentle and forgiving thoughts crystallize into habits of gentleness, which solidify into protective and preservative (non decaying) circumstances
- Loving and unselfish thoughts crystallize into habits of self-forgetfulness for others, which solidify into circumstances of sure (having no doubt) and abiding (lasting a long time) prosperity and true riches
If you persist in a series of thoughts, whether good or bad, those thoughts will produce your character and the circumstances in which you live. You cannot directly choose your circumstances, but you can choose your thoughts, so indirectly and as a matter of fact, you can shape the quality of your life.
The thoughts you encourage and persist in will cause you to see opportunities to make the subject of those thoughts realities. They can be good or bad thoughts and when good or bad opportunities present themselves, you will be more likely to take action because your subconscious mind will encourage you to take action.
“Let a man cease from his sinful thoughts, and all the world will soften towards him, and be ready to help him; let him put away his weakly and sickly thoughts, and lo, opportunities will spring up on every hand to aid his strong resolves; let him encourage good thoughts, and no hard fate shall bind him down to wretchedness (A very unhappy state of being) and shame.”
At every moment of your life, you will color your world with beautiful, magnificent, and ever-changing patterns of colors with your positive and empowering thoughts.
Allen ended this chapter with this poem:
”So You will be what you will to be; Let failure find its false content In that poor word, ‘environment,’ But spirit scorns it, and is free.
“It masters time, it conquers space; It cows that boastful trickster, Chance, And bids the tyrant Circumstance Uncrown, and fill a servant’s place.
“The human Will, that force unseen, The offspring of a deathless Soul, Can hew a way to any goal, Though walls of granite intervene.
“Be not impatient in delays But wait as one who understands; When spirit rises and commands The gods are ready to obey.”
The essence of this poem is simply that our thoughts will allow us to be what we want, no matter the environment from which we come. Our thoughts are the masters of our lives and we can achieve any goal even if there are barriers to our success.
All you have to do is to direct your thoughts to what you want and everything you dream of can be yours.
(To Be Continued)
The next part of the series is about how your thinking can and does affect your health.
Tom Monson is the publisher of Great Life Gazette and is an award-winning author, filmmaker, publisher, and educator.
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