Wellness Journalism: The Power of Thought

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Contemplations on the power of thought

Thoughts are your consciousness interface with the environment. If you begin to watch your thoughts, you’ll notice that your thoughts can generally be divided into two camps: productive thoughts and consumptive thoughts. Productive thoughts are those which create, build up, encourage, look forward, motivate, or inspire. Consumptive thoughts, on the other hand, tear down, discourage, or cast judgment. They tend to be self-destructive, self-defeating, or self-discouraging.

Consumptive thinking is not efficient—in fact, it’s usually not even logical. Yet for some reason, consumptive thoughts have a way of eating at the mind, costing a lot of valuable energy, eroding at mental vitality. You mind is a garden and your thoughts are your seeds. Will you harvest flowers or weeds?

When you can hear yourself think, you can begin to identifying that which supports your well-being and happiness, and drive your decisions accordingly. Maybe you pursue a career that you love because you think you deserve it and can do it well, instead of choosing a job for security because you figure your bills will be paid. Perhaps you decide to be single because you’re discovering and defining yourself on your own terms, and not according to what a potential partner may want.

Then there is that magical moment when you catch yourself thinking you can’t do something, only to remind yourself that you can. Remember “The Little Engine That Could?” We encounter this story frequently as children, but it seems to drift into the past as we emerge into a world where the messages of society do not always reinforce this lesson. We learn instead that “life is hard.” This can make things difficult. In fact, life doesn’t have to be a crisis—though it can certainly be a challenge. Think of it as something to rise to instead of resign to.

Having the freedom to think—and flexing your power—is at the heart of Intellectual Wellness. Reserve the right to your thoughts. The potency of free-thinkers is so strong that oppressive governments over the course of history have feared them; “intellectuals” were persecuted, even killed. Those who dared to contradict the system were disempowered and disenfranchised. You are in the university, a naturally occurring think-tank. Explore.

Finally, thoughts are not predetermined. You are not destined to think tomorrow what you thought yesterday. If there is an area of your life you aren’t happy with, consider changing the way you think about it. Remember: what you think determines your feelings, behaviors, actions, decisions—it steers the course of your life. To maximize your mileage, optimize your thoughts.