Thoughts are Things
Posted on: Wednesday, November 9th, 2005Comments: 0
My wife and I had dinner with some close friends the other night; Renee and Greg. The food was fantastic. The company was even better. But the best part of the night was hearing a brilliant quote from Renee. Now, this is a highly motivational woman. Greg and Renee are business owners who are all about spreading enthusiasm and optimism. They have “can do” attitudes that will undoubtedly spread to their four children.
During the night, Renee shared an expression she uses in her home to immediately combat negativity. She responds to any negative remarks with “Remember, thoughts are things.” It struck me instantly. Thoughts are things. It emphasizes the power of thoughts. It takes thoughts out of the category of intangible…invisible…even harmless. Thoughts are things. It forces us to appreciate the significance and power of thoughts. It reminds us that they’re physical. Thoughts are chemical reactions in our brains. They’re the magical interaction or intersection of all kinds of currents and impulses and tissue and cells in our brain that shape us. Little by little our own thoughts can change the people we are, the way we think, the way we look at the world, the way we feel about people and opportunities. Above all, thoughts are not intangible. Thoughts don’t merely arise out of nothing and float around without actual creating physical change in our brains. Thoughts are things.
And since children’s brains can be changed more deeply and profoundly than the brains of adults, the right thoughts are more valuable to them than to us. Creating a positive environment to promote positive thoughts is far more important to our children than to us. So not only have I stolen Renee’s brilliant quote, but I’ve begun a conscious campaign to eliminate negativity from our home.
We have already created an enthusiastic and positive environment with our motivational “A Girl Named Pants” posters and children’s books for girls (www.agirlnamedpants.com). But creating a positive environment doesn’t necessarily mean that some potentially negative situations won’t arise. And since thoughts are things, negative situations can create brain shaping negative thoughts.
I noticed that stress increases the likelihood that a situation will turn negative. So, I picked the two most stressful situations of a typical day; getting ready for the bus in the morning and getting ready for bed in the evenings. It seems like in both cases the environment can become pretty tense. Since I want my kids to start their day and finish their day on a high, I decided to reduce the stress from both situations. It was easy. I simply added more time to each. We agree upon cloths the night before. We start getting ready for the bus earlier in the morning. We start getting ready for bed earlier at night. The difference has been striking. It’s calm. No more negativity (well, certainly a lot less negativity).
Remember, thoughts are things…help your children create positive things.
If you want to see the website of Greg and Renee’s business, go to: www.nybear.com
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