Do you believe in the power of thought?
It’s easy for someone who is positive to say that negative thinking makes a negative situation. It’s easy for someone who is already above water to teach others how to swim. The second you believe you can’t accomplish something, then it comes to fruition. But the second you have faith in your abilities, you begin to win and see goodness all around you. This is a truth that has been proven over and over again: if you can change your thoughts and your thought process, then you can change your life.
This is the basis of Dave Gray’s book Liminal Thinking. In it, he outlines the necessity of opening up your thoughts and not sticking with limited beliefs that only constrict and contain. He is outlining the steps to thought freedom.
What is thought freedom?
The concept of thought freedom is, in of itself, quite complex. Don’t we all have thought freedom right now? The thoughts in your head may have found their way in there from an external source, but they are all yours. They are your thoughts. So what then is thought freedom?
Thought freedom is thinking in its purest form, free of any existing limiting beliefs. You may believe you are good at a sport like basketball, regardless of how much you like it. Where did that thought come from? Was it borne of the fact that you are tall and people have told you all your life that, based on that, you are good at basketball? Have you stopped showing interest in other sports because your focus is now on basketball? Even a positive thought can be situated within a limiting belief. The key is to believe regardless; to think regardless.
The key is to disrupt your routine.
You must understand that your thinking must change for you to truly seek understanding. To reject belief models and discard ignorance in favor of openness and possibility. Think of it this way: you don’t know what the future holds, but you’re still going about your day-to-day life under the assumption that you can predict where things are headed, based solely on pre-existing factors. But what if you disposed of the idea of pre-existing factors? What if you got rid of your assumptions? Then what would you know about your life? It would leave you with a blank canvas on which you can accept the reality of everything and anything.
The Takeaway?
Gray introduces six principles and nine practices that can turn anyone into a master of change and thought, minimize reality distortion, and create positive change. Like many practices, all they need is a simple twist in routine. What ways can you actively shake up your routine? Gray says beliefs are just models that create blind spots. Think about your life: what are some blind spots you’re catering to? What are things you’re trying not to see because they don’t benefit your current belief model? It’s only in those can we really take the first step towards thought freedom.
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