Image Artwork by KijaDoll
The mind is an extremely powerful force. In fact, sometimes I feel that the mind is so strong it is like its own entity.
We all know that with great power comes great responsibility, which is why it is important to put your mind to work in a positive way.
Most of us are never taught that we have to learn how to condition our mind for success and positivity. Without conditioning, our mind falls victim to things like brainwashing, anxiety, stress and fear.
To condition your mind so it can operate to its fullest potential, you have to first become aware of your thought patterns.
Here are 10 common thought patterns that are going to leave you feeling stuck and in a lower vibration.
1. Playing the Victim
You blame other people, or even beat yourself up for your problems. You find yourself wanting pity from others and wanting people to feel sorry for you. You retell your story over and over as a form of validation as to how you have been “wronged”.
2. Filtering Facts
Your thinking is narrow minded and selective, rather than looking at the bigger picture. You focus on just a few facts and build your story up around them, which distorts how things really happened.
3. Comparing Yourself to Others
You find yourself comparing your life or your situation to other people. You feel envy or jealous of others, or you feel ashamed of yourself for not living up to certain standards. You find yourself competing with other people, which causes you to lose sight of your own path.
4. Judging Others
You instantly judge other people or try to tell them how they feel or why they shouldn’t feel how they do. You automatically assume someone did something or feels a certain way without asking or knowing first. You judge others based on their physical appearances or on stereotypes depicted in the media.
5. Needing to be Right
You come up with arguments in your mind about how you are right and how everyone else is wrong. You come up with speeches, debates and witty-one liners to prove that you are right. These thoughts cause you to become emotional or even hostile.
6. Incessant Worrying
You fantasize or stress about every possible outcome and psych yourself up about something before it has even happened. Your thoughts become overwhelming and repetitive, which take you out of the present moment and get you stuck in the fear of “what if”.
7. Having Unrealistic Expectations
Your mind starts telling you how things should be, rather than how things are. This makes it difficult to accept the present moment and causes you to feel that things “should” be a certain way, or should not have happened the way that they did.
8. Assuming the Outcome
You automatically assume something based on your previous experience of it. While it is reasonable to have some knowledge or intuition, your mind can get stuck in assuming things which causes you to see things how you want to see them and not how they really are.
9. Feeling Like You Are Owed Something
You believe that you need to be rewarded and acknowledged for all your hard work and find yourself upset when the rewards you feel you deserve don’t come your way. You feel hard-done by and as if others or the world owes you something. This causes you to lose sight of your purpose and leaves you feeling trapped in victim mode.
10. Expecting Everyone to Understand You
You expect everyone to understand exactly what you mean or how you feel without giving any regard to their own personal feelings or experience. You feel upset or bitter towards others when they don’t understand, but you make no effort to understand them in return. This leaves you feeling misunderstood and alienated.
These thought patterns can all be easily switched and reprogrammed when you become aware of them. Other tools to help you tame the thoughts of your mind include meditation, journalling, exercise and creative activities.
