What do you believe to be true about yourself, your life and your success?
Just because we think it doesn’t make it true.
Yesterday we talked self-forgiveness.
Don’t believe everything you think…
Mindset motivation with my yoga teacher Victor Chavez.
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Watch! Don’t Believe Everything You Think
What Do You Believe to be True?
“If someone told you to speak of the good qualities of a person who has broadcast all sorts of critical remarks about you in your workplace, you would probably tell them they were crazy.
That person deserves not our praise but our blame, and we’re entitled to get even. In fact, we should get even–it will teach that person a lesson and make sure he doesn’t do it again, at least not to us. Besides, we believe, saying a few choice scathing remarks behind that person’s back will make us feel better.
Or so we think.
But don’t believe everything you think because, believe it or not, it is often wrong.
Even if all of our friends think it’s a good way to think, when we examine our own experience, we’ll often discover that in fact that way of thinking makes us more unhappy.
For example, a friend of mine is a public defender in federal court. She has attended at least twelve executions of men who have been tried and convicted of murder. During the trial and sentencing, the victim’s family firmly believes that executing the murderer of their loved one will alleviate their grief. But my friend told me that never once has she seen that happen. After the execution, people remain angry and bitter. What they thought would bring them relief from their suffering failed miserably.
In difficult situations, it is often the case that if we do the opposite of what we think will resolve the problem, the outcome will be better. To continue with the above example, I have another friend whose husband was a police officer who was murdered on duty, leaving her widowed with a young child. She told me that she begged the jury to give the murderer the death sentence, and they did. But she continued to be miserable. A few years later, she began to attend Buddhist teachings and started to meditate on love, compassion, and forgiveness. One day she realized that she no longer hated the man who killed her husband. Instead, she felt some compassion for his suffering and the confusion that made him do such a senseless act that ruined his own life as well. Her heart was now free because she stopped believing all those angry thoughts and changed her perspective on the situation. ”
–Excerpt from “Don’t Believe Everything You Think” by Thubten Chodron.
