WHAT ARE YOU FEEDING YOUR MIND?

Have you ever been driving on the highway and then randomly hit traffic, not even during traffic hours…? (LA people know exactly what I’m talking about).  You’re cruising, minding your own business listening to the latest Adele album, then BAM! All of the sudden you’re driving at a snail’s pace…inch-by-inch, wondering, “Why the heck is traffic moving so slowly at 11am on a Saturday!?” Chances are, it’s an accident on the highway… and sure as the sun, when you finally get to where the destruction of vehicles occurred, you notice that every car, police officer, ambulance or any other type of traffic hindrance is completely off to the side of the road, not even affecting any of the lanes! It could even be on the other side of the road! But yet, there was bumper-bumper traffic for miles!! Why??...

Rubberneckers!  Or nosy people who slow their vehicles down to like 10mph just so they can turn their heads and gawk at the wreckage on the side of the road, thus causing major self-inflicted traffic jams.  But what do we do when we drive up to the scene??? Don’t lie…we look! It’s almost like our thought process is “I waited this long, might as well see what all the traffic was about.” We can’t help ourselves not to look! I’ve tried, honestly… I have to consciously tell myself, “don’t look!” But I still can’t help it. The crazy thing is, on the same day, there can be a clear view of a beautiful jaw-dropping sunset off to the other side of the road, but traffic just zooms by without the slightest change of pace or thought to slow down and look.

Here’s the unanticipated explanation; we are more attracted to the shocking, ugly, destructive and scandalous.  It’s in our primal nature to look when we pass an accident on the side of the road because our minds are designed for survival, not to make us happy. Our mind’s main focus is to keep us alive, so it’s always on guard and on the lookout for destructive things. The media understands this; that’s why the news and popular television and radio are filled with ugly, heinous and scandalous stories. 

Since it’s so easy for our minds to find the destructive, we must constantly and consciously feed our minds with beautiful, positive and uplifting things.

Ever since I was a young girl, I loved rap music but I wasn’t allowed to listen to it. I would listen to the most aggressive and violent tracks in the car (believing that they wouldn’t influence me) and my dad would get in and turn it off and say, “Garbage in, garbage out.”  Your mind is like an 8 year old; it believes whatever you feed it.  It knows no better.  It wholeheartedly accepts what you think, what images you hold, and what movies you play out in your mind, and whether they are good or bad – positive or negative, doesn’t matter.  Your brain accepts what you give it, trusts your judgment, and then kicks into gear!  We have to control what we think and what we feel because it has the power to change the outcomes in our life.

“Be careful of your thoughts, for your thoughts become your words. Be careful of your words, for your words become your actions. Be careful of your actions, for your actions become your habits. Be careful of your habits, for your habits become your character. Be careful of your character, for your character becomes your destiny.” -Gandhi

How do we possibly control our minds and our thoughts 24/7? What is it that we are thinking about? Well… we think about whatever we put in our ears and in front of our eyes. Your brain is unconsciously processing whatever it is that you are putting in your ears and in front of your eyes all day! That stuff is driving what you’re thinking about and that thinking process is driving your expectations of what is possible in the world and what is possible for you, which is ultimately driving your creative engine to produce the outcomes in your life.

The crazy thing is, the biggest destruction of your mind is the own conversations that YOU are having with yourself!! How do you talk to yourself? What are you telling yourself about yourself?  Is it positive or negative? What are you, personally, feeding your mind?  Make a decision today to feed your mind every day with beautiful, positive and uplifting things.  When you wake up and before you go to bed, feed your mind positive self-talk, positive images and stories.  It is your weapon, your power. The thoughts you have are powerful enough to move the world; you just have to make them good, and believe them. You are fearfully and wonderfully made.

Blessing and Love,

Marti Reed