A Funny Paradox of Conscious Thought

I had a visionary hope when I was around 18 years old. Looking back, it seems almost cute!

My dream? To be conscious and deliberate with every single thought in my mind.

I had tried time and time again to do this! I don't know if my record lasted beyond an entire minute.

Approaching 19 years old, I received a calling to serve as a Christian missionary for two years. And so, boldly and naively, I decided that being a missionary would automagically (yes, that's a word now) grant me this skill! I would come home with the ability to maintain perfect control over my mind and thoughts at all times!

Aaaah dear. See what I mean? Almost cute.

While I've yet to achieve this lofty goal, I have learned some lessons along the way.

First and foremost, our thoughts are a choice. I can take conscious control of my brain at any moment and direct it to whatever thought I choose. I can choose to think about that book I just read or what ice cream flavor sounds really yummy to right this moment or about bird migration patterns! We can choose our thoughts.

Personally, I have not yet developed the ability to consciously focus all of my thoughts 100% of the time--not even close! But I'm not sure that's my goal anymore anyway. Instead, I want to have desired, positive thoughts even when I'm not consciously guiding them!

So what does guide our thoughts when we're not consciously controlling them? Please note, I'm not claiming scientifically researched answers here--my comments are anecdotal in nature.

I see two primary influences on our not-so-conscious conscious thought: neurological habit and belief system.

From my understanding of my light reading and study of the brain, our neuro-pathways can be likened to a ditch and our thoughts to the water flowing through it. Our most common thought patterns are like deeply dug trenches--well worn paths through which water naturally and easily flows.

However, we have the power to shift these neuro-pathways and create new ones. It takes some mental effort, just as digging a trench building a dam, and redirecting a stream or river takes physical effort! Without conscious, deliberate effort, our neurological habits create do not change.

Recent research has disproved an old idea that our brains, after a certain (young) age, could no longer change. We now know that our brains maintain neuro-pasticity--the ability to grow new pathways and change neuro-structure--even into old age.

So to reach my goal of positive thought even when I'm not intentionally directing them, I want to develop the neurological habits and pathways that will naturally create that result.

The second primary influence is our paradigm. Our paradigm is our belief system. This includes religious beliefs, self-esteem, culturally influenced beliefs, and so much more.  Like our thoughts, our beliefs are choices. Everything we believe has been, at some level and point in time, a choice.

If I believe the current President is a dud, this belief will influence my thoughts. If I believe monogamy is morally correct, this will influence my thoughts. If I believe I'm too dumb to succeed, this will influence my thoughts!

Okay... but so what?

Our thoughts create our lives.

"For as [a man] thinketh in his heart, so is he." --Proverbs 23:7

Everything we create, our lives, our results, our joy, our suffering, all of it--it all begins with thought. Thought is the common denominator.

So if we can change our neurological habits, which we can, and if we can change our paradigm, which we can, then we can change our lives! We can create the lives we want! We can achieve what we desire... IF. IF we are willing to do what's required. IF we are willing to change our mindset and, as a result, our choices.

So no, I no longer have a goal of 100% competency in controlling my conscious thought. Instead, I have a goal of creating the life I want by developing 100% unconscious competency in conscious thought.