Weekly Excerpt from Baby Steps to Happiness [discuss]

Section 5: Accepting Responsibility For Your Happiness
...But You?re Not What You Think Either: Page 1

This chapter is best understood if you’ve read the previous chapter first. In that step we said, “You’re not who they think you are...” In this chapter we add to the mixture by injecting, “...but you’re not what you think either.” This is probably confusing on the surface level, but stay with me on this one—it will make sense. On one level this step says, you are not your thoughts. Some people would disagree. At one time in my life I believed that all you really were, was the sum total of your thoughts, but I was wrong.

You are not your thoughts. You’re not even responsible for all your thoughts. And most of all, you cannot control your thoughts.

Thoughts come from many places. Some of your thoughts are generated from your own cerebral cortex. Others are reactions to the environment around you. Still others are critical memories composed of voices from your past. The voices could be that of your parents, previous spouse, schoolteacher, or any authority figure. They remain stored away permanently, and can be recalled consciously or unconsciously. The most powerful thoughts are those that pop up from seemingly nowhere. However they’re right where you stored them. They’re unconscious nature is what makes them so unexpectedly profound.

These thoughts are so powerful many of them can intrude on your consciousness and totally disrupt your concentration. I don’t think you can control them. In fact, I suggest not trying to control them. Why set yourself up for failure? You are not what you think. You are not your thoughts. You can’t control your thoughts. It’s best not to struggle with them. However there is an answer, and it’s one that will work—especially with the critical recordings in your head.
[discuss]
© 1996 by John Baucom
“Change your thoughts, change your world.”

—Norman Vincent Peale (1898-1993)
American Protestant clergyman and Writer