It is vitally important that we spend some time and think about the thoughts we think. That may sound a bit like Dr. Seuss, but nonetheless these are some items to consider.

As I mentioned earlier, Jennifer Read Hawthorne mentioned that on average, we think about 12,000 to 75,000 thoughts per day. It is also understood that of these thoughts, about 98 percent of them are the same thoughts as we had just the day earlier. Even more interesting is the idea that about 80 percent of the thoughts are negative in nature. According to an article by Mayo Clinic, thoughts have the ability to greatly affect our personality and optimistic and pessimistic thoughts can affect our overall health and well-being.

Our thoughts come from myriad different origins and stimuli and we will take a peek at a few of them being: Self-Talk, why we think what we think and the affects those thoughts have on us. Limiting Beliefs and how the things that we have been told or have grown to understand as a truth came to be. Attitude, how our attitudes and emotions present themselves even when we might prefer they don’t. Affirmations and how we accept compliments, build our confidence, and are allowed to feel good about what and who we are. Finally, we look at confidence and how we can use all of the above components to improve our level of confidence and also see how these same items can produce an unwanted affect when not properly utilized in our lives.

A quick exercise to get us in the correct state of mind to consider things such as thoughts, I want you to get comfortable, close your eyes and just allow your thoughts to start flowing. As you do this, make a mental note of what types of thoughts you are thinking, are they related? What is the overall mood of your thoughts, are they mostly positive or negative? Do you find your thoughts come quickly and fade just as quick or do you dwell on them for a while? Are your thoughts relevant or foolish, real or imaginary? Do your thoughts excite you or do they make you drowsy? Take a few minutes to do some thinking and then try to remember back on this experience and see if you can identify some type of relationship, pattern, or process. Jot down some of your findings and keep them handy as we start to peer a little more deeply into some of the processes of thoughts.