You mind holds thousands of thoughts, but there is no proof because every one of your thoughts is invisible.
Some scientists estimate that we have anywhere from 14,000 to 50,000 thoughts per day. They also estimate that only about 5% of your thoughts are new. The rest are old repetitive thoughts.
I’m not sure how they’ve estimated the number of thoughts, but here’s a simple calculation:
Hours you are awake = 16
Minutes you are awake = 960
Seconds you are awake = 57,600
If you have one thought every four seconds you would have 14,400 thoughts. That’s a lot of thoughts.
When I posted this on Facebook one of the responses was
“I’m simplifying my life. I’m now down to 4 thoughts a day!”
If most of those 14,000 thoughts are repeated thoughts, I wonder how many of them are positive?
Generally when you repeat your thoughts, you are repeating your worries and fears.
Think of the last time you worried about something. Did you worry only once? Probably not. You worried over and over.
If you could wave a magic wand and make a change today, wouldn’t you want to be more positive?
Learning to be more positive is easy. It takes little physical effort. It is totally free. You can be more positive anywhere you choose.
It’s important to change your thoughts and your habit of thinking. So learning to be more positive also takes practice.
When you are in the process of learning how to be more positive you must first be aware of your thoughts.
Take some time today and notice your thoughts. Are your thoughts negative? Or are you thinking positive thoughts?
When you are focusing your attention on those positive thoughts, you are thinking about what you want. It’s as simple as that.
The best thing about being more positive is that you also feel better when you are more positive.
How do you make yourself feel more positive? Share your techniques below:
I have a habit of ruminating and now that I am writing full time and by myself all day long, I really have to work hard to keep myself positive. When I catch myself entering into a negative line of thought, I force myself to switch gears by thinking about something else. At times, I will also write my way out of it.
Jeri, switching gears by thinking about something else is exactly what you need to do to keep yourself positive. The more you do this, the more you continue to develop a beneficial habit of thinking more positive thoughts.
I can’t believe the number of thoughts that we can possibly have in a given day. Well, I can believe it but it just seems so astronomical to me. And what is worse is that only 5% of those thoughts are new. Since reading your book, I am much more in touch with my thoughts, though I doubt all 20,000 or so of them.
Bethany you are funny! No worries. We don’t have to be in touch with that many to make a difference in how you feel. Lots of our thoughts have little or no emotional impact on us.
These are the thoughts that sound like:
I think I want salt on this.
I wonder where my book is.
What pair of earrings looks best?
I like the color of this room.
We pay attention to these thoughts, act on them and then let them go. It’s the thoughts that make us feel bad that we need to pay attention to.