Thinking about Thoughts
Do you ever think about your thoughts?
We all have thoughts. Experts have determined we have 60,000 to 80,000 a day!! That’s between 2,500 and 3,300 thoughts per hour. Incredible, right?
And the problem is that our reality, the world we create for ourselves is based on our thoughts. Thoughts determine the way we see the world, the way we interact with ourselves and other people.
They also determine how we feel.
And therefore how we act.
I believe this is a really important subject. When we talk about health and wellbeing and what we get out of life. The ability to understand, observe and reflect on our own thoughts has a huge impact on our life.
Let me give you an example…
I’ve done a lot of work on how I think which has really changed my life and yet there are still instances that occur that are not great, shall we say.
It was a Tuesday morning.
I was up at 5.
I am an early riser, it’s the new me!
And I got up with a slight headache and the thoughts that played out in my head were quite disturbing really.
I started with…
I feel shit, I don’t feel great.
Why don’t I feel great?
And within the space of 10 to 15 minutes of my mind waking up and these feelings emerging of not feeling too great, I’d literally gone from “I don’t feel great” to “I’m gonna die old and alone.”
How sad’s that?
Now, I’m very conscious of the thoughts that run through my mind. I’ve developed that ability. It’s called self awareness and it’s so important.
And in my opinion, self awareness and the ability to reflect on your own thoughts, feelings and behaviours is the real key to living a better life. And showing up and performing your best at work.
And SupaReality is here to explore that concept.
I feel like I’ve unlocked Pandora’s box.
The more I read, the more I learn, the more I watch and listen to… the more I realise that, as human beings, we have everything we need already.
And yet we search and we grasp for things outside ourselves, things that we think we need, things that we think will make us happy. And yet the truth is, when we get them, we’re not happy, we’re then onto the next thing we want and we need.
And yet, we have everything we need right inside of us.
This may seem like a bit of an abstract concept, I suppose it is. You know, thoughts, they’re invisible, they’re difficult to grasp. They’re difficult to be conscious of, most of the time, because a lot of the thoughts that we have come from our subconscious. So, the fact is, we’re not even conscious sometimes that we’re having them.
We have a feeling and we don’t know why the feeling’s there.
The feelings come from the thoughts.
And the thoughts might have come out of our subconscious and might be coloured by lots of things that have happened to us in our life up to that point.
And if we start to understand our thoughts and where they’re coming from.
And if we start to understand our feelings and where they’re coming.
We can start to really see your life in a different way.
Now, meditation is something that has changed my life. And from the various conversations I have had, it’s clear that people are misinformed when they think that meditation is about stopping your thoughts.
Join our community — subscribe to SupaReality updates.
Because you can’t.
Your mind is whirring all the time.
You can’t stop your thoughts.
No thoughts = no brain activity = your dead!
However, what meditation does, over time and with practice (that’s why it’s called a meditation practice) is take us inward. Close off our five senses, go deep beyond the mind, the intellect and the ego and sometimes, slip between the gap between our thoughts.
Then you start to see things in a different light over time.
You start to be more conscious of what’s going on in your mind.
And when you’re more conscious of what’s going on in your mind, you can start to change it and you can start to see things differently and you can start to feel better.
All of this for me…
And all the positive changes that have happened in my life are without needing anything or anyone other than myself.
When it comes to the world of work, we are constantly hearing how stress is up, productivity down, and mental health issues on the increase. Everybody’s focused on fixing the pain, fixing the problem, trying to make people feel better in terms of the external (work) environment they provide. And for me, there’s a key thing that’s missing here…
True wellbeing starts on the inside.
We might want people to eat more healthily, drink less, stop smoking, stop the neurotic behaviour and reduce their anxiety. But people can’t really do that unless they go inwards, unless they understand themselves at a much deeper level. And in so doing, start to be able to make very, very simple changes to their thought processes.
So we wanna take you on a journey with SupaReality, that journey’s probably aligned with a personal journey I’m making. I’ve been through some very, very difficult personal situations over the last few years and for a period of time I was quite ill.
Now, I’m not here as a therapist, I’m not here as an expert, I’m just here to share what I am learning and what I’m exploring because I think it’s so important.
Subscribe to the SupaReality Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube.
And these abstract, seemingly complex subjects need boiling down into things that are simple and practical that people can more easily understand.
So this publication is going to explore the concept of self awareness, of consciousness, of thinking and really relate that to the work environment.
More self awareness and better thoughts will help you improve your creativity, your productivity, and how you apply yourself to the challenges you find in the workplace. This includes how you connect and collaborate with your co-workers.
You know, we spend a third of our life at work, a third of our life asleep. And our mission really is if about helping people, especially business leaders, team leaders and those that are in knowledge businesses, where using your brain is what you’re paid to do.
We have this lofty ambition that employers could be the catalyst to help people become more self aware. Where work is the place that you find and develop your true human potential.
The typical approaches to wellbeing at work such as the yoga classes, the mental health first aiders, healthier food in restaurants and corporate gym facilities are all great.
But how do you help your team and your people and yourself turn inward.
To realise the huge potential you already have.
The innate human faculties that are going make such a difference in this fast changing world. Like intuition, imagination, perception and will. We have all of these things already and yet we’re a little bit on auto pilot as we fumble through each day.
Switched off to being self aware, fully conscious and complete present with life and work due to the habits and routines we’ve become so accustomed to, just to get us through the day. Things we believe we need to be doing.
And yet underneath…
There is stress and illness bubbling away constantly.
As human beings we are just not maximising our true human potential.
