It is estimated that you have 50,000 thoughts per day. Crazy, right?! Deciding whether to snooze your alarm for an extra ten minutes is one thought. Thinking about whether it really is worth getting out of bed to work out on this chilly morning is another. And before you even get out of bed to start your day you’ve already accumulated hundreds of thoughts. My point is not that you have thousands of thoughts an hour, rather how automatically these thoughts are produced. With no effort whatsoever did you stop yourself from running across the road when cars were approaching. It was an unconscious thought that being hit by a car wouldn’t be an ideal way to start your day!
So, with that being said, how often do you put yourself down? You didn’t go to the gym today so you label yourself as “lazy”. You dropped your pizza (treat yo self!) on the grass so you label yourself as “stupid”. They’re automatic, aren’t they? How many of your 50,000 thoughts per day is spent berating yourself? I am my harshest critic so anytime something goes against me, I am the first to put myself down. But what would happen if we started to lift ourselves up?
I know how busy life we can be (we’re all at university remember which is basically a 24/7 job) so I’m not meaning praising yourself every moment of the day. Rather, compromise with yourself. You didn’t go to the gym today because you were busy completing a 12-page assignment — is that “lazy”? You dropped your pizza on the grass because you were in a rush to your next lecture — is that “stupid”? Allowing your mind to be kind and generous is one of the only things you have control of in your life, so why not take advantage?
You have 50,000 thoughts given to you tomorrow. How would you like to use them?