The Power of Habitual Thinking
When we engage in repetitive thinking, positive or negative, we reinforce that thinking. The Law of Attraction is at play here, where thoughts and energy attract similar thoughts and energy. This attraction is one of the reasons why you may be seeing a common theme(s) underlying the perceived obstacles in the way of you living your purpose in different areas of your life.
From early childhood, when you experienced a situation, you formed a like, dislike or preference (or someone projected theirs onto you). Every time you had an experience with shades of the ones previously experienced, it deepened that perception.
An Example
You are a toddler; you eat your first ice cream cone at the county fair. The sweetness and the texture intrigues you, even if it is a bit too cold for your taste, and your parents seem thrilled that you are eating it. So, you associate eating the ice cream with the pleasure of the sweet sense and your parents’ approval. This creates an impression, a groove of sorts, in your mind. Then weeks later, you eat cake at a birthday party, with similar reactions regarding the taste and from the satisfaction of the party host, who made the cake and gushes about it to everyone who tries a slice. The impression or groove deepens. Over time, every time you eat something sweet or finish your plate at dinner to your parents’ approval, the groove deepens. As you grow up, the pattern where you find yourself unconsciously needing approval from family, friends, teachers, coaches, camp counselors, etc. in choices around food and diet then spreads out into other areas of your life - sports, clothes, music, play dates, etc. These similar experiences also create grooves, subsets of the original.
The Science of Habit
As mentioned in Normalizing the Practice of Mindfulness, in the science of yogic tradition, what has formed are samskaras, impressions or grooves in the mind created from well-worn thought patterns, actions, and reactions. Think of them as the grooves in a record that keep the needle playing a specific song or ruts in a dirt road created by wagon wheels. These grooves or ruts are easy to slip back into and hard to get out of.
In western science, what has happened is a phenomenon known as neuroplasticity. The brain continually reorganizes itself forming new neural connections throughout your life. The purpose is to allow the body and mind to adapt to life’s changes as we age. In the area of preferences and the limiting stories we tell ourselves, these stories cling because we have created neural pathways related to these preferences.
So what do you do?
Create a new path. A new narrative based on the Truth. After reframing a limiting belief, you hold onto and reaffirm the Truth. It is not a “new” truth, something to crumble over time in the face of adversity or lack of resolve. Nor is it “your truth”, a popular turn of phrase rooted in the ego wanting to maintain dominance.
No, it is Ancient, older-than-time Truth. It always existed, holding and protecting you, even as you are/were in a delusion about who you really are.
Remember, each time a limiting belief is activated, it rises to the surface around a perception or story because an unconscious thought needs to be released and healed. So, you remember the Truth and create a new groove, new neural pathways, in response to the trigger. Over time, as you practice this process, you have created a new, deeply ingrained, liberating response, one that leads you in a Truth that overcomes the previously perceived “obstacles”.
