Thoughts Are Things

You may have heard the phrase “Thoughts are Things.”

Look at a chair in the room. It was first a thought in someone’s mind, then created from wood or metal or plastic using tools or machinery that were also created by someone’s mind. Can we see that creative thought?

Why do we say that thoughts are things?

Look at a chair in the room. It was first a thought in someone’s mind, then created from wood or metal or plastic using tools or machinery that were also created by someone’s mind. Can we see that creative thought?

The same goes for every man-made thing you see. First it was an idea in someone's mind. Then it was created in form.

We Create Our World

We can also create our experience of our world through our thoughts.

Still with me? For example, if I think of the world as an unfriendly place, I am going to move about in it in a particular way that reinforces that belief. I am not going to notice the friendly people if I am on alert all the time. So I continue to believe that thought.

Part of this is due to the reticular activating system in our brains. When something is considered important to us, we notice it more. Whether it's cats, cars, or chemicals.

So if I'm a person who believes that conflict is necessary, I might not notice peaceful alternatives. Or I might notice them and see them as wimpy or weak.

But I can change the lenses I wear, and then a new world appears.

That's what it means to "change your thinking and change your life."

Awe In the Everyday

More and more, I am bringing in appreciation as a way to see the world.

Whenever I look at my cat– especially when she is asleep and snoring - I am in awe. What is it in you that recognizes the life in that being? What is it that recognizes the thoughts in you? Who is it that knows your history, your thoughts, your opinions, your likes and dislikes? Is it your brain? Is it your body? Or is it something else? What knows that you are thinking right now? Could you know that you are thinking if there was nothing observing that?

What makes a tree grow? Sunlight, water, nutrients in the soil. But why does it grow? What makes it grow? What force makes it combine those things to grow from a seed to a tree?

What about a baby? We know the biology of how the embryo forms and starts dividing. But what makes that happen?

The DNA is just the blueprint. What makes the genetic material replicate? The more I know about science, the more I see an Intelligence behind everything.

When you see a baby, see the light in its eyes, what is it that stirs inside you that tells you that this is a new life? And how could we forget that we are an ongoing mystery just like that baby?

We are all still That. And the journey is in remembering it over and over again despite what we think we know.

How About You?

Where do you find wonder?
Where have you changed the way you view something?