The Cause Of Unhappiness!

“The primary cause of unhappiness is never the situation, but your thoughts about it.” – Eckhart Tolle wrote in his book,A New Earth

This quote is true and it brings up a fascinating point. If thoughts really control our happiness, what are they? How do they control us? Your thoughts are things and have a profound influence on your life.

Every time you have a thought, a pulse of energy passes through a network of neurons. Thoughts are measurable this way. The brain activity and testing associated with it reveal that thoughts maintain a specific frequency. How does this relate to our lives?

Science has not yet discovered all of the interworking of the mind and the brain. It is a realm of knowledge that is still largely unexplored though progress is being made. There are two schools of thought… some believe thoughts have a direct impact on the lives we create and others believe this is untrue. Since neither argument can be proven yet, we will avoid taking sides.

To be clear, we are not talking about “The Law of Attraction” here. This isn’t a debate about whether we attract the things we think about. We are talking about your thoughts’ ability to create new outcomes based on their impact on your emotions, behaviors, and your actions.

Let’s look at a couple of examples. If you believe your thoughts don’t have control over your life and the experiences you have, you likely:

1. Believe that you’re at the mercy of the situation in your life.

2. Think couldn’t possible control your future.

3. Feel stuck or trapped by your current conditions.

4. Are often only able to “react” to events in your life.

However, you might believe that your thoughts set the focus of your life and creates the life you live. If that’s so, then you are more likely to:

1. Feel that you can respond to circumstances in any way you choose and through that response, create an outcome you desire.

2. Think that you have total control over your future.

3. Feel limitless in your possibilities.

This whole article is about being happy so here is a question. Which set of beliefs make you feel the happiest? If it is your thoughts about what happens that matters most then the other truism is possible, that it is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you respond.

There is an old saying that goes something like this: There are two types of people in the world; the person who knows things happen and the person who makes things happen. This concept, combined with the quote we started with, is truly empowering once you understand it.

Things happen every day. You can’t deny it. If you are the type of person who knows “things happen” then you go wherever the tide takes you. The situations in your life are totally out of your control. If you believe this to be true, then why bother changing anything since it’s all beyond your power anyway.

Then there is the person who “makes things happen.” This individual “knows” that events and circumstances do come up unpredictably and sometimes they are undesirable. S/he also understands that this is only 10% of the equation. They then apply the second part of the equation to that and respond with intelligent thoughts which usually starts by asking empowering questions.

We have a tip that you can use and see immediate results. We’ll save the long list of empowering questions for another article. The most empowering questions begin with the word HOW. Your brain will always come up with an answer to your questions… even when the answer is untrue.

Let’s say you just got fired. Naturally, you might ask “Why did that happen?” You might respond with a seemingly reasonable answer. Your brain wants to know. But the answer could be anything. It could be, “Because my boss doesn’t know what he’s doing and is threatened by me.” Or it could be, “Because I’m terrible at my job.” The way to grow and be empowered is to ask a “how question. Try asking yourself, “How can I learn from this?” Suddenly, your thinking takes a different course, and it changes the trajectory because thoughts are things.

Thoughts can make the most influential impact on your life. A thought can make a menial task wretched. A thought can turn a pleasant situation sour. A thought can make something out of nothing. Thoughts, whether you like it or not, are more powerful than you imagined.

Happily, the opposite is true. Think of your favorite toy as a child. Do you have a smile on your face? Remember the advice your teacher gave you that made class more interesting. Your perspective changed. How about this! A thought can become an industry. Someone had an idea that computers should be in every home! Someone thought that the internet might be the best place to compile thorough searches, and thought of a single place people could go to get answers (think Google). A thought changes everything.

You can be the person who creates the life they want by fully developing your thoughts about it.

If you liked this article, you’ll love the personal development tools we created for you at oneMYnd.com or you can visit our personal development training blog for other articles on abundance, success, and designing your life.