Your Ultimate Power – Part 2

In Part 1 of this series, I identified Your Ultimate Power as the power to choose your thoughts each and every moment. I provided a summary of proof that this is in fact a power, something that will effect a change in your life. And I listed two reasons why I call this Your Ultimate Power:

1. You have total control over this power and total access to its awesome gifts. You get to use this power for anything that you want. Moment to moment you choose how to use it, either consciously or unconsciously.
2. No one else, NO ONE, has any access to this power unless you give it to them. And even then, they only have indirect access. If you grant them access, consciously or unconsciously, they must tell you what they want you to do with the power and then you choose to use your power the way they want you to use it.

If you haven’t read that article, here is a link. In this continuing discussion, I will amplify these two aspects of your power.

Who Has Control of This Power?

You do! Even when you think you don’t, and when you think no one does, and when you are sure that someone else is controlling it. You always have and always will have total control over this power.

The reason it might seem that you don’t have control or that someone else does is because you have been taught that. We all have been domesticated to think that we have little or no control over our thoughts and that others actually do have control of our thoughts.

If you can convince people that they don’t have control of their own consciousness and that you do, you can exercise a lot of power over them. You can get them to do what you want even at the cost of personal physical harm, financial harm, emotional harm, etc.

Sad to say it but this happens all the time. It happens to all of us to varying degrees.

To simplify things, we fall in to one of three groups with regard to our belief about our control of this power:

1. We have no idea what it even means to have control over our thoughts. And so we exercise no such control ever.
2. We have heard about this idea and understand it intellectually but we do not use it as often as we might to accomplish what we want. Most of us fall into this category, myself included.
3. We embrace this and exercise this practice all the time, with very few or no exceptions. These are the masters.

It is possible to be in group 3 in one domain of your life and in group 1 in another domain. Think of superstars and their relationship, health, and financial problems.

Who Else Has Control of This Power?

No one! Absolutely no one has any control over what you think! You have spent a lifetime, so far, living under the illusion that you have some control over the thoughts of others and, moreover, they have some control over what you think.

In reality any such control (of others or by others) is indirect. It is one step removed. And that one step is Y-O-U.

The only way that any one else can exercise any control over your thoughts is by convincing you that you should think a certain way. So they must let you know what they want you to think and then you must decide for whatever reason to think the way that they want you to. So you still have control but you are choosing to let them decide how you control your thoughts.

At anytime, like right now, you can take back that control and think the way that suits you best regardless of what ‘they’ want.

It may not be easy. If this has been a longstanding way of being in relationship with others, it may be difficult. It may take several false starts. It may take deciding over and over and over to take back full control of your own thoughts in service of the life that you want to live.

But in reality, it is the only way to really be fully alive.

“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” ~ Viktor E. Frankl

How Can We Practice Using This Control?

Even if you agree with this idea, you may be thinking: “Yeah, but how do I do that?” All of your life you have been encouraged to believe that you have little or no control and that others do. So the first step in regaining this control is realizing that you never lost it in the first place, never could.

Think about it deeply. What aspect of your thinking is out of your control? Certainly there are emotional times when it is harder to control your thinking than when you feel totally safe, secure, and loved. But even in those times it is possible to control/redirect your thoughts.

The first step in exercising this Power is recognizing that you have it, always have, and always will. There really is nothing and no one who can take it away from you. There is no way for any one to gain access to your consciousness against your wishes. I believe that we can project ideas to other people, but if they don’t choose to tune in to our ‘broadcast’, it will have no effect.

The second step is to practice exercising control over your thoughts. Pick something that is a relatively small, and inconsequential issue where you notice some annoying lines of thought. To start off, don’t pick an issue that you have been wrestling with for months or years or one that brings up a lot of intense, contracted feelings like fear, anger, or self-doubt.

Consider what you habitually think about regarding that issue. Then choose a thought that would be more supportive, more motivating, and focus on that thought. Practice it throughout the day off and on. Whenever you can, think about it, imagine it from slightly different perspectives or time frames. Invite in the appropriate feelings that would accompany that thought.

After you have practiced this several times over several days, you may notice the old line a thinking pops up and rather than getting caught in it as you used to, you remember what you chose to think about this issue. Now you are at the critical point of choice. You can choose the undesirable, historical way of thinking or the preferred, new way of thinking. It is your choice and it is your power.

Once you have replaced that old way of thinking with a new way, acknowledge the power that you just exercised. Give yourself credit for taking good care of yourself. Then choose another unproductive line of thinking that you would rather not continue and repeat the process. Rinse and repeat.

Good job!!!