Thought Feeding: Why What We Think Becomes Real

Buddha once said “what you think, you become.” I’m sure most of us have heard this saying before. But what is it that makes our thoughts change our lives? Are our thoughts that powerful? 

The answer is yes. We have the power to change our reality through our thoughts. 

When I was about seventeen, I totally changed my lifestyle, and one of the things I truly committed to do was to analyze what thoughts I often “fed” in my mind and the moments they would come to me. The results? A clear mind and more goal achievement. The secret ingredient to a full recipe of a well-balanced life. 

To explain what thought feeding is, imagine this scenario: everything we cultivate grows. If we develop good habits, they will become more assertive of us. Remember when you learned how to brush your teeth? Probably not. You cultivate this action so much that it is automatic to you now. It is a grown habit! This is precisely the power we have over our minds — to become our self-mastery to build reality. Brushing our teeth is just a simple example of how we can cultivate daily habits and create opportunities for ourselves through thought feeding. 

However, merely thinking about achieving something isn’t enough to actually reach it. You need to take actions that are cohesive with your primary goal and seek opportunities that match it. One effective way to do that is to be the owner of your mind. As said, as you continue to cultivate something inside you, it will grow. Instead of developing thoughts and behaviors that would make you feel good in the short term, invest in cultivating things that can help you a long time. Say out loud what you aim to accomplish in the next day, week, month, or even year! You can write down this as well. But be sure to cultivate that thought healthily, analyzing what needs to be done to actually accomplish it and prepare yourself for the challenges and bumps on the road. That’s the key to goal achievement. Having a back plan for every challenge is what makes you the winner of the game — but this is a story for another article. 

The main point is that when we’re constantly feeding thoughts that come across our minds regarding our capability, skills, or how our life is at the moment is crucial to change our current situation. If you often think of yourself as a person who struggles and all you see are the difficulties in your life, reframe your thoughts. If you don’t change your perspective on yourself, you’ll become that person you’re so afraid to be. 

Feeding our thoughts for our benefit is about cultivating arguments with ourselves that are healthy, and that can direct us to the best choices in life. If we keep feeding thoughts about how our life could have been if we have gone to another school or have left our job, or if we were with our past partner, that feeling will grow inside us and lead to adverse outcomes like anxiety. We can start fearing what our minds bring to us and how it can reflect on our daily lives, impacting our well-being. 

Constantly feeding thoughts regarding situations that can increase our rates of anxiety and distance ourselves from a healthy lifestyle. According to Martin Seligman, the father of Positive Psychology, people who cultivate positive thoughts live a healthy and longer life, have more success by making better decisions, and have less stress and anxiety. As Seligman said once, “positive thinking is the notion that if you think good thoughts, things will work out well.” 

Why would we feed negative thoughts that can be bad for our life goals if we can use them in our favor? Using thought feeding for your benefit is to cultivate positive thoughts and emotions by manifesting what you want and who you are becoming. If we shift this perspective of only feeding emotions that would make us feel anxious and fearful about the future or the past, why not cultivate thoughts that can be the pathway to success? 

If you aim to achieve positive outcomes, you need to develop a positive attitude. It may sound cliché, but attitude is everything in life, and the good news is that you are in control of it. Definitely, it is not an easy process. Everything that relates to self-development is a challenge and takes work, but creating those opportunities is highly beneficial to achieve our dreams. For that, your positive attitude is what makes the difference. Negative situations and thoughts will constantly show up in our lives; that’s just how it works. But you have a choice to reframe those and turn them into something good, and that is precisely what makes your thought feeding be a benefit for your life. 

Next time you reframe your thought feeding remember this: every manifestation is part of your process, and it’s your job to trust that this is all in the path to take you where you need to go. 

If you’re interested in knowing more about the effects of mindset on personal success, make sure to read my book Brand You: How to Achieve Success through Personal Branding.

• healthy lifestyle
• mindset
• positive thinking
• positive thoughts
• success