How Thoughts Affect Our Life

My dear friend,
I’m sitting in the one warm room on the farm called the office. Yoga mats and meditation pillows frame the centrepiece in the middle of the room: a candle, affirmation cards, and a gong bowl.
Books line the walls, and the shelves are multi-coloured. Actually, as mentioned in the last blog post, everything is multi-coloured.

I know how everything looks, but I don’t see it. I have my eyes closed and breathe slowly—in and out.
In and out. 
I notice my body soften and relax as I sit still and breathe.

If I listen outwards, I hear the stream of water next to the farm, birds chirping far away, and Mia (the cat) cleaning herself occasionally. 

You might think it’s easy to drop into stillness when everything around you is still.

But I have realised that if any internal disturbance surfaces, I have no excuse but to acknowledge that it comes from within me.
Nothing else.
No one else.
But Me. 

Everything around me is always still and full of peace and love, so I have no more excuses like, ‘Ah, the energy in the tube was negative.’ Or, ‘It’s the building noise that irritates me.’
No, now, if I feel irritation, it comes from my thoughts. And my thoughts only.

Of course, since I work with animals and they feel everything we feel, I make sure that I’m sorting through whatever comes up as swiftly as possible. One rule here on the farm is to only enter the animals’ fence when feeling calm. I really like that.
What would our world be like if we all did that before we interacted with each other?

I often slow down my walking, take a couple of deep breaths, and sometimes even close my eyes before I open the gate. I’m entering their safe space, their home. It is only fair that I arrive in peace, love, and harmony when I visit. 

Because of that, I find myself connecting with myself again and again throughout the day. That makes me a lot more aware of my thoughts. And something I learned from Stephanie (who owns the farm) is that every thought has a vibrational reaction.

I still remember the exact moment when she told me, ‘We can not have bad days, only bad thoughts.’

It was Saturday a week ago. I had just said goodbye to Rina, who quickly found her way into my heart. I was crying in the stable of the goats. Joy and Merle (two goats) pressed their bodies against my legs, soothing my tears (can you see why I only want them to get the best version of myself when entering their home? They give so much love!)

Stephanie sat on a wooden plank, and I eventually surrendered myself to the floor. The sun bounced a glow on her face. She looked at me and said, ‘We can’t have bad days. Only bad thoughts, and they create negative emotions. That’s why you feel like you’re having a bad day. In reality, all you did was choose a selection of bad-feeling thoughts.’

I looked at her with blinking eyes. 

She continued, ‘Whenever I notice myself feeling bad, I stop what I’m doing and focus on my thoughts. I travel back in time with them until I find the original thought, patient zero if you will, and look at the situation that caused me to think that thought. Then, I have two options.
Can I and do I want to change the situation?
If not, can I change the way I look at it? Can I choose a better feeling thought about the situation?
And that way, I take the power of my feelings back into my own hands. And I’m not just swirling around like a buoy in a stormy sea.
We’re always in control of our feelings, and we choose our thoughts. 
If a thought makes you feel bad, drop it and pick a better one. It’s that simple.’

During our first phone call, we already talked about how thoughts impact our lives.
I asked, ‘What do I do when a negative thought comes up?’
She said, ‘Imagine you are in a five-star hotel and going down to the buffet. There, on the table, every food you can imagine is laid out for you. You walk towards the table and pick something up. You bite into it, and ugh, no, you don’t like it!
What do you do? You drop it, right? Then you pick something else until you find food that you like. It’s the same with your thoughts.’

I’ve always liked stories with images. ☺️

Have you ever thought about that? How our thoughts change the way we feel? 
Even more specifically, how different words make us feel different?

Ever since that moment, it has become a game of mine. 

For example, this morning in meditation, as I listened to the cat breathe, the birds sing, and the water flow, I said to myself: It is easy. Life is easy.
When choosing these words, I focused on the sensations within my body.

Sometimes, I focus on only one word at a time, like “Ease. Love. Simplicity,” and notice the ripple effect in my body.
To me, they feel like wool being pulled apart. The knots undo, and the strings begin to lengthen and soften. 

In meditation, I asked myself, How would my body feel if it were full of compassion?
And I noticed the sensational reactions.

Then I asked, How would my body feel if it was full of love? 
Then, I observed the reactions to that sentence.

Lastly, How would my body feel if it was full of peace? 
Woah, well, that one felt so good. 

Isn’t it fascinating how we can stir our sensations depending on the words we choose to think and focus on? 

Like Stephany always says, ‘Life is a game. Have fun playing it.’

And for me, playing with words has been such a fun game over the last few days. 🌈

Happy Sunday!
With so much love,
Anja