You Are the Cause, Not the Effect

The problem with how we think is that we often do too much and at other times too little. Too much overthinking about things we have no control over, and too little thinking about what we can control.

How you think affects how you show up every day for yourself and the people around you. I have come to believe that how we think is the most important aspect of being human.

We are Thinking Animals

We are highly evolved members of the animal kingdom. We can think rationally, emotionally, and logically, yet we are easily influenced by events in our lives.

All animals—including humans—live, think, and feel in the present. Even when we revisit the past or imagine the future, the thinking itself happens now.

Memories of Memories

When we have a memory, it is not the actual event we are remembering. It is a memory of that event. Memory exists only in the present, even though it may seem as if the detailed memory comes from long ago.

We do not revisit the past when we remember. We generate a present interpretation of it.

How we think in the present moment will influence the meaning we give to events occurring around us in that moment. This is the internal representation we give to something when we filter the event through our values and beliefs.

Like all humans, I have memories of past situations, some good and some not so good. There have been many times when I have reflected and wished I had thought, acted, and behaved differently so that the outcomes would have been different. If they had been, I would simply have different memories of them.

We cannot change the past; we can only change where we are right now, and that starts with our thinking.

Read more here, starting with Understanding Cause and Effect