About Steven Aitchison
Update: Please click on this link for more information about The new Mind Alchemy course. All the links to the downloads have now been removed. I would like to thank all 800+ readers who expressed an interest in this course and for everyone who completed the course the first time round, it is becasue of you I could make the course better.
Before we start
A few readers are now blogging about their experiences on the course, and it would be great to lend your support:
Stacy Claflin – Grow With Stacy
Marty BoneIdol – Living Life in Chapters
Stephen – New Life Starts Here
Read the interview I have done with Angela Artemis from Powered by Intuition
Read the interview I have done with Sandi Faviell from DevaCoaching
Watch an interview I made with Suzie Cheel on Mind Alchemy
Mind Alchemy Day 7
Welcome to day 7 of Mind Alchemy.
We’re going to continue with the mind workout, before taking a relatively restful and fun day on day 8.
Daily routine – if you haven’t done so already take 10-15 minutes to go over your outcomes. Remember this forms a part of your daily routine and the quicker you get into the habit the quicker your life will change.
The Nature of your thoughts
90% of what you were thinking yesterday will be the same thoughts you think today.
Today I would like to talk about the nature of our thoughts and how we go about changing our thoughts.
Over the last 6 days you’ve seen how to inject new thoughts into your mind, thoughts that will have a viral effect and start you on the path of thinking about what you want in your life. You can’t have two thoughts at the same time, actually you can have two thoughts at the same time but you can’t focus on two thoughts at the same time, so the more you focus on what you want in your life the less wasteful thoughts you will have.
Your prodigal thoughts
According to some scientists we have around 60,000 thoughts per day, and 95%-98% of those thoughts are the same ones day in and day out, or rather the same types of thoughts. Let’s do some math here:
95% of 60,000 = 57,000
57,000 thoughts that were the same as, or the same type as yesterday. We can guestimate that we can take about 10,000 of those thoughts to think about getting up in the morning, planning our day ahead, driving to school/work, practical thinking about issues at work/home etc etc – these are practical thoughts that we have to think about day in and day out.
So we are left with around 47,000 thoughts. That’s 47,000 spare thoughts, thoughts that are up for grabs and to be turned into something useful. What do you think these thoughts are about?
Here’s are some classifications of the 47,000 thoughts we have:
Worry, boredom, daydreaming, future planning, catastrophising, fighting in our minds, negative self talk, positive self talk, what others think of us, and so on.
How many of the 47,000 spare thoughts that we have each day do we think positively about the future, or plan positively for the future, or ask the right questions to get a better future. I am willing to guess not very many at all.
Our minds are in constant battle with useless worry (not all worry is bad if you do something with it), other people inside our heads, self pity, self deprication, negative thinking, despair, doom and gloom. Very few of us have risen above this constant barrage. It is fueled by you, but it is also fueled by the media, television, newspapers, and radio telling us day in and day out that the world is a shit place to live. Do you know what, the world is not a shit place to live. Yes there are others who get murdered, yes there is war, yes there are terrible people out there, but the amount of media stories about the bad events in the world is totally disproportionate to the population as a whole. We do not live in an evil world, we live in a world inhabited by SOME evil people.
One of the best things you can do to cleanse your mind is to stop reading the newspapers, stop listening to the news, turn news 24 off, turn radio news off. There is nothing we can do about most of the news we hear so why let it infect our minds.
Okay, back to the topic at hand here. What can we do with these spare 47,000 thoughts and how do we make sure the 47,000 thoughts are useful?
Management of many is the same as management of few. It is a matter of organization
Sun Tzu
Replace, Stop and Redirection
At the moment a lot of our thoughts are based on a stimulus from our physical world. We are going to look at changing the 47,000 spare thoughts we have and turning them around in order to help us.
Replace
We are going to inject more of the outcome focused thoughts you learned in the previous 6 days of the course. This way you will be having more outcome focused thoughts, which lead to more outcome solution oriented thoughts, which leads to taking more action.
Stop
We can’t stop thinking altogether, but what we can do is stop some of the thoughts that we do not want from entering our minds. The way to do this is through relaxation, meditation, guided mediation, and focused thinking, which we will be looking at later on in the course.
Redirection
Whenever we catch ourselves thinking things we don’t want to think we turn it around in the opposite direction. For example:
“I can’t afford to put my daughter through college” we turn it around and think
“How can I find a way to put my daughter through college”
You see the difference here. The first thought leads to more doom and gloom thoughts and feelings of despair, whereas the second thought leads to more solution oriented thoughts, more positive and more likely to find a solution to the issue at hand.
Exercise for the day – Unedited writing of thoughts
Todays exercise is all about unedited recording of our worries and thoughts.
You can download the Mind Alchemy worksheet or take a blank piece of paper and start writing.
I read a post last month from a great guy called Amit Sodha about unedited writing of your thoughts which is something Amit came across on his own without realising there was a name for it called Freewriting. Anyways I discovered it through Amit and want to pass it on to you as an exercise today.
Get a pen, a piece of paper, what we are going to do is for 30 minutes start writing down every single thought we have and focus on what we are worried about, but also let any thought you have come out on paper, so if a worry thought leads to another thought let it flow. Alternatively if you are a relatively fast at typing you could open up a word document and start typing away every thought that comes into your head. The trick here is to not think too much about what you are writing just let it flow.
I think you will find this exercise pretty amazing as it throws up some interesting observations about the way our minds work
Tomorrow
Tomorrow we will be having a little fun with a great exercise to help keep your motivation high. Until tomorrow my fellow Mind Alchemists……..
Action follows a thought…
This course is about taking action, and to become pro active in changing your life. Take time to do this exercise and really think about it throughout the day. You don’t need to wait until tomorrow to take steps to improve your ‘Wheel of Life’, but with the support and encouragement from all the members we can help each other and support each other, but ultimately ‘you have to bring something to the table!’
Your thoughts
As always it’s good to talk about your experiences and share it with the rest of the members of the course, so let us know how this exercise went for you and if you gained any insights or had any revelations about yourself or your life.
You can share your thoughts at Mind Alchemy Facebook Group
You can Tweet using the hashtag #MindAlchemy
Or of course you can leave a comment below.
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This one feels a bit like me Steve. I’ll have a go at this at lunch time if I get a chance. If not tonight when I get home.
Marty recently posted..Will you take part in an experiment Im setting up
Hey Marty, hope you’re enjoying the day off and managed to catch up with this exercise
Hi Steven,
I love your breakdown of thoughts. Putting numbers to it provides a wonderful illustration. It is absolutely unnecessary to live with an unpleasant thought about ourselves. When we can redirect and replace our negative thoughts we have nothing to lose but our fearful demeanor.
rob white recently posted..Reality Check- Where is There a NO Sitting Firmly in Your Mind
Hi Rob, I don’t know if the numbers are accurate, but it does give an indication of our thought processes. I think it’s a matter of getting into a habit of thinking the way we want and not let the mind direct our thinking, let the conscious mind direct the subconscious mind.
so far my favorite is the perfect day, very helpful and fun, my perfect day is do able, I really feel it, thank you for this course all has been helpful. I look forward to doing this course daily.
Hi Lyn, so glad you enjoyed this. It’s a great exercise to do and can really get you fired up
I am done reading the instructions on this exercise and will start doing this after dinner tonight. I have a lot of thoughts that needs to be repaired. I agree with not watching the news and reading the newspaper, I even turn off the commercials on the radio and listen to a good music on a CD instead there are so many things in the world today that wants our attention because it’s gold.
I knew about turning the thought around with “WHY” but never practiced it. It’s time to practice it and make it a habit in my life, even I have thoughts that pop-up into my mind which tells me something else, because the “WHY” is so important.
@Steven each day in your course surprise me in a good way
Hi Enghilbert, the news, which is a plural of ‘new’, is not new at all and never will be, and I believe it serves us no purpose aside infecting our minds with negative images of the world. I could rant all day about the ‘News’ and how the media portray the world
I am glad you are enjoying this Engilbert and hope you enjoy the day off today.
Hey Steven!
This looks like something I’d like to try out. I just landed on this page, and I guess, I’ll have to search for day 1.
It would be helpful to put links to day 1 at the beginning of all subsequent days.
Thank you for putting this together and keep up the good work.
Howtolivehappily recently posted..Do You Have Faith in Humanity This Guy Restored His
Hi, I take your point and have included links in future posts, but I guess i should have done it from the beginning, will look at that and change it. thanks for your suggesstions i really appreciate it.
@Engilbert and every mind alchemist – you wont believe how unique is each exercise we’re going through – affecting my life:)
)))
I had a comment from a friend today -who use to say I know you:)
You’ve Changed,Your Different..
and the person has no idea of me attending course:)
I make it one of the important part of the day to learn and enjoy.
Thanks to Steven and all of you..xxx.
Regards D
@Angeldadi: I’ve been reading all the comments from everyone who participate and I must say I’m proud of you all and I’m so glad you are slowly changing your life and I must say this is also starting to affect my life
I will continue to follow this course to the end and I know if I put the work into this I can slowly change my life step by step, I truly believe this and I’m excited to
continue following this AMAZING! course Steven has put together, it works.
Hi Angeldadi, I am so happy that this is having a positive effect on your life and it’s noticable to your friends. we’re having a day off today as suggested in the Facebook group, to allow everyone to catch up. Back again tomorrow as normal for day 8.
WOW!
I counted 185 thoughts. For me it was mind blowing because it was like the mind (the subconscious) gave me always an answer.. and there was one thought there.. that had many thoughts connected with it, irritating problem, I’ve been dealing with for a long time but the good news, I got an answer, next step for me is to continue being part of the Mind Alchemy and change my life.
I used a kitchen timer for this exercise and put it on for 30 minutes..
Looking forward for DAY 8
Great stuff Engilbert, isn’t it amazing the thoughts we have and the pathways they create for other similar thoughts. If we can inject more outcome focused thoughts the pathways that these thoughts create will lead us to the life we really want to lead.
To be honest this exercise blew my mind and really surprised me! So yes it’s amazing
I liked the wheel of life. I think I would have left outcomes off the wheel.
I was overwhelmed with the values exercise…….too many values to sort through. You could add value to a future course with an online database. We could sort and filter the values and prioritize them.
I did a passion test once that was similiar . They had a really quick and easy way to find your Passion(www.boostyourskills.com)
I liked your questions for your ideal day exercise.
I liked your post today. Writing down what your thinking is a good idea.
Very happy with your course……You are doing a great job Steve………
But life has gotten very busy for me
I am saving the exercises and will definitely get back to it.
Now I have to rewrite my speech…….club speech contest tomorrow night.
Hi wayne, thanks for your feedback on the course so far. we’re having a day off today so it might give you some time to catch up a little.
Good luck with the speech contest tonight.
Steven,
I’m looking forward to this exercise, I haven’t done a freewriting exercise in a very long time. I am very curious to see how this exercise goes since I’ve been using affirmations and since I have quit watching the news – a decision that I am glad that I made! I don’t miss the news at all and I find that my thoughts and feelings are both more positive! I will blog about this after I am done.
Thanks for another great task!
Stacy
Stacy recently posted..7 Amazing Lists to Massively Improve Your Business!
Hi Stacy, looking forward to your blog post about this. I think cutting out the news can make a massive difference in our lives.
@Stacy – I think I have to start using affirmations just like you are doing. I also have more positive thoughts when I don’t watch the news.. I have been taught to have a little book of “Gratitude” to write in what I’m thankful for, over time you are able to see all the things you are “Gratitude” for in life, take care & enjoy life.
@Stephen – Thank you for your comment. I wish you all the best in life.
@Stacy, @Engilbert – I too use positive affirmations but I don’t cut myself off from the news. Instead I observe and let the bad stuff pass on; but just before or at that point I think or ask for world peace instead of war, or for abundance rather than poverty and so forth. I also live by Gratitude and its bedfellow – Forgiveness. And I call all of this Paradigm Shift. Take care, Stephen
Stephen Gemmell recently posted..Mind Alchemy Day 7 – The Nature of Your Thoughts
Wow, those are some really interesting statistics. I had no idea that 90% of my thoughts are the same from yesterday. Really interesting work and great teachings for me to change my thoughts.
Bryce Christiansen recently posted..Irrational Behavior We Bet You Do
“How many of the 47,000 spare thoughts that we have each day do we think positively about the future, or plan positively for the future, or ask the right questions to get a better future.”
I am a figure junkie, anything to do with numbers and I am there. I did an experiment for about a month where I aimed to have the maximum number of positive thoughts daily. I managed to do about 10K per day but I can let you know it was extremely hard work.
In the end I did get very tired plus you have to constantly have the timer on.
I try to always ask myself positive questions that seems slightly easier but not as often as doing a mantra type self talk.
Shana recently posted..Happiness The Elusive Rainbow We Are All Chasing – Or Is It Already Here
Great information Steve. I so agree with you that we have the ability to reprogram ourselves and not continue to fall into our pattern of thinking that really does nothing positive for us. I like that 3 step process you summarized of replace, stop and redirect. It breaks the whole thinking process down into easy pieces and puts us on a good path to fix any issues we have with our own thinking. I will have to try the approach that you and Amit are fans of. Sound interesting. Thanks for passing along the info.
Sibyl – alternaview recently posted..10 Books You Need to Read Before You Die
Hi Steven,
This exersise is great. As a person who keeps a journal I find it profoundly cathartic to write out all the worries of my day. Frankly, I don’t know what I would do without it. I’ve been cutting back on the media junk, but that doesn’t stop bad news from coming my way. So writing it out really helps with my stress and negativity. I’m so glad you are having people do this! It’s a really important one!
Dandy recently posted..Self-gratitude
After doing this I am feeling awesome…rather I am able to find a process to conquer one of my bad habits…great stuff…Just loved it..thanks a lot Steven…God bless you always:)
Sayantan Sen recently posted..How to get the spark back in your relationship
Hi Steve,
Like Dandy, I’ve been a regular journaler for a long time now. I do try to do stream of consciousness fairly often in order to drill down from what I think the issue is to what the issue actually is that is stressing me out or occupying my brain. An excellent exercise, and one that should be regularly repeated.
Sue recently posted..For My Girl