While I am not very consistent with my approach to inner well-being, I am always trying novel approaches.  In this way I may not make deep progress on any one front, but am able to chip away here and there, which may have a bit more rounded effect over all.  At least, that’s the positive spin I am choosing to see it as.  

We all must do what we can to re-envision our weak areas as not necessarily drawbacks, but just methods that we don’t currently have a natural affinity towards… and to look for the positives in the approaches we do take.  

For me, this is made apparent lately through an approach my oh-so-insightful husband explained to me.  In paraphrase, he said that when we have thoughts that don’t align with our higher good, one tool we can employ is to just say “Next!”.  We can put an end to the train of thought right then and there and allow the opportunity for another, more aligned, thought to come to us.  “Next!”

I’ve been practicing the “Next!” method this past week or so.  

The first day wasn’t too successful.  When I looked back upon my day, I could only recall a couple of times during the day when I was able to remember to employ the “Next!”.  At the end of the day when I discussed my seemingly dismal rate of success with him, my husband explained to me that this is something that has to be practiced and practiced and practiced, and with that practice, comes more awareness, more success with it.  It has to get to the point where it’s a constant evaluation going on where we toss out the negative and allow something more high vibe to take root in our thought patterns.  In this way, we can “reprogram” our automatic thoughts.

Reprogramming automatic thoughts is not a new concept for me.  What’s new to me is this particular method of declaring “Next!” to consciously achieve better thought patterns.  It’s so simple, and I’m liking it quite a lot.  Day 2 and onward has progressively gotten easier to recall the choice I have to employ my “Next!” directive.  I even found myself having some thoughts yesterday that, when I evaluated them, I decided No, that’s awesome, give me more of that!!  Positive thoughts!  Not that I don’t often have positive thoughts, but those are more my chosen, conscious thoughts, crafted non-automatically.  The thought patterns I’m trying to target are the unconscious negative nelly thoughts that so frequently run rampant in the background of my mind.  And it’s working!

Last night I was sitting on the bed, reflecting upon my day, and my thoughts had wondered yet again, in an almost dream-like fashion.  I can’t tell you exactly what I was thinking… by this morning I forget.  But the gist of it was… I was thinking about all this in a positive way, and then I noticed in the background that I had a second set of feeling-thoughts that were of the negative nelly ilk!  I could not believe I had two completely opposite and separate lines of “thought” going on at the same time and that I was able to notice it.  It was like the positive thought I was thinking more consciously was of the mind, and the negative nelly “thoughts” I somehow noticed were completely disconnected from my conscious thought in that they felt more like feelings that I could understand in spoken words after noticing it.  I don’t really know how to explain it in another way.  I was just shocked that the two were so distinctly different vibes and happening simultaneously.  What the heck is that!?!  Who or what was adding that second negative nelly experience???  Was it me?  Could it be an entity attachment’s subliminal messages?  How about just someone or something, near me, attempting to interject?  I really have no idea.  But I am completely convinced it could just be a second line of my own thinking/feeling.  The other day I was reading from the book of Shi-ji to my husband and read a couple of paragraphs, complete with an animated voice (really into it), and yet I also found my mind elsewhere contemplating a tangent sparked by the previous content.  Consciousness seems quite capable of dual processing, in my opinion.  Yet, I have more questions than answers at times.

Either way, I am pleased with the progress I am getting with the “Next!” method.  It seems to be aiding in revealing more of myself to myself.  And while I may not be very consistent with, say daily meditations or yoga, I am chipping away at my ego self in other ways, even if those strategies frequently change up.