The Zen of Success – You are What You Think

Posted by Shawn Altman on Jun 13, 2013 in The Zen Of Success

We’ve all heard the phrase “You are what you eat.” Well, it applies mentally too, as in “You are what you think.”

You should understand that your thoughts can be either good or bad, can either be useful or useless, and either meaningful or meaningless. Now I think everyone understands that some thoughts are permanent and keep periodically rising to the surface of our mind, and then of course some thoughts are casual, and we can selectively use or discard them at our will and pleasure, and last, there are thoughts we have that disturb our minds, and thankfully there are thoughts that make the mind peaceful.

It’s a very well-known fact that actions can be good or bad, useful to us or just plain useless, as well as meaningful or just plain meaningless, and while some actions are regular and continuous, as we keep performing them occasionally, and some actions are just temporary, as we perform them selectively. Then, some actions are casual, and we perform them selectively at our choosing, as well as reject them at our will and pleasure. Some actions simply disturb the mind and others are wonderful at making the mind peaceful, and there are powerful actions that are incredibly good for the health and those that are extremely harmful.

Over the years we have learned the easiest way to cultivate our good thoughts is to simply get rid of our bad thoughts, and if we difficulty ridding ourselves of bad thoughts, it is very difficult then to cultivate any good thoughts, yet, if we are able to get rid of a few bad thoughts, then the mind will begin to fill with several good thoughts, and it is these good thoughts when cultivated that make the mind peaceful, and clearly focused and concentrated on any particular subject or object.

Now you should understand the easiest way for us to cultivate performing good actions is to rid ourselves of performing any bad actions, since without ridding ourselves of bad actions it is very difficult to perform any good, but even if we rid ourselves of only a few bad actions, we have started down the right path and we will start performing several good actions. Finally, it is the performance of these good actions that make the mind peaceful, body healthy and then we can be of good cheer and peaceful at all times.