I’ve been reading a lot of Eckhart Tolle lately.  The questions he poses give me great pause and in this case, a topic for this week's Uplifting Moment.  Eckhart asks, “Why would you hold on to a thought of resentment?  Why would you have your mind produce such thoughts?” These are great riddles to ponder, because when faced with a question like that, vs. “why are your thoughts full of resentment” you begin to see YOU as the creator instead of your circumstances.

Resentment prevents countless relationships from developing any kind of bond or good will, or even an allowance for something to be as it is. When you get rid of thoughts of resentment, you can be with what happened, and perhaps even allow what was previously unknown to be revealed.

Then it becomes self-evident that the person, circumstance, or condition didn’t cause the resentment — your mind did.

It is a powerful awareness to know that your mind is producing your thoughts and that you can change your mind in an instant.

To change your thinking, imagine that your mind is a factory producing thoughts. At the end of the line, before you deliver your shipment of thoughts, do a little quality control. Does the thought match your intentional design, and will it fulfill the customer’s needs? If you were sending out a catalog of your thoughts would it be filled with pictures of regrets, anger, resentment? Or how about complaints, sorrow, hurt, resistance, resignation, giving in or giving up, or unforgivingness?

Hmmm, no, I don’t think so. I would prefer to have mine filled with ease, peace, love, joy, forgiveness, connection, presence of mind, and breakthrough thinking. How about you?

I was listening to Louis Satchmo Armstrong singing Dave Brubeck’s Summer Song, and I was struck by the lyrics, “Love is like a summer day, even if it ends, the memories will stay.” Memories of loss do remain. Yet, you can have your memories and still not have them dictate what is available to you today.
When you begin to see the self-limiting decisions you’ve made and accept them; in the acceptance… in the seeing… you wake up to what’s possible now. You stop acting out of past judgments, and bring your thinking to this moment. Once you see what your mind is producing, you can stop that production line when it no longer serves you (or your customers!)

Once you stop the production of limiting or harmful thoughts don’t just move them to some dark corner of your factory as if they were things that needed to be stored away in boxes, on shelves, labeled for easy access later. Why? Because you don’t need them. Divorce, losing a job, unresolved conflict, health issues, or just a general dissatisfaction with the substance of your life can be a catalyst to look into and change how you’re thinking. When something happens that shakes a thought loose, consider that perhaps, that way of thinking you stored so carefully, no longer serves you or others.

So let’s start spring-cleaning our mind factories a little early this year and install the “choose now” upgrade. The practice this week is to choose your thoughts, and act as if you do have a choice in the matter of what you think. You do. You are powerful. You can change your thinking and change your life.
Let me know what happens and what kind of thoughts your mind produces this week. I appreciate your feedback!

My love goes with you as you work with this Uplifting Moment.

COMMENTS?  What are your most harmful thoughts? I asked several people to tell me their top 3: they included anger, regret, resignation, resistance, and anxiety. Regret was a common denominator.

Think about your top 3.

It’s easy to change your thoughts when you acknowledge and own your way of thinking.

It’s often in the recognition of these thoughts that you create room for something new.