My five most recent reads have dealt substantially with mindset, each challenging me in different ways. These books question things like my financial blueprint and how my biases are detrimental to my earning potential, inquire as to why the narrative I tell myself, about myself, is so disturbing, force me to acknowledge my finite-mindedness when an infinite mindset is the true goal, etc., etc., etc. Each book has been instrumental in reshaping how I think and has made me more aware of my thoughts and the multiple ways they are influenced, manipulated, and highjacked.
One of the most impactful consequences in reading these books is they have tweaked and tuned me to better hear the surrounding negativity. When you turn on the TV, listen to and read the news, or just pay more attention to the people with whom you regularly interact, the river of negativity is overwhelming. It requires little-to-no effort to dive in and be swept away. It’s so easy, most of us don’t even know we are actively participating in the negative noise. But once you allow yourself to capture and judge your inputs and thoughts, you quickly recognize how easily you are overcome by negativity, and how often we return the favor in kind and spew our own negative opinions, thoughts, and emotions, without considering the source or effect.
More important than making me aware my surroundings, these books helped me to see MY substantial contributions to the gloomy narrative. In “Think Like a Monk,” Jay Shetty recounted an exercise where for every negative comment a monk would make concerning a brother monk, he would then write out 10 positive attributes to counter the comment. This practically helped them to see more readily the positive in others. Jay Shetty then challenges the reader to actively track how many negative thoughts we have daily, with the goal to decrease the number, eventually, and intentionally, replacing the negativity with affirming and positive thoughts. This level of self-awareness is simple, but not easy. Achieving zero negative thoughts is a huge task, but the awareness of our thoughts is as simple as acknowledging them and attempting to do something about it.
I cannot fully express my gratitude to these authors for the life-giving advice they provide. Whenever we create time to read, and don’t just check off titles from our impressive reading list, but allow ourselves to use authors as mentors, the gifts received are beyond measure. I am not enlightened, and the road ahead is long with many bumps, curves, dead ends, and barriers. But I am more aware, and this has made a huge difference in my intentionality to shine a light in the surrounding negativity.
Written by David Gutierrez
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