___NATURE & EFFECTS OF THOUGHTS___

One of the most important aspects of our life is our thought process. All our actions and behavior have their origin in our thoughts. Thoughts are not ordinary things. They are potent weapons which can care as well as injure others and therefore should be handled very carefully. It will not be an exaggeration to say that thoughts are the greatest forces in the world acting on mankind, although invisible in nature.

In fact every thought acts as a mold in which our future is being constantly shaped. Hence it is very desirable for an evolving soul to understand correctly the nature of thoughts and their effects and powers so that they can be controlled to the best of their advantages.

Thoughts have vibrations: As there are vibrations of light, sound etc.  Similarly there are vibrations of thoughts. Whenever we think some good or bad thoughts, vibrations of these permeate in the surrounding atmosphere and affect the people present there positively or negatively, depending upon the nature of thoughts. In other words the atmosphere gets charged with the thought vibrations present there. Thought vibrations are different from physical vibrations.  They are not physical in nature like vibrations of light and sound etc. Physical vibrations are felt by our conscious mind directly through our physical senses, while thought vibrations are first registered in our subconscious mind and from there the impression is passed on to the conscious mind.

Thought have the power of materialization:  Whatever we think, we attract physical conditions and events in accordance with it. By a mysterious process, our subconscious mind tends to materialize all our thoughts into their physical equivalent by the most direct and practical media available. More the power of thought more the power of materialization. The power of thought increases by repetition of the same thought again and again by attaching emotions (e.g. love, faith, expectancy etc.) with the thought. If your thoughts are positive, positive conditions will emerge in life, if they are negative, negative conditions will emerge. The subconscious mind doesn’t make any distinction between good or bad thoughts. It will just accept any thought whether good or bad transmitted to it by our conscious mind and starts executing it like a faithful and the most powerful servant on the conscious mind.

Thoughts are constantly modifying and affecting our subconscious mind: Whatever we think, it goes on depositing in the vast lake of our subconscious mind. We are constantly depositing good and bad impressions in our subconscious mind according to the thoughts we are harboring. Accordingly this lake becomes dirty or clean. Impressions of these thoughts in our subconscious mind further incite us to have similar thoughts off and on again. So this becomes a vicious circle that needs to be broken. By various yoga practices and deliberate positive thinking the negative impressions of our thoughts can be gradually erased leading to the purity of mind.

This should make it clear that thoughts should not be treated as a small matter. Ordinarily people think that nothing will happen just by thinking. But thought make a groove in our subconscious mind and become a part of our overall personality.

Personality is nothing but a sum total of all impressions deposited in our subconscious mind.

A strong and positive thinking mind remains immune to negative thoughts: It is a sure antidote to any negative thought vibrations or psychic attacks. It has a strong aura which can’t be pierced by negative thought vibrations. Negative thoughts will not affect such a person. One can increase his mental strength and positivity by practice of yoga and meditation.

Thoughts attract like thoughts: Our atmosphere always remains filled with all sorts of thought vibrations. Whenever we think something, we attract similar types of thoughts from the thought atmosphere, according to the law of psychic attraction.

Negative thoughts weaken the mind and make it restless, agitated and impure while positive thoughts strengthen it and make it pure. Hence, it is not a question of just thinking a thought. Each thought is making a definite impact upon the health of your mind also.

Positive thinking creates a positive ‘Aura’ around your body: Aura is radiations or emissions around your body and their quality depends upon the state of your health and state of your mind. If your mind is always positive, cheerful and peaceful, the quality of your aura will be very good. This aura or auric vibrations benefit not only you but also all those who come in contact with you. A tired and restless mind feels a soothing effect in the vicinity of such persons.

Negative thoughts produce stress response in the body while positive thoughts create relaxation response: Negative thoughts not only disturb your mind they also create stress or alarm response (also called fight or flight response) in the body, because of which certain biological changes occur in the body system due to arousal of the sympathetic nervous system. If this happens frequently or constantly due to one’s habit of indulging in negative thoughts, continuous imbalance is created in the two components of autonomous nervous system (namely sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system) which leads to stress and many other psychosomatic diseases.

In yogic terminology, the same thing is understood in this manner that when your mind is negatively charged, the flow of prana gets disturbed and disturbance in the flow of prana leads to physical disorders or diseases because the physical body is sustained by prana only.

On the other hand positive thoughts create relaxation response in the body tending to bring physical parameters to more balanced conditions. Positive thoughts increase your pranic energy and direct it upward in the body which helps in your spiritual growth, while negative thoughts deplete the pranic energy of the body and turn its direction downwards in the body which takes man more away from it.

Watch your thoughts, they become your words.

Watch your words, they become your actions.

Watch your actions, they become your habits.

 Watch your habits, they become your character.

Watch your character; it will be your destiny.

-  From different spiritual scriptures -