The Power of Thought
By Layne Whitley

How much of our life experience is created by our internal perceptions and thought patterns? To what degree do our core beliefs create the structure through which we filter and process information? At what level are we responsible for the events and outcomes that manifest in our lives, and is it possible to create the lives we wish to unfold?

Historically the true and fictional life stories of humans and their struggles have revolved around both tragic and heroic outcomes. How does one character rise above their circumstances to experience success while another suffers and remains within their limitations? Whether the struggle be freedom from addiction, creating wealth, surviving war and violence, finding career fulfillment, recovering from abuse, and countless other forms of healing and attainment of desires, how does one person succeed where another fails? What is the true “secret” if, indeed, there is a secret at all?

According to bestselling author Louise L. Hay, “What we think about ourselves becomes the truth for us… Every thought we think is creating our future. Each one of us creates our experiences by our thoughts and our feelings. The thoughts we think and the words we speak create our experience.”¹ She discusses this concept in her book You Can Heal Your Life in order to help individuals move beyond the victim mentality where they blame others (including themselves) for the ways their lives have turned out. She encourages her readers to take responsibility for their lives in order to uncover and heal all negative beliefs that create the blue print for their life experiences.

Although we certainly can have positive belief systems, it is the negative thought patterns that keep us from reaching our true goals and desired outcomes. These perceptions, often buried on a subconscious level, cause us to repeat behavior patterns according to what we believe about ourselves. For example, we may want financial wealth but within our subconscious mind may believe we are not worth more than the poverty level. Our spending and earning patterns will be the thermostat that measures our internal belief. On a conscious level we may truly desire a loving relationship yet on a core level consider ourselves unlovable, thus will continue to remain alone and incapable of attracting a healthy relationship.

In the best seller Secrets of the Millionaire Mind author T. Harv Eker bases the ability to make money on a person’s level of self-worth and positive belief systems. In order to succeed he claims one must become aware of and change all self-limiting beliefs that surrounding money and as well as building inner confidence. Eker states that we live in at least four different realms at once: the physical world, the mental world, the emotional world, and the spiritual world. He considers the physical world a mere blueprint or reflection of what is going on within the other three levels. His first wealth principle states “If you want to change the fruits, you will first have to change the roots. If you want to change the visible, you must first change the invisible.”²

It was through uncovering his limiting beliefs about himself and his perceptions of money that Eker was able to pull himself from financial, spiritual, and emotional bankruptcy. He not only went on to make billions but also become a teacher to help others uncover subconscious blocks that prevented them from reaching all of their dreams. After studying methods of countless masters of success, Eker developed his own formula for the means in which we create our reality. He calls it the “Process of Manifestation” which looks like: P à T à F à A = R. He describes this process by stating “Your programming leads to your thoughts; your thoughts lead to your feelings; your feelings lead to actions; your actions lead to your results.”³

Yet, if our thoughts have the ability to create what is happening in our lives, then why would we ever choose to have beliefs that generate negative outcomes? For most individuals negative thoughts are due to a lack of awareness regarding the connection between our subconscious beliefs and what manifests in our lives. Furthermore, our insecurities and lack of self worth come from our earliest past often so far back as to leave us completely unconscious of their influence. Louise Hay discusses this process as a natural development that occurs in accordance to our upbringing. She asserts that “when we are very little, we learn how to feel about ourselves and about life by the reactions of the adults around us. It is the way we learn what to think about ourselves and about the world.”⁴ She goes on to mention that if you “lived with people who are very unhappy, frightened, guilty, or angry, then you learned a lot of negative things about yourself and about your world. ‘I never do anything right.’ ‘It’s my fault.’ ‘If I get angry, I’m a bad person.’ Beliefs like this create a frustrating life.”⁵

This process is what Don Miguel Ruiz calls the “domestication of humans” in his book The Four Agreements. Much like animals, he draws parallels to how we are conditioned through a system of punishment and reward. Early on we learn that we are not loved unconditionally by the adults and peers in our lives and come to the realization that we must adapt and alter our behavior in order to be accepted by others in our society. This process is very damaging to our self-esteem and disconnects us with our true selves. He states “with that fear of being punished and that fear of not getting the reward, we start pretending to be what we are not, just to please others, just to be good enough for someone else.”⁶ Furthermore, at a young age we are impressionable and are easily “hooked” by the perceptions and values that surrounded us and incorporate these beliefs as our own.

Psychologists believe it is in the creation of this “alter personality” that the ego is born, where the split between the “inner” and “outer” self begins (as well as all the trouble!). This split is captured profoundly by author Carol Anthony in her book Love, An Inner Connection which discusses the original consciousness of a baby where all inner selves are one, then the creation of the ego and subsequent suppression of the true self. “This unified self is primarily a feeling self that remains unified until, through its unique power of decision, it decides to accept abstract ideas that are in fundamental disagreement with what it knows and feels within. It does this upon the introduction of fears that cause the self to doubt what it knows. This doubt splits the personality into these two consciousness, or selves.”⁷

Eckert Tolle goes further to link the ego mind with all limiting beliefs that hold one back from reaching true fulfillment and the end of suffering. In his book The Power of Now he warns his readers that “identification with your mind creates an opaque screen of concepts, labels, images, words, judgments, and definitions that blocks all true relationship.”⁸ One of the most important relationships blocked is the relationship of unconditional love for and acceptance of our true self. Furthermore, the dark realization is that at some point we create our paradigms and beliefs, then they continue to create us. Our experiences become filtered through that which we have accepted long ago and lost responsibility of choice for.

Although the experience of limiting beliefs and their subsequent negative outcomes can certainly be frustrating, with awareness we can use this as a tool to lessen the gap between our true aspirations (inner self) and undesired results (ego). After a lifetime of suffering and blame, Brenda Ehrler decided to take responsibility for her life and make the necessary changes it took on an internal level in order to create the life of her dreams. In her book Learning To Be You: It’s An Inside Job she affirms “there is a reason why we draw external replication. It is to help us learn and grow. Our spiritual self will bring a reflection of our internal beliefs by way of external experiences.”⁹

Anthony also believes we can begin to take responsibility for the transformation of our limiting beliefs. “A contemporary metaphor for renewing the self is contained in the computer. We erase defective programs, build bigger ram space in terms of heart and mind, clean out negative and harmful memories stored, and rebuild our desktops, meaning we restructure the way we perceive situations and experiences.”¹⁰ She also goes on to state that it is through awareness and discipline that we change the patterns that operate in our external lives.

This awareness mostly begins by observation. Tolle inspires readers to start watching what he calls “The Thinker,” the ego mind. By the mere act of observing without judgment we are able to begin to re-identify with our true self. He states that a higher level of consciousness becomes activated and that “as you listen to the thoughts, you feel a conscious presence. Your deeper self – behind or underneath the thought, as it were. The thought then loses its power over you and quickly subsides, because you are no longer energizing the mind through identification with it. This is the beginning of the end of involuntary and compulsive thinking.”¹¹

Louise Hay encourages us to not only observe our disabling beliefs but to take ownership once more by refusing to indulge them. “We may habitually think the same thought over and over so that it does not seem we are choosing the thought. But we did make the original choice. We can refuse to think certain thoughts. Look how often you have refused to think a positive thought about yourself. Well, you can also refuse to think a negative thought about yourself.”¹² By committing to this process of observation and choice of thought we are potentially able to transcend our circumstances and draw the desired outcomes to our lives.

James A. Ray, author of The Science of Success, takes this concept of choice a step further. He believes you need more than just the removal of a negative thought because, much like weeding a garden, another limiting belief may spring up in its place. He echoes the majority of today’s leading positive thinkers with the belief that affirmations are a key tool in replacing disabling beliefs with new and healthier perceptions. Furthermore, Ray also captures the shared belief that in order to transcend paradigms that no longer serve one must not focus on present circumstances as they are a product of the past. This perspective is taken to a deeper level when Eckhart Tolle associates the ego mind with the past and the future and the true self with the present.

Staying present and vigilantly working to observe one’s thoughts as well as replacing beliefs that no longer serve with positive affirmations is a process that takes commitment and patience. Ray encourages his audience to continue to have faith in this practice, especially when at first the results we desire do not immediately appear. The author eloquently likens the experience to a glass of dark red cranberry juice. This glass represents our limiting beliefs and non-serving paradigms. As we begin to add water (metaphor for our desired positive paradigm and outcomes) the glass will still look dark red at first and have the potential to frustrate us. However, if we continue to commit to the process the glass will ultimately be replaced with the clear purity of our intent.¹³

In conclusion, from our earliest experiences it appears that humans receive a level of conditioning that has the potential to not only affect their self esteem but to create a subconscious “blue print” that dictates the way they will perceive and create their life experience. For many individuals these disabling thoughts and core beliefs are on a subconscious level and may stay at that level unless a necessary degree of awareness surfaces. Once this “blue print” has been exposed, a person is able to choose to transcend the victim and blame mentality into a level of choice and responsibility. From this level we reach an altogether higher consciousness as we tap deeper into our “true self” while releasing the grip of the fearful and limiting ego mind.

Thus, a person may choose to remain a victim and forever wonder why they are on the rough end of the stick, dealing with life’s setbacks, struggling to make ends meet, and blaming countless others and reasons for their “lot in life.” However, another person may deal with identical issues but is willing to recognize their level of responsibility and change their circumstances. Therefore, it appears that everyone has the potential to see how their beliefs are creating what they experience, and that we ALL have the ability to create a life of our dreams. Yet, each person must be willing to take the initiative to look inward. Louise Hay captures this moment perfectly with the reminder that “the past has no power over us. It doesn’t matter how long we have had a negative pattern. The point of power is in the present moment. What a wonderful thing to realize! We can begin to be free in this moment!”¹⁴

1. Hay, You Can Heal Your Life, 7.
2. Eker, Secrets of the Millionaire Mind, 12.
3. Eker, Secrets of the Millionaire Mind, 19-20.
4. Hay, You Can Heal Your Life, 9.
5. Hay, You Can Heal Your Life, 9.
6. Ruiz, The Four Agreements, 7.
7. Anthony, Love, An Inner Connection, 4
8. Tolle, The Power of Now, 12.
9. Ehler, Learning To Be You: It’s An Inside Job, 24.
10. Anthony, Love, An Inner Connection, 6.
11. Tolle, The Power of Now, 19.
12. Hay, You Can Heal Your Life, 11.
13. Ray, The Science of Success, audio version.
14. Hay, You Can Heal Your Life, 11.

Anthony, Carol. Love, An Inner Connection. Massachusetts : Anthony Publishing Company, 2002.

Ehler, Brenda. Learning To Be You: It’s An Inside Job. Utah : Just Be Publishing,Inc., 2000.

Eker, T. Harv. Secrets of the Millionaire Mind. New York : Harper Collins Publishing, Inc., 2005.

Hay, Louise. You Can Heal Your Life. California : Hay House Inc., 1988

Ray, James A. The Science of Success. California : James Ray International, 2005.

Ruiz, Don Miguel. The Four Agreements. California : Amber-Allen Publishing, Inc., 1997.

Tolle, Eckhart. The Power of Now. California : Namaste Publishing, Inc., 1999.

©laynewhitley, 2010. Article may be reprinted with permission.

Layne Whitley, Food & Weight Loss Coach, helps clients lose weight, eat healthier, and feel great… naturally! To get your FREE e-book on lasting weight loss and receive her weekly recipes & success mindset articles on reaching your wellness potential, visit www.laynewhitley.com or email her at coach@laynewhitley.com.