This week we’re looking at an easy and wonderful process from Ask and It Is Given, by Abraham-Hicks, called “Which Thought Feels Better?” As you likely guessed, it’s about choosing a better feeling thought than the one that is currently dragging you down. I like to try this process when I’m upset and don’t have a very clear understanding as to why. Conveniently, that happened this very morning, so I get to share a raw process with you so you can see how it looks.
The process itself is easy – you write down a statement about how you feel about the situation, then write another that amplifies the feeling. This is to allow you greater clarity in finding better or worse feeling thoughts. Then, you simply write down a list of thoughts and evaluate if they feel better or worse. The goal here is twofold – to get clarity on exactly how you’re feeling and the thought driving that feeling, and to develop alternative better-feeling thoughts if you want to choose to feel better. It’s just as easy as it sounds.
This morning I woke up with my personal top-three standard worry tracks blasting at full volume:
“I can’t believe I haven’t yet solved my weight issues.”
“There is way too much to do today and I’ll never get it done.”
“I’m a sucky friend for not staying in touch more consistently.”
I knew that having all three of these blasting – at 7AM! – meant that I was worried about something deeper and was masking it with these standard old tracks. However, knowing that didn’t give me any access to changing it. So I picked one of the tracks and just used this process on it. I’m going to write down my thoughts and indicate whether they felt better or worse in parentheses:
Original Thought: “There is way too much to do today and I’ll never get it done.”
Feelings: Overwhelmed, afraid, dreadful
New Thoughts:
- I can do the bare minimum and it will be enough. (better)
- Other people can do more than this on an average day and be fine. (worse)
- Even if I can’t get everything done, nothing really bad is going to happen. (better)
- I’m choosing my own deadlines and schedule, so I can change this if I want to. (better)
- In the end, I don’t “have” to do anything. (better)
- I can not do anything. (worse)
Check out this process in your own life when you’re feeling stuck. This was enough for me today to break through the loop and pick another pattern. Some days it takes a whole legal page of thoughts before I find a better-feeling one.
I’d love to hear how this works for you – leave a comment below and let us know how it goes.