You know those annoying thoughts that keep popping into your head, the crap stuff that’s neither healthy nor helpful. Stuff you don’t set out to think about but as soon as you have a moment or empty space in your mind up they pop and set about making themselves at home. The experts on such matters will tell you it’s your fault for thinking them, and this is true but only to a certain extent. There comes a point when thoughts continually given head room establish themselves as a pattern, and a pattern is simply a habit waiting it’s turn. The problem we have is every time this happens we get annoyed and feel guilty at not being able to control our thinking, which is totally understandable. What we don’t realise is control is much easier when you have knowledge and understanding of the situation and you see the whole crap thinking process for what it is.
Regardless of the content, the pattern is an established vibrational frequency you have laid down over time. You are literally laying down a grove for your energy to follow, but if we are not careful the grove can become a rut and we all know how hard it is to try and get out of a rut once it becomes established. The more you do something the easier it becomes and experience often leads to complacency and we click into autopilot. The autopilot engaged, we switch off and allow our mind to wander or focus on other stuff. The hands are busy and the mind is left to its own devices and so it follows the path of least resistance and flows through the channels created by old residual thought patterns.
Primarily the ability to think allows us to focus on what we already know, but a thought or vibration can’t exist independently of the outside world. This leads to thoughts being associated with or connected to external experiences and these act as triggers to the established patterns. It can be something as simple as a routine; a memory, a place, a person or even a sound or smell that acts as a subconscious trigger to the initiating thought pattern. The trigger does it’s job and out of the blue the pattern appears as if by magic. Guilt isn’t compulsory; it’s a personal choice usually based on conditioning and a learned response. The thing with guilt is it’s toxic and by nature of its negativity serves no useful purpose, and like all things toxic it tends to poison the person holding on to it. One of the other down sides is if we continually feel guilty about an established pattern it has the opposite effect to what you may think. Guilt by nature of its toxicity is a poor motivator of change.
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If you want to empower someone to change their life you educate them and provide them with the knowledge and understanding necessary to accomplish it. Guilt is misplaced emotion and is usually accompanied by ignorance and fear and rather than help us change the unwanted pattern it keeps us attached to it through the misuse of our attention and intention.
As the old saying goes “what we resist will persist’’ and by fighting the old pattern and loading it up with huge amounts of negative energy in the form of guilt, ignorance and fear we ensure the thing we want rid of remains well and truly established. A pattern is something you created when you didn’t know any better and channeled a great deal of your energy into it, but that’s all it is, a vibrational frequency you have given form and structure to, but in itself it has no power other than what you choose to give it. You simply believe in it more than you believe in yourself and resistance is simply another way of inviting it into your life.
Your energy/vibration follows your intention so the best way to get rid of an unwanted or outgrown thought pattern is ignore it and question the importance you have mistakenly given it in the past. See it for what it is to create a new healthier life affirming pattern by focusing on the thing you want, not the thing you don’t want. Most people get it the wrong way round; they make a mistake but instead of keeping the lesson found in the consequence of our action they carry the mistake like unwanted and unnecessary baggage they don’t know how to put down.
The old pattern like the mistake is who you were when you allowed it to happen; the lesson and the ability to change and let go is who you are now, and how well you can put the theory into practice will determine who and what you will become. The past can’t be changed but the patterns holding you to it can be and a lesson learnt is the ultimate example of an old pattern finally reaching its expiry date.
Article by Phillip Hawkins
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A Reiki practitioner since 1999, Phillip started teaching Reiki in 2000 and using those skills and abilities he has spent the majority of the last seventeen years working with a wide range of social and educational needs including Autism and ADHD. Working with addicts dependent on alcohol and drugs, people whose lives were extremely violent and abusive, and others who had to deal with severe mental health issues. This has enabled him to work extensively in the private sector, schools, colleges, education and care in the community, the prison service and psychiatric units.
In 2016, Phillip decided to semi-retire from full-time employment to concentrate on developing his career as a published author and the setting up of his Reiki personal development programme at the Chilton Community College.
This is so thoughtfully written. You nailed it at right place. Thank you.