Quotes & Sayings About Controlling Your Thoughts

Most people assume that meditation is all about stopping thoughts, getting rid of emotions, somehow controlling the mind. But actually it's ... about stepping back, seeing the thought clearly, witnessing it coming and going. — Andy Puddicombe

In other words, it requires deliberate self-deception, including a constant effort to repress or block out unpleasant possibilities and 'negative' thoughts. The truly self-confident, or those who have in some way made their peace with the world and their destiny within it, do not need to expend effort censoring or otherwise controlling their thoughts. — Barbara Ehrenreich

If human emotions largely result from thinking, then one may appreciably control one's feelings by controlling one's thoughts - or by changing the internalized sentences, or self-talk, with which one largely created the feeling in the first place. — Albert Ellis

The Ego, as noted, is simply the content of your PSM [Phenomenal Self Model] at this moment (your bodily sensations, your emotional state, your perceptions, memories, acts of will, thoughts). But it can become the Ego only because you are constitutionally unable to realize that all this is just the content of a simulation in your brain. It is not reality itself but an image of reality - and a very special one indeed. The Ego is a transparent mental image: You - the physical person as a whole - look right through it. You do not see it. You see with it. The Ego is a tool for controlling and planning your behavior and for understanding the behavior of others — Thomas Metzinger

I don't fix anybody, because I don't think anybody's broken. I think what people have are patterns, and those can be changed. People quickly understand that what's controlling their thoughts and emotions are their values and rules, and they learn how to shift those. — Tony Robbins

It Is Not about Controlling Thoughts, It Is about Guiding Thoughts — Esther Hicks

Our greatest individual challenge in life is self-discipline. The self-discipline of a healthy diet, daily exercise, controlling our thoughts, selflessly serving others, and living a life of integrity. — Bradford Winters

Physical brains are subject to the laws of physics; mental states are subject to the laws of logic. Those who think mental states are entirely physical hold a logically contradictory position. In order to think rationally about their thoughts , they must have the freedom to do so, but this freedom is unavailable if the laws of physics and chemistry are controlling their thoughts. — J. Warner Wallace

The brain has an attentional mode called the "mind wandering mode" that was only recently identified. This is when thoughts move seamlessly from one to another, often to unrelated thoughts, without you controlling where they go. This brain state acts as a neural reset button, allowing us to come back to our work with a refreshed perspective. Different people find they enter this mode in different ways: reading, a walk in nature, looking at art, meditating, and napping. A 15-minute nap can produce the equivalent of a 10-point boost in IQ. — Daniel Levitin

When the yogi starts to meditate, he must leave behind all sensory thoughts and all longings for possessions by quieting the waves of feeling (chitta), and the mental restlessness that arises therefrom, through the application of techniques that reinstate the controlling power of the untrammeled superconsciousness of the soul. — Paramahansa Yogananda

Peace is not achieved by controlling nations, but mastering our thoughts. — John Harricharan

You cannot escape the results of your thoughts. Whatever your present environment may be, you will fall, remain or rise with your thoughts, your vision, your ideal. You will become as small as your controlling desire; as great as your dominant aspiration. — James Lane Allen

Everybody in the world is seeking happiness - and there is one sure way to find it. That is by controlling your thoughts. Happiness doesn't depend on outward conditions. It depends on inner conditions. — Dale Carnegie

First we saw only our own shame. Now we see that Jesus' shame was deeper than our own, and we were among the scorners. First we saw only our own alienation and rejection. Now we see that Jesus' alienation and rejection was at the hands of the entire world, ourselves included. First we saw only contempt and self-contempt. Now we see that all human contempt was focused on Jesus - and we participated. No matter how stubbornly resistant to change your shame might be, witnessing extreme shame like this will move your shame to second place in your thoughts. This doesn't mean it disappears, but it makes a difference when your shame is number two on your list rather than number one. It makes a huge difference. When Jesus and his shame occupy our attention, our own shame becomes less controlling. Let us "fix our eyes on Jesus" (Hebrews 12:2 NIV). Fix your eyes on the one who absorbed shame and then announced that its reign was over. At least you will no longer feel alone. — Edward T. Welch

So it's like that old adage about seeing the cup as half full rather than half empty?"
"That's a fair way to look at it. No matter what happens to you in your life, you alone have the capacity to choose your response to it. When you form the habit of searching for the positive in every circumstance, your life will move into its highest dimensions. This is one of the greatest of all the natural laws."
"And it all starts with using your mind more effectively?"
"Exactly, John. All success in life, whether material or spiritual, starts with that twelve-pound mass sitting between your shoulders. Or more specifically, with the thoughts that you put into your mind every second of every minute of every day. Your outer world reflects the state of your inner world. By controlling the thoughts that you think and the way you respond to the events of your life, you begin to control your destiny. — Robin S. Sharma

Are we controlled by our thoughts, or are we controlling our thoughts? — Raymond Holliwell

Changing your attitude, your outlook, your mindset, perspective, disposition, or mood - they all mean controlling where you allow your thoughts to linger. — Richelle E. Goodrich

Controlling unwanted thoughts is not the problem. Believing, thrusting, and taking direction from them is. — Charles F. Glassman

Remember, NO ONE has the right to control your emotions, thoughts, and actions, unless you let them. — Kevin J. Donaldson

Education is the strongest weapon available for restricting the questions people ask, controlling what they think, and ensuring that they get their thoughts 'from above'. — John Carroll

events are due to decisions, and choices are based on our intentions. What we get is the result of these choices, even though they are unconscious, rather than what we think we want. When we surrender the pressure of wantingness, we are clear to make wiser choices and decisions. We think that our happiness depends on controlling events, and that facts are what upset us. Actually, it is our feelings and thoughts about these facts that are the real cause of our upset. Facts in and of themselves are neutral things. The power we give them is due to our attitude of acceptance or non-acceptance and our overall feeling state. — David R. Hawkins

Controlling thoughts and behaviors is one of the tasks that System 2 performs. — Daniel Kahneman

Those who must control everything fear being vulnerable. Why? Because to be vulnerable opens one up to being shamed. All my life I used up my energies by always having to be guarded. This was a mighty waste of time and energy. The fear was that I would be exposed. And when exposed, all would see that I was flawed and defective as a person - an imposter. Control is a way to ensure that no one can ever shame us again. It involves controlling our own thoughts, expressions, feelings and actions. And it involves attempting to control other people's thoughts, feelings and actions. Control is the ultimate villain in destroying intimacy. We cannot share freely unless we are equal. When one person controls another, equality is ruptured. — John Bradshaw

I am lost! Someone has taken over my mind and is controlling it! Someone is in command of all my actions, movements, and thoughts. I am nothing inside, merely a spectator enslaved and terrified by everything I do. — Guy De Maupassant

Man, double-faced by nature, is placed by Revelation under a sharp, precise external rule, controlling his actions and his thoughts. — Sabine Baring-Gould