Think Larger

Thoughts shape our perception of reality. The fact that the world we perceive appears according to our thoughts about it is commonly recognized.

Our perceptions of ourselves, others, as well as humanity and the world, are no larger or smaller than the assumptions and beliefs we hold about them. If you want to powerfully change your life, then work on expanding your mind.

Global Shift: Practice Meditation On a personal level, "thinking larger" means engaging in practices that can empower you to shift your thinking to a larger perspective. These practices all involve moving from a narrow to a more expanded focus. Some of them will enhance your personal well being; others will help to align you with the well being of the planet and humanity at large. All of these practices can serve to loosen your identification with your mind and increase your awareness of just how much your thoughts shape your ongoing experience of life. By gaining skill in "thinking larger"—moving to a larger perspective—you can create both clarity in your own life and participate in the larger shift in consciousness happening on the planet at this time.

Changing Your Mind

Among the many different skills that can help you to move beyond constricted, self-defeating thinking, try working with the following three:

reframing
focusing on what you do want rather on what you don't want
disidentifying with your thinking altogether

While many other practices might be mentioned, these three offer a good place to begin "thinking larger" or enlarging your perspective in everyday situations.

Reframing

Reframing means to put a situation in a different context, or "to put a different frame around it." For example, imagine that you are stuck in traffic. One way to frame being in a traffic jam is to resist the situation and make yourself tense with self talk such as: "I can't stand this," "I've got to get out of here." Reframing means you shift your attitude and put the whole situation in a different context. Instead of fighting it, you might attempt to view it as an opportunity to settle down and relax. You could say to yourself instead: "Okay, I might as well just relax and adjust to the pace of the traffic." "I can use this time to unwind by listening to some relaxing music."

In many cases when you're upset, you can find another way to look at a problem that defuses it. When you change the context of a situation to make it easier to handle, you make what can be called a "cognitive shift."

There are several types of cognitive shifts that can be applied to any problem situation. What follows are nine common ones that you can use to change your perspective on any upsetting situation:

Surrender to the fact that the situation just is the way it is. Taking time out to relax (see the chapter on caring for your body) can help with this.
Turn everything over to God, Spirit, or your "Higher Power" (however you choose to define the creative intelligence of the Universe).
Acknowledge that it would be OK to lighten up about it-- attempt to see the humor in.
Look for what the problem has to teach you-- what can you learn by facing it and working it through.
Expand your compassion for people who have similar problems.
Realize that the problem is not likely to be as bad as your worst thoughts about it.
Acknowledge that what's bothering you is not what really matters the most in life anyway.
Trust that it will inevitably pass
Trust that problems generally always work themselves out in one way or the other.

Focus on What You Do Want Instead
of What You Do Not Want

An attitude of fundamental importance in working with your thinking is to focus on what you do want instead of what you do not want. A basic metaphysical principle is that we tend to draw to us what we focus on (the so-called "law of attraction"). If you tend to focus often on what you do not want in your life—the problems and difficulties—you tend to attract more of the same to yourself. To the extent you are willing and able to focus on what you do want, you will tend to draw more of that to yourself.

There are many ways to shift out of a negative attitude space into a more positive one. Reframing the situation, as described above, is one way. Another way is to do something physical that makes you feel good, such as exercising, resting, meditating, getting hugged, or nourishing yourself with good food. When your body is relaxed and comfortable, it is much easier to cultivate constructive thinking. The more relaxed you are, the easier it is to let go and break the loop of conditioned negative thoughts.

Working with affirmations is yet another way to redirect your mind away from what you don’t want toward what you do. Affirmations are simply positive statements you repeat in order to redirect your mind. Practicing them is an excellent way to begin to retrain you mind away from negative conditioning toward more constructive attitudes. There are several ways to work with affirmations. You can:

Choose a single affirmation and repeat it during meditation, doing this each day
Write an affirmation five to ten times, then repeat this process each day
Write an affirmation up big and post it in a conspicuous place

When you work with affirmations, it’s best not to just repeat them in a rote fashion. They have much more power when you feel them deeply in your soul. Saying them with genuine feeling, or when you are centered in a deeply meditative state will enhance their effectiveness.

Probably you are familiar with using affirmations, as the technique has been popular for the last three decades. Typical examples of affirmations are:
"I deserve the good things in life as much as anyone else," "I respect and believe in myself apart from others’ opinions," "When I love and care for myself, I am best able to be of help to others," "Today I do the best that I can and am satisfied with that."

When working with affirmations, they will gain power if you relax first and really feel their intent when writing or speaking them.

There are many good books about using affirmations. Two classics that have been popular for quite some time are Creative Visualization, by Shakti Gawain and You Can Heal Your Life by Louise Hay. Many examples of affirmations can be found in my books on anxiety, such as The Anxiety & Phobia Workbook, Beyond Anxiety & Phobia, and Coping With Anxiety. There is also much more information on working with your thinking in these books. (see the site: helpforanxiety.com for a description of these books)

Disidentify With Your Thoughts

The ultimate step in working with your thoughts is to learn to disidentify with them. Most of our lives we spend identifying with the stream of thoughts and feelings that continually race through our minds. Only infrequently do we stop and recognize that the contents of our awareness are "just thoughts" or "just feelings," superficial and transient states that do not make up our innermost self or being, which is always still and at peace. The goal of contemplative practices throughout all of the world’s religions is to step out of the chattering mind and reclaim our connection with the stillpoint of inner awareness that lies deep inside. Regular practice of meditation, the topic of another section of this site, is one of the most potent ways to learn to disidentify with your thoughts.

In disidentifying with your thoughts, you not only gain freedom from the conditioned patterns of your own thinking, you align with your innermost self, which in turn connects you to the greater intelligence of the universe. As Einstein once said, a problem may not be solvable "at the level of the problem itself." The mindset in which you set up the problem is incapable of providing the answer to it. However by connecting with guidance and wisdom of your innermost self (what has also been called your "higher" or "transpersonal" self), your consciousness may expand to a level where the solution becomes clear. Our consciousness may participate in the larger consciousness of the universe if we get our ego (mind) out of the way.

Inclusive Thinking

Inclusive thinking may be defined as expanding your mental perspective to embrace the entire planet. It means you think beyond your own personal needs (and those of your immediate family) to the needs of the Earth and humanity at large. For example, when you throw away the trash, you think about what items can be recycled in order to preserve the planet’s resources. When you see the poverty in Somalia on TV, or simply homeless persons in your own community, you think compassionately about their plight. Or when you see lights turned on in a room you’re not using, you turn them off to save energy—not just to reduce your electric bill, but so that you can reduce your personal carbon emissions. Basically you think more broadly about the Earth’s situation in your practical, day-to-day activities. You begin to identify yourself not just by your vocational and family roles, and not just by the city, state, or country you live in, but as a "planetary citizen"—a member of the Earth community.

How do you shift your thinking and consciousness to a global perspective? There are several ways. Perhaps you’ve begun to embrace some of the ideas presented elsewhere on this site. If you believe that the earth (and the entire universe) is actually some type of conscious being, then you may begin to think of it as worthy of awe, respect, and even reverence. That means you start feeling a genuine concern about the damage that has been done to the earth’s atmosphere, forests, oceans, and biodiversity by industrial civilization. Such a concern then motivates you to do something for the earth.

If you believe that all human beings are deeply interconnected as one collective consciousness, then you start thinking beyond differences of race, religion, nationality, or ethnicity. The way you think expands as you realize that people in Uganda are just people like yourself, born into a situation where they did not have the same opportunities for basic survival—food, sanitation, health care, and education—that you took for granted. So you begin to feel compassion for them and are naturally motivated to contribute to organizations that help these people. Just because they live far away on the opposite side of the globe, you don’t forget or ignore them. As your mind expands to global thinking, the globe itself starts to shrink.

It may be that your mind expands simply by coming into contact with friends and acquaintances who have already made a shift to global thinking. Or it may be the result of seeing programs on TV or reading magazine articles that address environmental and social problems. Perhaps it is reading a book such as An Inconvenient Truth, by Al Gore, Plan B-3.0 by Lester Brown, An End to Poverty by Jeffrey Sachs, or Giving, by Bill Clinton (to name just a few) that helps you to enlarge your perspective.

So there are many ways your thinking might shift to a more global, inclusive point of view. Once you have made the shift, you will never view your life in quite the same way again. Now you begin to see how what you think, value, and do in your daily life fits into the fabric of the whole planet. From now on your life becomes part of the solution to Earth’s difficulties rather than part of the problem. Instead of merely focusing on your own interests and needs, you start to care about the Earth and its peoples.

Thinking larger means moving outside of the habitual beliefs and mindsets that define your perception of yourself, others, and the world. The various strategies described in this section provide a brief introduction to doing just this—both for your own peace of mind as well as for the benefit of the planet. Ultimately, thinking larger means expanding your worldview to embrace the evolutionary shift in consciousness needed by humanity at this time. The core shift is simply to move beyond self-interest to a concern for others and the world. When you recognize the degree to which your own welfare and that of the planet are deeply interrelated, such a shift in consciousness becomes natural.

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