How to Trick Your Mind and Influence Your Daily Reality
I know, I know…this may sound a bit misleading. Can you really trick your mind into thinking a certain way that actually influences your reality, whether positive or negative? The short answer is yes. The long answer is something that is constantly being studied and has been a phenomenon observed by humans for thousands of years.
Many people will readily gobble up this information under the guise of The Law of Attraction. In contrast, others will systematically regulate the idea to pseudoscience as there currently isn’t a way to “prove” these ideas from a scientific perspective.
However, many tend to forget that for thousands of years, humans have been living and doing the unexplainable regardless of what science, religion, ideology, psychology, or any other -ology or -ism may declare impossible.
You can see this by observing how some people seem to flow through life as if it were the easiest, most grandiose experience, while others seemingly struggle no matter how hard they try.
Based on attitude, perception, beliefs, conditioning, etc., some people will be poor because that’s who they believe they are. Others will live a lavish lifestyle because that’s who they believe they are. Some will be healthy, others unhealthy. Smart and stupid. Easygoing or constantly frustrated. Always working/busy vs. the desire to lounge around.
Part of this is personality and personal preference; another part concerns how you think about yourself within your environment.
Please understand that these are not to be taken as blanket statements. There are obviously people in the world who cannot do specific things based on their physical or mental limitations. But just because that’s so doesn’t mean they can’t rise above those limitations in ways most of us can’t comprehend. This is being done every day all around the world.
Your Mind Sees What You Tell It to See
Your mind works like a filter. It’s constantly taking in information and filtering out what’s unnecessary or useful. It receives 11 million bits of information per second but can only process 50 bits per second. In other words, you only process what you focus on.
I like this quote attributed to Denzel Washington, which goes like this…and honestly, it sounds even better if you can imagine his voice while you read it…
“Easy to spot a red car when you’re looking for a red car. Easy to spot opportunity when you’re always thinking of opportunities. Easy to spot reasons to be mad when you’re always thinking of being mad. You become what you constantly think about. Watch yourself.”
– Denzel Washington
Your focus creates your perception of the world.
What you think about creates the world you experience.
If you want to buy a new car, you may have seen that car here and there and liked it, which is why you bought it in the first place. However, what do you see as soon as you drive it off the lot? Everyone seems to be driving your car!
Likewise, opportunities are constantly flowing in and out of your reach. The problem is, you aren’t necessarily in tune with them as they do so because you either aren’t looking for them or you don’t recognize them in the first place.
So, how do you “Trick Your Mind” to influence your daily reality?
The Power of Focus: How It Shapes Your Life
One of the mantras I used to tell myself was, “You focus on what you focus on.”
I used this as a way to help break myself out of negative feedback loops that kept me trapped in cycles of depression and anxiety.
In specific moments when I was feeling extremely depressed, I would start to have that thought, which would then break the cycle, allowing me to exit the thinking pattern so I could objectively consider the situation. This helped because I started to realize that the depression was taking over, and I realized it was because I was focusing or obsessing over the depressive thoughts.
Dr. Joe Dispenza says,
“Where your focus goes, your energy flows”
– Dr. Joe Dispenza
The more you focus on a particular thought, the more you feed it vital energy to make that thought a reality.
This is why worrying is so detrimental.
Worrying is the expenditure of energy on something that may or may not happen. In the grand scheme of things, at least in my own experience, it rarely happens, if ever.
Most of the time, my worrying is unfounded, fantastical ruminations with no factual basis. They’re ungrounded in reality. It’s an energy expenditure from feeling a sense of lack of control for whatever reason or scenario I might be concocting.
When you live this way, though, it takes a certain amount of energy, and because you’re expending energy in this fashion and deem it important, what do you do? You continue to think with that same line of reasoning. You continue to send energy into that situation or thoughts that follow the same line of reasoning.
The Negative Aspect of Focus
When you focus your energy on the negative aspects of your life, those aspects become magnified to the point of being overwhelming.
Nothing seems to go right, and it’s a constant struggle to do anything.
You might feel like you’re slogging through life.
The things you want to do, you don’t do, and the things you don’t want to do, you do.
You can also feel like you can never get ahead. No matter what you do or how hard you try, you feel you’re constantly being held back.
You have a vision for yourself and your life but can’t seem to get there. It’s always out of reach.
The imperfections plaguing you never seem to go away, and you’re left wondering if this is all life has for you.
The Positive Aspect of Focus
On the other hand, if you can focus on the positive aspects of your life, you can find gratitude, peace, joy, and love in that place because your energy constantly pulls you toward those things that seem good and right.
Life feels easy and, most of the time, goes the way you want, even when you experience setbacks. But this is because you’re focused on what’s good and not what’s trying to pull you down.
You feel like you’re ahead most of the time, regardless of the negative situations around you. They’re there but don’t sway you into a sense of hopelessness.
Your life trajectory feels firmer and more straightforward. It is almost as if you can feel the overwhelming victory in the quiet recesses of your mind.
The Shaping
When it comes to shaping your life, it comes down to what you focus on regularly. Some people tend to lean toward one side or the other, while others find a comfortable balance somewhere in between.
The ultimate goal isn’t to be magically bright and happy-go-lucky all the time but rather to learn to shift focus when you feel off.
Remember, your personality will play a huge factor in how you handle this. Some people are extroverts, and others are introverts, and each will respond differently to this happy-go-lucky idea, so don’t try to be something you’re not.
However, know that you aren’t merely regulated to a life of misery and suffering. You can be happy and fulfilled regardless of your personality traits. This is done through the shaping of your mind and the power of your focus on those things that will bring you peace, joy, and love rather than the negative aspects of life.
It’s learning to take control of your thinking before it takes control of you.
Trick Your Mind and Rewire Your Thinking to Work in Your Favor
Again, this might sound woo-woo, but it’s simply a way of thinking differently. If you can convince yourself to be angry about a situation when nobody is around, why shouldn’t you be able to convince yourself to be joyful about life regardless of your situation?
If you simply allow your emotions to run you without considering why you’re feeling or thinking the way you are, you will have a difficult time in life.
Bruce Lee said,
“Emotion can be the enemy; if you give into your emotion, you lose yourself. You must be at one with your emotion because the body always follows the mind.”
– Bruce Lee
If you can grab hold of your thoughts before they drag you down the rabbit hole, then you can change the course of your destiny because you are now taking the reigns and directing your life, as opposed to being tossed to and fro like a rudderless ship on the ocean.
Tricking your mind to think differently than what you’re used to thinking isn’t necessarily easy. There may be specific triggers or things people can assist you with in overcoming particular aspects of thinking, but if you’re working on this alone, it can take a lot of work.
Essentially, your brain has created a way of thinking and, in doing so, developed certain ruts or paths that it follows because they are easy to follow.
It’s like going offroad and blazing a new trail when you work to change how you think and feel. It takes energy and effort, and your brain doesn’t want to do that.
Focus requires work.
This is why most people tend to get stuck after a certain point in life: The effort required to illicit real change doesn’t seem worth it.
How to Trick Your Mind
You aren’t really “tricking” your mind. Realistically speaking, you’re becoming hyperaware of how you think and feel on a regular basis. You don’t let time pass without being vigilant in your thought processes.
When you start to experience negativity, you catch it, observe it, notice it for what it is, and then reorient yourself to think the way you want to think.
That’s the trick!
It’s noticing, catching, and reframing over and over until you begin to build new circuitry toward the thoughts you want to think.
You can do several things to help with this throughout the day.
Practical ways to shift focus
- Set intentional reminders:
- Start the day by asking: What do I want to notice today?
- Do a follow-up later in the day to gauge how you’re doing.
- Train yourself to reframe thoughts:
- Instead of “This is hard,” think “This is a challenge I can learn from.”
- Go from “This won’t work” to “How can I make this work?” *
- Surround yourself with what you want to focus on: Books, people, environments, social feeds, podcasts, and anything that helps you reinforce your goals.
- Use mental triggers: Sticky notes, phone alarms, a journal…really anything to help remind yourself to focus on the right things.
* This reframing can put you in a place where you are now actively looking for answers rather than allowing yourself to be steamrolled by your negative thoughts and feelings.
The more you do this work, the easier it becomes.
Initially, you might find it hard because you haven’t trained your mind to work in this fashion. Over time, though, you’ll experience ease in this exercise just like you would with anything you practice.
Eventually, your mind will start to filter the world differently. You’ll see things in a different light, and hopefully, that shroud of negativity for whatever you deal with will begin to lift.
Watch Yourself
In the end, this is what it’s really about. Nobody can make you “get” or “feel” better about yourself unless you’re willing to do what it takes to “get” or “feel” better about yourself.
Your reality is shaped by what you choose to focus on. If you constantly focus on the negative, you’ll get more of the same. If you continuously focus on the positive, you’ll get more of the same.
Whatever you think about, that’s what you become.
It’s very easy to let life drag you down if you aren’t vigilant. There are so many people and circumstances to blame for your problems, and you’ll never seem to run out of excuses for why you can’t overcome them.
The system will always be rigged against you, and on and on it goes.
But this is why you must watch yourself, become aware of your unconscious thoughts and feelings, and stop letting your unconscious dictate your life.
You must become the master of your fate, the captain of your soul.
If you don’t, you will float adrift, wondering why you can never spot land. Life will seem unpleasant and unfair, and more than likely, you’ll blame everyone except yourself.
Now’s the time to change and take accountability for your thoughts, feelings, and actions. You are responsible for how you show up to life.
So, ask yourself, “What are you focusing on right now, and how is it shaping your life?” Is it for the better or the worse?
Don’t forget that to trick your mind is really the power of what you focus on, and what you focus on influences your daily reality.
Thank you for reading this article. It takes a lot of time, energy, and effort to write it each week, and it means a lot that you would take time out of your day to consider these ideas. Please share this with your friends, family, or anyone who needs to read it.
I wish you all the best!
Josiah
