Below are 3 simple tools for better thinking that can enhance your life and relationships. Your thinking is the most potent influence on anything you do or feel, so clarity in thinking is critical.
Slow Your Thinking (Emotions) Down
The first tool helps you when a situation stimulates your emotions in some way. For example, a near-miss collision with another car, hearing lies about you, or being tempted to sin. Whatever it is, something happens, and feelings are stimulated. At that moment, you have a choice, but you may not realize it. Follow your emotions, which can often be the product of lousy thinking, or you can follow the Spirit. Usually, a choice is never considered; there is only a reaction to the situation.
Think Digitally
The second tool for better thinking helps you think clearly and remove confusion, which is unnatural for many. It is especially challenging when you are emotional or when you assume absolutes do not exist. When you use Digital Thinking or Opposites, a technique taught by Robert Fritz, it helps you create clarity and focus.
If you accept anything like the law of entropy, then you accept that everything in the world is changing, even if you cannot see the change – everything. Therefore, if everything changes, it is either improving or deteriorating. Notice how that presents only two options; consequently, it is a “2” or an opposite, as we call it.
Additional examples are yes or no, plus or minus, true or false, up or down, acceptable or unacceptable, good or bad. You stay confused or at least unclear when you do not accept that there is a “2” even for the situation you are considering. When you remain between true and false, 0 and 1, and do not accept that it is one or the other, expect confusion in your life.
Pre-Decide
Finally, this may be the most powerful tool because it helps when you do not have time to think and weigh your options. If you do not use this tool, you tend to react and respond. But it is worse than you think. Depending on the situation, what you think you value can easily be set aside in favor of the temptation at hand. For example, research shows that men who select good values toward women, and then are shown pornographic images of women, will subsequently select lower, immoral, and even illegal actions toward women as they view those images.
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absolutes do exist, digital thinking, fight or flight, good or bad execution, good or bad no gray area, good or bad performance, pre-decide, self-governance, slow your emotions down, TV0035