Every single thought we have can be assessed in terms of whether it strengthens or weakens us. Today we are focusing on how to avoid thoughts that weaken us.
In fact, there’s a simple muscle test you can do to try out any thought that you’re having in the present moment. It works like this: Hold your arm out to your side, and have someone else attempt to push your arm down while you resist.
Think of telling a lie, and notice how much weaker you are than if you think of a truth. This can be done for any thought that elicits an emotional reaction.
In a book titled Power vs. Force, David Hawkins, M.D., elaborates on this method and provides a map of consciousness to show you how every thought computes to either weaken or strengthen you. Authentic wisdom is the ability to monitor yourself at all times to determine your relative state of weakness or strength, and to shift out of those thoughts that weaken you. In this way, you keep yourself in an upbeat, higher state of consciousness, and you prevent your thoughts from weakening every single organ of your body. When you use your mind to empower you, you’re appealing to that which uplifts and raises your spirits.
Power urges you to live and perform at your own highest level, and it is compassionate. Force, on the other hand, involves movement. This is unlike power, which is a standing field that never moves against anything. Because force is in motion, it always creates a counter-force. That counter-force constantly consumes, and must be fed, energy. Rather than being compassionate, force is associated with judgment, competition, and controlling others. For example, in an athletic event, your thoughts are on overpowering your opponent, being better than another, and playing and winning at any cost. The entire muscular structure of your body is actually weakened, because thoughts of force weaken you.
On the other hand, if in the midst of an athletic event you can keep your thoughts on performing at your highest capacity, on using your inner strength to muster the energy to be as efficient as it’s possible for you to be, and to have great respect for your God-given abilities, you will actually be empowering yourself. A thought of force requires a counter-force, and a battle that weakens; while a thought of power strengthens you, since no counter-force is called into play to consume your energy. Power thoughts energize you, since they make no demands on you.
If a simple thought will make the muscles of your arm go weak or strong, imagine what it must be doing to all of the other muscles and organs of your body! Your heart is a muscle that’s weakened by thoughts that disempower you. Your kidneys, liver, lungs, and intestines are all surrounded by muscles that are affected by your thoughts.
The thought that makes most people the weakest is shame, which produces humiliation. The importance of forgiving yourself cannot be stated strongly enough. If you carry around thoughts of shame about what you’ve done in the past, you’re weakening yourself both physically and emotionally. Similarly, if you use a technique of shame and humiliation on anyone to get them to reform, you’re going to create a weakened person who will never become empowered until those shameful and humiliating thoughts are removed. Removing your own thoughts of shame involves a willingness to let go, to see your past behaviors as lessons you had to learn, and to reconnect to your source through prayer and meditation.
After shame, guilt and apathy thoughts make you the weakest. They produce the emotions of blame and despair. To live in guilt is to use up your present moments being immobilized over what has already transpired. No amount of guilt will ever undo what’s been done. If your past behavior mobilizes you to learn from your mistakes, this is not guilt; it’s learning from the past. But to wallow in the present moment over your so-called errors is guilt, and it can only take place now.
Releasing guilt is like removing a huge weight from your shoulders. Guilt is released through the empowering thought of love and respect for yourself. You empower yourself with love and respect, letting go of standards of perfection and refusing to use up the precious currency of your life, the now, with thoughts that only continue to frustrate and weaken you. Instead, you can vow to be better than you used to be, which is the true test of nobility.
Apathetic thoughts create despair. They are the thoughts that keep you from being engaged in life. Apathy stems from self-pity and a need to be entertained continually to avoid boredom. You can never be apathetic or lonely if you love the person you’re alone with. Every moment of every day presents an unlimited number of options for living fully and being connected to life. You don’t need a television or a radio constantly blaring to avoid apathy. You have your own mind, which is a kingdom of limitless potential.
You have the choice each day to wake up and say, “Good morning, God” or “Good God, morning!” It’s always a choice. Any moments that you fill with thoughts of boredom and apathy will truly weaken you physically, emotionally, and spiritually. To me, it’s an insult to this wondrous universe filled with a hundred million miracles to ever allow myself to think thoughts of boredom or apathy.
The other prominent thoughts that compete to make you weak include fear and anger. Both of these categories of thought employ force, which produces a counter-force and an inner atmosphere of tension and weakness. When you’re afraid, you’ve moved away from love. Remember, “Perfect love casteth out all fear.” What you fear, you resent and ultimately begin to hate. Thus, the dichotomy of hate and fear is at work within you, always weakening you.
Every thought you have in which you’re in a state of fear keeps you away from your purpose, and is simultaneously weakening you. Your fearful thoughts are inviting you to stay immobilized. When you find yourself in a fearful mode, stop right there and invite God onto the scene. Turn fear over to your Senior Partner with these words: “I don’t know how to deal with this, but I know I’m connected to You, the miraculous creative force in this universe. I’ll move my ego out of the way and turn it over to You.” Try it. You’ll be surprised by how quickly that higher energy of love will nullify and dissolve your fearful thoughts and empower you at the same time.
Anger, likewise, is an emotional reaction to thoughts that say, “I want the world to be the way I want it, not the way it is; therefore, I’m angry.” Anger is often justified as normal, but it will always make you weak; and as this principle reminds you, wisdom is avoiding all thoughts that weaken you. You don’t have to be angry to right a wrong or work toward a better world. When you become more peaceful, you will only have peace to give away. Moments of frustration won’t trigger anger; they’ll help you be more aware, and then they’ll spur you on to a solution.
Every thought of anger moves you away from love and into violence and vengeance, which are forces that spur counter-forces, weakening everyone involved. All of these thoughts of shame, guilt, apathy, fear, and anger are energies, since everything in our universe is a vibrating frequency. Those that weaken you are low/slow frequencies, and they can only be dissolved by bringing the higher/faster energies of Spirit to their presence.