The more the neurons fire together, the more likely it is that they will fire together in the future. Every thought we experience creates a chemical reaction in the brain which then triggers an emotion. As we engage with this thought, it creates a new circuit that sends a signal to the body and we react a certain way.
The more we repeat this pattern, the more it seeps into our mind and becomes a habit. As you keep thinking the same thoughts, producing the same emotions and performing the same actions, you continue to live by the same experiences.
As we repeatedly engage in the same thought patterns of think, feel, do, these patterns encode as a blueprint in our subconscious mind. And what does our subconscious mind do? As Dr. Bruce Lipton explains :. And this is how your thoughts create your reality. What happens next? You dwell and fall into a trap of self-pity.
As we repeat thought patterns, they become subconscious behavioural patterns that drive our life. You create new patterns that create a new reality. And in order for you to do this, you need to understand that you are not your thoughts, you are the thoughts you give power and attention to— you are the thinker.
Your thoughts are nothing more than an endless stream of ideas running through your mind. They are powerless until you decide to cling onto one on them , which then trickle into a chain.
This very act makes you the thinker of your thoughts. In other words, imagine your mind to be a farm and your thoughts to be the seeds. You can plant either good seeds roses or bad seeds poison ivy. Whichever seed you choose to focus on and plant, it will then grow and multiply. And the same happens in your mind—whichever thought you choose to focus on and plant, it will then grow and multiply.
Do you want your mind to flourish into a garden of roses or a farm of poison? Increase your awareness by observing your emotions and body reactions. Be more conscious of what thoughts you give your attention to. The next time you feel a strong emotion, bring your awareness to it by pausing and asking yourself:. Why am I feeling this way? This can help us figure out why we're feeling what we're feeling and drive us back to the root cause of these feelings: the thoughts we first gave our attention to.
As author and master trainer of Neurolinguistic Programming Michael Neill explains:. Create your free account or Sign in to continue. See Subscription Options. Go Paperless with Digital. Get smart. Sign up for our email newsletter. Sign Up. Support science journalism. Knowledge awaits.
See Subscription Options Already a subscriber? Create Account See Subscription Options. Continue reading with a Scientific American subscription. Subscribe Now You may cancel at any time. Is it just a physical process of your brain or the manifestation of something deeper like a soul, spirit, or other entity?
Phew, that's a lot to think about. And, depending on who you ask, you will get different answers. While scientists might apply reductionist theory and predict that thoughts are simply physical entities that can be explained by chemical changes in the brain, philosophers or other theorists might argue a more dualistic theory that your mind is separate from your body and your thoughts are not physical parts of your brain.
All that aside, if we want to consider what happens in our bodies or specifically our brains when we are thinking, then we need to at least acknowledge that our thoughts can influence our bodies. We know this to be true for a number of reasons. For example:. Since we know that thoughts can influence our brains and our bodies, let's take a look at exactly how they do that and what is happening under the hood in your head.
Let's jump back to that morning thought: "I don't want to get out of bed. Scientists would argue first that the thought you had was not spontaneous and random. Instead, your thought was likely a reaction to something around you. In this case, it might have been an alarm clock, checking your phone to see what time it is, or hearing something like the garbage truck go by that reminds you of time passing.
In other cases, thoughts might be triggered by memories. Now, once you have that thought, what happens? Action potential : Sudden burst of voltage caused by chemical changes how neurons signal one another. Neuron : A nerve cell through which signals are sent. Neurotransmitter : Chemical messengers released by neurons that help them communicate with other cells e.
Prefrontal cortex : Part of the brain involved in planning, personality, decision making, and social behavior.
Hippocampus : Part of the brain crucial in a variety of memory functions. Synapse: A structure that allows a neuron nerve cell to pass a chemical or electrical signal to a target cell. The brain operates in a complex way with many parts intersecting and interacting with each other simultaneously. So, when you have that thought in the morning, it's likely that all these different components of your brain prefrontal cortex, hippocampus, neurons, neurotransmitters, etc.
If the result of your thought that you don't want to get out of bed is that you throw the covers back over your head, what happened to allow that action? Or, if instead you decided that you needed to get up and got out of bed, what happened differently?
We know that when the brain is making a decision, different neural networks compete with each other. Eventually, one of the networks becomes activated and produces the desired behavior. This happens through nerve cells in the spinal cord called motor neurons that fire and sends an impulse down their axon , which travels to the muscle and causes the action: in this case you throwing the covers over your head or actually getting out of bed.
What about the emotional effects of your thought? We know that your thoughts can influence the neurotransmitters in your brain. Optimism is linked to better immunity to illness while depressive thinking may be linked to reduced immunity.
So, if you throw the covers over your head, and that triggers other thoughts such as "I'm tired," "I can't get up," or "Life is hard," complex interactions in your brain may send signals to other parts of your body. On the other hand, if you get out of bed and think, "This isn't so bad," "I'm getting going now," or "Today is going to be a great day," the pathways and signals that your neurons send will obviously be different.
We don't yet know all the intricacies of these processes; however, suffice it to say that your thoughts matter. Your brain is constantly receiving signals, whether from the outside environment in terms of perceptions or memories from your past.
It then activates different patterns through waves in the brain through billions of synapses. In this way, your thoughts grow more complex as they interact with other content produced by your brain functions.
It goes without saying that your thoughts are linked to your emotions in a bidirectional way. How many times have you experienced a shot of adrenaline after having a fearful thought? Have you ever gone to a job interview or on a first date and felt the same? Whenever you have a thought, there is a corresponding chemical reaction in your mind and body as a result.
This is important to realize because it means that what you think can affect how you feel. And by the same token, if you are feeling poorly, you can change that by changing how you think. If that sounds a little unusual, go back to the premise that thoughts are physical entities in your brain and not spontaneous outside forces that don't connect with your body. If you accept the scientific view that your thoughts are physical parts of your brain and that changing your thoughts can have an effect on your body, then you've just developed a powerful weapon.
But wait a minute: if our thoughts are always just reactions to something, how can we take control and change them?
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