Imagine this scenario, a soul is taking a well earned breather having completed a life incarnated in physical life as a person. They are discussing with the Higher Self and guides their next lifetime. “Well, I have this karma to go through and balance and some to possibly create. I would like to have these kinds of experience to build up my overview of life so I want this to happen and I’m going to need some thoughts to go with it. What do you think?”

Each lifetime a person has is different, and with different thoughts to go with their unique experiences. As a personality there will bits of life we enjoy and bits we don’t like. For the soul, it is experience that helps it grow in consciousness. For one soul, through many lifetimes, that means they have many personalities. So in one life, the soul can have a life as a royal person and have the personality and thoughts that go with that experience, along with one or two problems to make life interesting. In the next life, the soul might want to be a different gender, living an unexciting life (to the personality) in a small town in the middle of nowhere. They will have the thoughts to go with that, along with the appropriate karma.

The karma is there for a reason, and so too are the thoughts.

The thoughts get amplified and built on in life. A baby will be born in a particular setting, with particular people around, with a certain culture and ways of thinking and doing. They will also treat the baby a certain way, reinforcing the thoughts the child has subconsciously.

As the child grows up in a particular setting, while the aura and chakras are easily impressed upon, with people treating them and talking to them in a particular way, and as they experience life, the child will take all of this on. They will hold certain unconscious thoughts about themselves, about other people, about relationships and about various aspects of life. They will also hold some conscious thoughts about all this that they think about.

This unconscious and conscious learning from life’s experiences can keep going even through adult life.

The thoughts a person has about themselves from all this absorbing and conscious and unconscious learning affects what that person thinks they are capable of doing, how they should expect to be treated, and what they deserve in life. These thoughts affect how much that person likes themselves and loves themselves, and how capable they are of looking after themselves.

The thoughts affect how they behave not only towards themselves, but how they behave towards others, and what their expectations are like in relationships. Their thoughts affect what they think life is like, which affects how they approach life.

All areas of a person’s life are affected by their subconscious and conscious thoughts.

There can come a time when part of the karmic set up of a soul, is for the person to find out that thoughts can be changed. (Like now.)

Though a person might have had a very tough time (thank you soul!) this lifetime (and a cushy one before!), thoughts can be improved.

This means how a person likes and loves themselves can be improved, which means they can look after themselves better. They can think themselves capable of more than they did before, which alters their expectations and their behaviour, which ends up bringing about a happier, more fulfilling life.

Their relationships can improve as they have better expectations and standards of how people treat them, and they behave better towards others.

Thoughts can improve in all areas of life, literally then bringing about a better life, as good quality thoughts are followed up by the right actions to bring them to fruition.

There are steps to bring about a change in thoughts. Though there may be some other issues that it can be helpful to take a look at as well, such as energy, aura and chakras.

I mentioned earlier about the child having an aura and chakras, and that energy both negative and positive can be impressed into them. As this is about improving, let’s assume that the input of energy has been negative, as negative mental energy, emotional energy and possibly negative physical energy. This can come about by being on the receiving end of critical or abusive words and treatment, or by neglect, or by physical abuse. Also, just by living and being places it is very possible to pick up negative energy. (Sometimes a place can be described as being a bit of a dive, for instance.)

This can also go on in teenage and adult life (including through online experiences).

The chakras and aura can carry this negative energy throughout life, and negative energy can be stored in the body too.

That’s bad news, and it is also good news because it means something can be done about it. There are ways to clear the chakras. It might take time but it is worth it. There are ways to clear the aura as well. There are meditation techniques for this and healing methods. For easily shifted energy, exercise and being out in Nature are simple ways to shift negative energy. For stickier, deeper negative energy, healing techniques are one option.

Years ago I found deep tissue massage, which I’d say was a bit painful at some points, really helped to shift negative energy held in the body. I found out later there are some gentler techniques, though once the negative energy is gone, it’s gone.

Along with clearing the negative energy, which links to the thoughts, and thoughts in chakras and aura itself, it is easily possible to then button up and protect the chakras and aura.

Daily cleaning the chakras and aura with a simple meditation, and then buttoning up and protecting them is a great thing to do. You clean your teeth, and it is a good idea to clean chakras and aura as well, and this can really lift your mood.

Now about the thoughts.

Sometimes the soul decides to give the personality a rough time so that the person at some point decides to sort themselves out and change all kinds of things about their lives, including their thoughts. Through this experience the personality gets stronger and the soul gets spiritual brownie points for getting the personality to do something. Then that person is in a position to help others. It’s training and strengthening.

Sometimes a person has strongly negative thoughts about themselves, and about other issues in life. Starting with thoughts about oneself is the key place to start as this brings about the biggest change. Let’s see what can be done.

Imagine someone you think of as being absolutely amazing. It can be a musician, a singer, a sports star for instance, or a writer or artist. The thoughts just thinking about them can go something like; “Wow, they are amazing, utterly wonderful, such a nice person, really talented”, and so on. Your eyes light up as you think or talk about them and you’ll have a big smile on your face, and possibly your body language will come alive, and your chakras will light up.

Now, can you think the same kind of thoughts and have the same kinds of emotions about yourself?

If not, you know what kind of thoughts about yourself to aim for.

Imagine thoughts about yourself are on a set of stairs. At the top are the kind of thoughts described above. Right down on the bottom step the kind of thoughts someone might have are to do with self-disgust and self-hatred, and other thoughts are on the steps in between the top and bottom. A person might think to themselves that these thoughts are so bad that they might as well not try. They get depressed even thinking about their thoughts. (Been there.) Sometimes it is hard to even imagine thinking amazing thoughts about oneself, so intermediary thoughts can be used to take a step up. In a situation when the thoughts are really negative and crippling I would suggest some counselling or therapy that focuses on verbally expressing the thoughts and then dealing with the emotional energy. Dealing with the emotions is important. You can still work on the thoughts yourself if you wish.

Otherwise, if the thoughts are down towards the bottom of the stairs the first step is going to be self-forgiveness and reconciliation with oneself, plus possibly forgiveness of others. (Forgiveness is explained in another article.)

The next step, would be to use positive affirmations which are positive thoughts we repeatedly think, say and write to affirm them. Typically, an affirmation could be written out 10 times. Three times in the first person, “I” form. Three times in the second person “You” form as if someone was saying it to you. Three times in the third person as if someone was saying it about you, and another in the first person.

A basic starting point would be to start by saying you are willing. For example, I (your name) am willing to appreciate myself, and I (your name) am willing to love myself. You may find this too weak and so you move on to the next step. Otherwise, you could write this 10 times, breathing as you do, and if any mental comments are triggered and come to light, write them down. The breathing helps to shift energy so you can get rid of it. You could write a set of these affirmations once a day for a couple of weeks or until the affirmation feels true to you.

The next step goes from being willing to; I (your name) appreciate myself, and I (your name) love myself completely.

Depending on what was going on what thoughts about yourself you have inside you, you could work with thought like:

I (your name) am good enough, I (your name) am innocent, I (your name) am loving, I (your name) am loveable…attractive…wonderful…beautiful…capable…talented…clever enough…valuable…worthwhile. Or, I (your name) am good at … .

If you were shut down by others or trauma, you could try; I (your name) have a right to express myself, I (your name) express myself clearly / happily / with confidence. You choose the ending.

The thoughts you have about yourself are just thoughts, and you can think new ones if you choose to.

You can work with more than one thought if you want.

A good milestone is when you can think and affirm several positive thoughts altogether so you have a statement like; I (your name) am good enough, I am strong enough, I am attractive and what I express is worth hearing.

Put in your own adjectives. You can affirm this, and you can also put it on a card in places you will see it to affirm it. Visualise yourself like this repeatedly, daily if you can. Then you can be rating yourself just as highly as that talented person you thought about earlier in this article.

(There’s an article on forgiveness earlier in the blog.)