The Buddha said, “With our thoughts, we make the world.”

You may have heard this before, or something similar along the lines of ‘your thoughts create your reality’.

But have you ever stopped to think what this really means?

Some people might take this to mean all you need to do to have a happy life is to think positive, happy thoughts, and just like that the world is all peaches and roses.

To some degree, that’s true. We’ve previously discussed the Happiness Formula and how your voluntary choices have a profound effect on your happiness and wellbeing, which includes the thoughts you choose to nurture in your head.

But there’s another level of mindset that transcends just thinking happy thoughts ‘and all will be okay’. This next level is the level of perception—how you see yourself, and how you see your interaction with the world.

It’s also about the present moment of now, and it’s also about the future.

This level of perception is where your mind gets to work on the ‘Big Picture’ goals you envisage achieving, your Life Purpose, the dreams you want to manifest, even the ideas of who you believe you are (or believe you’re not).

But this level of perception is mostly about your inner power, and how your thoughts about who you are, what you do, and how you do it, can create the success and prosperity you want.

Because you have this amazing power to change how you think about yourself, you have the ability to change what you don’t like and visualise a better reality.

The pages of your life ahead of you are blank, and you have the power to write how those pages turn out. With your thoughts, words and actions, you are the author of your life story.

But to write the best story of your life, you need one essential ingredient—awareness.

You need to be aware of your thoughts. You need to be aware of the power of your thoughts. And you need to be aware of how to use your thoughts for your benefit and the benefit of others.

You need to be mindful. Because mindfulness is nothing more than being aware of your thoughts, your words, and your actions. Especially the impact that they have on you and others.

For instance, you might hold the belief that you’re not very clever. This belief leads to words you say to yourself and to others, such as, “Oh, I never understand computers.” Or, “I’m such a clutz, I never do anything right.”

This has flow-on effects, such as lack of self-confidence, and in the end you don’t take necessary action to achieve your goals because you don’t believe you have the ability to achieve them.

In the end, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy and you eventually come to realise that you have created your world with your thoughts—you see what you believe.

But this works for positive thoughts and beliefs as much as it does for negative thoughts and beliefs.

You can release any negative thoughts holding you back and replace them with thoughts that are more positive and more likely to generate the outcomes you want.

One of the easiest mindfulness exercises is breathing meditation. Simply focussing on your breath and not allowing any other thoughts to distract you, is a very effective practice that will help you establish the mindset you need to manifest your dreams and manifesting your full potential.

All it takes is as little as 5 minutes per day. Are you willing?

Be Positive. Take the First Step to Unlock the Life You Want Today!