How to Change Root Thoughts

I've come across pieces of advice about how to change reactive thoughts -root thoughts.

This first piece of advice I got from a book called "Conversations With God" by Neale Donald Walsch. The second piece of advice, I got from a friend of mine who has himself suffered with anxiety for about 20 years; and his opinion about important things like how to change thinking, is one that I trust and believe in more than most if not all people I've met.

If you are not into religion or spirituality, and find the idea of a man talking to God either unbelieveable or stupid, then just try reading the words and what is said about how we can change our instant thinking patterns. There is no harm in getting new tips, suggestions for how to change our thinking.

So, I've copied-out the most relevant parts of the book here in hope that it will be found helpful....



“Conversations With God” by Neale Donald Walsh. Pg 163 -168

(“Conversations with God” goes according to the author writing his thoughts and “God” answering them…)

Author: How can I change the way I think? The way I think about something is the way I think about something. My thoughts, my attitudes, my ideas were not created in a minute. I have to guess they are the result of years of experiences, a lifetime of encounters. You are right about the way I think about money, but how do I change that?

God: This could be the most interesting question in the book. The usual method of creation for most human beings is a three-step process involving thought, word, and deed, or action.
First comes thought; the formative idea; the initial concept. Then comes the word. Most thoughts ultimately form themselves into words, which are often written or spoken. This gives added energy to the thought, pushing it out into the world, where it can be noticed by others.
Finally, in some cases words are put into action, and you have what you call a result; a physical world manifestation of what all started with a thought.
Everything around you in your man-made world came into being in this way –or some variation of it. All three creation centres were used.
But now comes the question: how to change a Sponsoring Thought?
Yes, that is a very good question. And a very important one. For if humans do not change some of their Sponsoring Thoughts, humankind could doom it self to extinction.
The most rapid way to change a root thought, or sponsoring idea, is to reverse the thought-word-deed process.

Author: Explain that.

God: Do the deed that you want to have the new thought about. Then say the words that you want to have your new thought about. Do this often enough and you’ll train the mind to think a new way.

Author: Train the mind? Isn’t that like mind control? Isn’t that just mental manipulation?

God: Do you have any idea how your mind came up with the thoughts it now has? Do you know that your world has manipulated your mind to think as you do? Wouldn’t it be better for you to manipulate you mind than for the world to?
Would you not be better off to think the thoughts you want to think, than those of others? Are you not better armed with creative thoughts than with reactive thoughts?
Yet your mind is filled with reactive thoughts –thought that springs from the experience of others. Very few of your thoughts spring from self-produced data, much less self-produced preferences.
Your own root thought about money is a prime example. Your thought about money (it is bad) runs directly counter to your experience (it’s great to have money!). so you have to run around and lie to yourself about your experience in order to justify your root thought.
You are so rooted in this thought, it never occurs to you that your idea about money may be inaccurate.
So now what we are up to is coming up with some self-produced data. And that is how we change a root thought, and cause it to be your root thought, not another’s.
You have one more root thought about money, by the way, which I’ve yet to mention.

Author: What’s that?

God: That there’s not enough. In fact you have this rood thought about just about everything. There’s not enough money, there’s not enough time, there’s not enough love, there’s not enough food, water, compassion in the world. …Whatever there is that’s good, there’s just not enough.
This race conciousness of ‘not-enough-ness’ creates and recreates the world as you see it.

Author: Okay, so I have two root thoughts –Sponsoring Thoughts- to change about money.

God: Oh, at least two. Probably many more. Let’s see.
Money is bad….money may not be received for doing God’s work (that’s a big one with you)… money is never given freely …money doesn’t grow on trees (when, in fact, it does) …money corrupts.

Author: I see I’ve got a lot of work to do.

God: Yes, you do, if you’re not happy with your present money situation. On the other hand, it’s important to understand that you’re not happy with your present money situation because you’re unhappy with your present money situation.

Author: Sometimes You’re hard to follow.

God: Sometimes you’re hard to lead.

Author: Say, listen, You’re the God here. Why don’t You make it easy to understand?

God: I have made it easy to understand.

Author: Then why don’t you just cause me to understand. If that’s what You truly want?

God: I truly want what you truly want –nothing different and nothing more. Don’t you see that is My greatest gift to you? If I wanted for you something other than what you want for you, and then went so far as to cause you to have it, where is your free choice? How can you be a creative being if I am dictating what you shall be, do, and have? My joy is in your freedom, not your compliance.

Author: Okay, what did You mean, I’m unhappy with my money situation because I’m unhappy with my money situation?

God: You are what you think you are. It’s a vicious circle when the thought is a negative one. You’ve got to find a way to break out of the circle.
So much of your present experience is based on your previous thought. Thought leads to experience, which leads to thought, which leads to experience. This can produce constant joy when the Sponsoring Thought is joyous. It can, and does, produce continual hell when the Sponsoring Thought is hellatious.
The trick is to change Sponsoring Thought. I was about to illustrate how to do that.

Author: Go.

God: Thank you.
The first thing to do is reverse the thought-word-deed paradigm. Do you remember the old adage, “Think before you act”?

Author: Yes.

God: Well, forget it. If you want to change a root thought, you have to act before you think.
Example: you’re walking down the street and come across an old lad begging for quarters. You realize she’s a bad lady and is living day-to-day. You instantly know that as little money as you have, you surely have enough to share with her. Your first impulse is to give her some change. There’s even a part of you that’s ready to reach into you pocket for a little folding money- a one, or even a five. What the heck, make it a grand moment for her. Light her up.
Then, thought comes in. What, are you crazy? We’ve only got seven dollars to get us through the day! You want to give her a five? So you start fumbling around for that one.
Thought again: Hey, hey, c’mon. You don’t have that many of these that you can just give them away! Give her some coins, for heaven’s sake, and let’s get out of here.
Quickly you reach into the other pocket to try to come up with some quarters. Your fingers feel only nickels and dimes. You’re embarrassed. Here you are, fully clothes, fully fed, and you’re going to nickel-and-dime this poor woman who has nothing.
You try in vain to find a quarter or two. Oh, there’s one, deep in the fold of your pocket. But by now you’ve walked past her, smiling wanly, and it’s too late to go back. She gets nothing. You get nothing, either. Instead of the joy of knowing your abundance and sharing, you now feel as poor as the woman.
Why didn’t you just give her the paper money! It was your first impulse, but your thought got in the way.
Next time, decide to act before you think. Give the money. Go ahead! You’ve got it, and there’s more where that came from. That’s the only thought which separates you from the bag lady. You’re clear there’s more where that came from, and she doesn’t know that.
When you want to change a root thought, act in accordance with the new idea you have. But you must act quickly, or your mind will kill the idea before you know it. I mean that literally. The idea, the new truth, will be dead in you before you’ve had the chance to know it.
So act quickly when the opportunity arises, and, if you do this often enough, your mind will soon get the idea. It will be your new thought.

Author: Oh, I’ve just got something! IS that what’s meant by the New Thought Movement?

God: If not, it should be. New thought is your only chance. It’s your only real opportunity to evolve, to grow, to truly become Who You really Are.
Your mind is right now filled with old thoughts. Not only old thoughts, but mostly someone else’s old thoughts. It’s important now, it’s time now, to change your mind about some things. That is what evolution is all about.

So, basically the excerpt from this book is describing how quick and powerful thoughts(-feelings) can sabotage attempts we make at controlling our thoughts and reactions. And this keeps us locked into the vicious circle of negative experience.

How the correct order is is - Thought, Word, the Deed (action); but that when the underlying thought is deep (strong) and negative it is like the doubting voice that sabotages all the work we do to think new and better thoughts. That we can act quickly and in doing this often enough we can allow ourselves to feel differently enough, and then the new thoughts/perception is more easily accepted and believed -because are feelings are better at accepting it.

In this way, it is not unlike the 'Behavioural' part of 'Cognitive Behavioural Therapy' -where recontextualising of thoughts (cognitive therapy) is used together with behavioural (action based) therapy. ...That, we can try to gain new thoughts to create a new experience by 'attacking' the thought-word-deed paradigm at both ends. (You could possibly replace the terms - 'deed', 'action', 'behaviour' and 'experience'- with 'emotions'; so that we are working on both our emotions and our thinking .)

And this also has a similarity to methods for changing thinking (to then change experience) such as -medication (also used in partnership with cognitive therapy); whereby a person is eased emotionally into feeling differently (in a way this is the same as changing their experience -in that it mullifies the negativity they feel about their experience) and then people speak about the greater ease with which they find changing their perceptions/thinking. this can allow a person to detach more easily from their emotions and then their thoughts along with this.

It also has similarity to meditation -wherein a person uses tools such as controlled breathing (with the diaphragm?) to create a physical, biochemical, sense of calm that shuts-down the fight or flight response. again this is approaching thought control through changing the symptoms that the body experiences and likewise the feelings experienced. Also, meditation uses visualisation of a calm centre and teaches people to detach from the flurry of thoughts going through their mind. That we watch them pass like water over an unshifting rock. And the 'rock' is the calm (emotional) centre within. Again, this aids people in feeling better in order to think better. And through attaining more this calm centredness, a person can achieve a sense of objectivity about what is happening ('notice the thoughts going through your mind but gently bring you focus back onto your breathing') In other words, again it helps in changing perception and thinking, through the objective noticing of thoughts because a person is more able to detach emotionally enough from them.

...There are a few ways that a person could put this approach into use.
(I'll go through some of the ones that I can come up with a bit later. )
Right now, some ways that this 'action-based changing of root thoughts' can be applied to something like social phobia is included in that letter written to me that I mentioned earlier.
It was written by a person whose opinion I respect a great deal and who himself dealt with anxiety for many years. Here it is...


*_Beginning of Letter_*

Dear 'LittleMissMuffet',

If I were to recommend some help in this area, I think I would tell you to just smile whenever you feel anxious or nervous, and tell yourself the fear you are feeling is really a little thing of no consequence. And while smiling, you might even say outloud to yourself, "I really don't mind about the little things".

This will also help you to develop thoughts of appreciation and the ability to express compassion, not only towards others, but towards yourself as well.

I know all this sounds very simplistic, but you'd be surprised how far the effects a simple smile of recognition, appreciation, and compassion will go and accomplish, whether you are looking at someone else or just looking inot a mirror...

Try it for a week or so until you get the hang of it, and see if things don't start looking up for you...

Believe it or not I was about the same age as you are now when I started having all my anxiety problems, and it took me nearly 20 years of soul searching and deep introspection before I stumbled across the 'Smile' as a therapeutic tool.

I would hope that you would not have to undergo the same grief and despair I went though all those long years ago only to discover how really simple it could have been for me, but then again perhaps there are those of us who must undergo such anxieties in order to appreciate the depth and breadth of such simplicity.

I guess there are those of us who tend to make things more difficult than they really are, and maybe we even think that a solution must be of the same magnitude as the problem.

However in my decades of searching I have discovered, like Jesus Who said a bit of faith like a mustard seed can move mountains, that something as simple as a heartfelt smile can remove more negativity and fear from our lives and the lives of those around us than all the drugs and psychotherapists in the world.

In addition to smiling, try breathing with your diaphragm instead of your chest whenever you feel anxious.

Chest breathing supports and maintains the fight or flight response, because it stimulates the sympathetic nervous system which is responsible for speeding things up so we can fight better or run faster.

On the other hand diaphragm breathing, or breathing with the stomach, causes us to slow down and relax so we can digest whatever we have assimilated, whether it be food or environmental stimuli, such as a crowd of people we do not know.

I learned these things a while back in my search, and to date they have been the most helpful. So do these things at every opportunity, especially when things seem the darkest, and see if they don't help to brighten up your world.

And if you need to know how and why this works, then I can spell it all out for you. But most of those whom I have shared this information with have found that smiling and diaphramatic breathing was all they needed to know in order to get through their anxieties, one day - and even one moment - at a time.

Let me know how it works for you...

*_End of Letter_*

Great Post LMM. I've read some of the CWG books, they are very good if taken with a grain of salt. If nothing else, they are food for thought.