The One Thing You Need to Believe

When it comes to developing happiness, inner peace, confidence, and faith, there is one main point that needs to be accepted by the practitioner. Believing this point is the most important part of the journey. Not believing this point will impede your development, actually prevent it. If you don’t agree with this main point, almost all of my content will seem foreign to you, maybe even ridiculous. Even though I am a Meditation Teacher, I can still say that understanding this concept is more important to be happy than meditation itself.

The one thing you need to believe is that Thoughts Matter.

The quality of your thoughts will affect the quality of your life.

Within this concept, there can be debates…

Do your thoughts matter at all?

Do your thoughts matter a little bit? (Intangible effect)

Do your thoughts matter a lot?

Are bad thoughts as bad as eating fried food?

Are bad thoughts as bad as smoking cigarettes?

Is one bad thought as damaging as eating one m&m?

Is a single bad thought as damaging as not sleeping for a whole night? Probably not because if that was the case, with all of the negative thoughts everyone has, the world would be in shambles.

Does what you are thinking when you are performing an action make a difference in the effectiveness of that action?

These inner concepts are interesting but the core concept is what is critical. If you have even the slightest belief that negative thoughts have even the slightest effect on what happens, then you will put some amount of effort into observing, tracking, nurturing, and improving the overall quality of your thoughts. This is the bottom line.

If, on the other hand, you think that all of this is rubbish and that private thoughts are, just that, private and mere thoughts, then you will have no motivation to care in the least. If you don’t think your thoughts matter, we can’t talk about mindfulness. We can’t talk about establishing a meditation practice. In short, if you don’t believe that your thoughts matter, I can’t help you.

For example, I have been convinced that the quality of the food I eat will affect the quality of my life. I believe this to be true. As a result, I consider what I eat. My diet is not perfect. But, even when I am damaging myself by eating the wrong foods, I understand that I am causing damage. Because of my belief, I will know that every bite of birthday cake I put into my mouth while being delicious and ceremonial and what life is all about, is not free. I am trading some of myself in exchange for that bite.

On the flip side, although I have bumped into information about how carrying your cell phone in your pocket all day long can be damaging to your health, I don’t yet BELIEVE it enough for it to affect my life. I don’t think about the damaging effects every time I put my cell phone in my pocket. In fact, I’m surprised I was even able to reference this information for this article. It is simply not in my consciousness on a regular basis. Because of this, I put no effort into limiting the time I carry my cell phone in my pocket. I am unaware of the exchange: trading the convenience of having my cell phone in my pocket versus whatever damage it can cause.

To go back to food as an analogy, your mental diet is very similar to your nutritional diet. In order to develop any diet, you must believe that the rules of the diet make a difference. If a diet suggests eating spinach instead of fried potatoes, the underlying thought is: WHY? The answer would be: that eating spinach instead of potatoes WILL MAKE A DIFFERENCE. There is not a dieter in the world that does not believe that food choices matter. This analogy might seem strange because, over the last 100 years, just about everyone has been convinced that food choices matter. I’m sure that, if you asked a family of hungry farmers in the 1600s to choose one food over another, they would be confused as to why. Those poor, overworked people, needed to consume every calorie available. Farmers in the 1600s didn’t live a life that would allow them the luxury of being able to find, or even consider, different foods for health reasons. Today, everyone believes that the quality of your food affects the quality of your life. The difference is that not everyone believes that the quality of your thoughts matter. So, naturally, an article about the benefits of leafy greens has a larger potential audience than an article about the benefits of gratitude.

I understand the resistance. I don’t judge anyone for not believing that the quality of your thoughts matter. Why? Because I, myself, didn’t think the quality of my thoughts mattered for years, decades. The concept doesn’t make sense when compared to the logic we use every day. Your thoughts are/seem private. From childhood, we practice thinking thoughts and see no immediate proof that anyone or anything outside of our skulls is affected by the thought.

We see successful people and unsuccessful people and have no idea about the quality of their thoughts. We have many examples of people succeeding based on hours worked, degrees attained or training endured but we never get an idea of someone’s thought habits. Parents don’t normally say, “Be like your Uncle Frank, he is consistently grateful.” But they might say “Be like your Uncle Frank, he went to law school.” We reference peoples’ actions, not their thoughts. In general, the idea that our thoughts matter is uncommon in Western Culture. That’s why I am writing this article.

Accepting this concept requires a few things. It needs us to be exposed to the idea that the quality of our thoughts matters. Then, it requires us to witness enough evidence to convince us of its truth. These are two big leaps. It is very easy to limit our exposure to content that never touches upon this topic. It is even easier to not notice the subtleties that make up the entire mindfulness world. It took me years to fully appreciate all that meditation and mindfulness have to offer.

I am confident in saying that this is step one on your mindfulness and meditation journey. If you are new to the culture, I would say to spend your first investment of time studying why the quality of your thoughts affects the quality of your life. You cannot move forward without this awareness. Believe that thinking negatively is damaging, just like eating poorly. When you feel as guilty about thinking mean thoughts about the rude waitress as you do about eating the French fries she served you, you’re ready to take the next step. And maybe next time you will order a salad with a smile.

Burak Uzun is an award-winning writer and a Certified Meditation Teacher. He has received thousands of hours of training and hands-on experience in guiding individuals with social and emotional challenges.

Burak Uzun also co-wrote a feature film called Team Marco, which was featured in over fifty film festivals around the globe and was distributed by Samuel Goldwyn Films.

Please feel free to reach out to Burak here.

Learn more about SOCA LLC and Burak’s classes here.