Practical Steps for Aligning Your Thoughts

Before you choose your thoughts, choose your emotions. Choose the emotion that you want to feel, and then choose a thought that matches that emotion. Most of us don’t do that; we just keep thinking thoughts, and those thoughts are on a trajectory. Whatever thought you were thinking before generates the next one, so you have to make a conscious decision to switch out of that train of thoughts and get onto a different train.

If you decide that you're going to choose your emotion first, then you're not on a train of thought by default. You pick the train. 

So, choose the emotion you want to feel, and don't choose an emotion that is very far from where you are on the emotional scale. As we do this work, we know that there are different steps going up the ladder of the emotional scale. If you're right at the bottom rung, you cannot jump onto the top rung. Just go one step at a time up the ladder.

Climbing the Emotional Ladder
If I'm right down in depression, the next thought I want to think and the way I want to feel will determine the next thought I want to think. I know I don't want to stay in depression, so how can I go up? What is the next emotion I want to feel? In depression, the feeling, the emotion, is powerlessness. I feel powerless.
What is above that? Above that is guilt. Above that is blame. So, if I am feeling powerless and like nothing's going to change, the next thing to do is to focus on how did I bring this about? Taking ownership. I want to feel that I had a role in this. That's what guilt is—acceptance of what you created at a lower place on the emotional scale. From powerlessness and depression, look for the emotion of guilt.

Moving Up the Scale
What is the thought that corresponds to guilt? Guilt is, "Oh, I wish I hadn't done that. I wish I hadn't said that." Now you've picked a thought that gives you the emotion you want to feel, so you've gone up the emotional scale.
Then, the next thing you do is ask, "Okay, if I want to go higher than this, what's the next emotion?" After guilt is blame. What's a thought that I can think right now where I can blame someone else for what's happened? "Well, if they hadn't done this, then I wouldn't have had to respond with that." Now you think a thought that helps you feel the emotion you picked.

From Blame to Higher Emotions
You're now at a place of blame. You know you can go higher. There's a deliciousness in blaming people, but you know you're not high on the emotional scale—you're not feeling love for someone when you blame them. So, you know you're not at a place of love and joy. What's the next thing you do? You can go to revenge, you can go to anger, and if you keep going, you will cross the worry line and start feeling your power.
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The Importance of Emotional Awareness
It's really powerful if you pick the emotion first. If you're going to pick the emotion first, you’ve got to know where you are. You've got to do that check-in to say, "How do I feel?" The first check-in you do is to ask yourself, "Do I feel like I'm in the top half of the emotional scale or the bottom half of the emotional scale? Which half of the emotional scale am I on?"
If you know for sure you're not in the top half and not feeling that good, then you know you're in the bottom half. Where exactly are you on the bottom half? Are you feeling fear? Are you feeling anger? What are you feeling? Once you know what you are feeling, now you can pick the next feeling.


Pick the feeling first, then go look for a thought that corresponds to that feeling, and keep going, one step at a time, up the emotional scale. Isn't it good to know emotions come first? Our objective, our target, our goal is the emotion, not the thought. Thoughts are important because they help us generate the emotion we want to feel, and that is so important to know.

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