Each one of our emotions is created by the thoughts we think. We create our own experience. We can even adopt the thoughts of others, and they can make us feel a certain way. Knowing this can be life-changing. How we decide to think about something can determine how we feel about it. Our beliefs are made from thoughts we have thought over and over throughout our lives.
By analyzing our thoughts that lead to the feelings that we want to experience and deliberately thinking about these thoughts, we can change how we feel. We can also identify the thoughts we have that are not serving us when they make us feel negative.
Learning this concept has changed the way I approach my life. It has made me take full responsibility for the way that I feel, and I can deliberately change my focus through this analysis.
I believe this concept is what has brought me back from suffering from burnout and emotional exhaustion. It has also helped me to understand how the “negative thought echo-chamber” of social media and group text messaging has contributed to burnout in physicians over time.
It used to be that if we had a bad day, we would tell our best friend or spouse, or family member, vent to this person and hopefully feel better. Now it is easy to spread your message via group messaging or social media. However, it is important to remember that what negative messaging does is create negative thoughts in each person that reads it. So often, others can adopt those negative thoughts subconsciously and they can spread like a disease.
I believe that the negativity bias that our brains are programmed for in order to protect us from harm, has led these negative thoughts to prevail over the positive ones. The good news is that once we identify this within ourselves, our prefrontal cortex can take over and recalibrate.
I control my thoughts. I control my feelings. I can accept the negative thoughts I hear without internalizing them, and I can ask myself if these thoughts make me feel the way that I want to feel. If they don’t serve me, I can choose to reject them. This realization has been life-changing. I am not a victim of my circumstances (how much I get paid, where I live, how much I am appreciated) but in fact, I create my own experience! This means that I can always choose to live my best life, in both a professional and a personal setting, just by managing my thoughts.
I want to live my best life. Having a coach to help with thought analysis has helped me achieve new goals in an extremely short period of time. This is what inspired me to be a coach specifically for high-achieving physicians and medical professionals. Once I learned how valuable a coach can be in analyzing thoughts, it inspired me to do the same for others.
Coaching can help with thought reframing, and being a fellow physician, I can understand the unique struggles we face in this profession. I’d love to chat with you about how thought management can fit into your life, and make a profound difference in both your work and home.