Thought Audit

When you wake up in the morning, where does your mind go?

Are you full of ideas, solutions, and things you want to create? Or are you replaying yesterday, finding everything you did wrong, and wondering what other people thought of you?

I pay attention to that in myself. The thoughts I wake up with often show me what I have been practicing throughout the day.

A thought audit is a way to notice that practice. It isn't a reason to criticize yourself. It is an awareness tool that helps you see what you are using your brain for and decide whether you want to redirect it.

Notice buffering and indulging

Buffering means taking action to avoid feeling something. You might eat, drink, scroll social media, or use another activity to get away from an emotion.

Sometimes the activity looks healthy. Exercise and work can be buffering, too, when you use them in order not to feel.

Indulging is different. You spin in worry, anxiety, self-doubt, or feeling sorry for yourself without moving anywhere. You feel bad, then feel sorry for yourself for feeling bad.

Neither is the same as processing an emotion.

When you process an emotion, you allow it to be there in a way that connects you with yourself. When you indulge, you react to it in a nonproductive way, often connecting it to blame about the external world.

Notice whether your thinking is creating momentum or perpetuating a loop of buffering, blaming, and inaction.

Ask what your thinking is creating

Your brain is an extraordinary tool. You can use it to create ideas, find solutions, help people, and love them.

You can also use it against yourself.

When I was younger, I obsessed about food and my body. I thought about what I would eat, what I had eaten, my thighs, my weight, calories, and body fat.

I read diet books and used this precious brain to go around and around about my weight. I can see now that it could have been put to a much more productive use.

I don't regret that time or beat myself up about it. I notice when I start doing something similar now.

You might be reviewing what you wish you hadn't said, counting likes on Instagram, or comparing your appearance with someone else's. Ask where that thinking is getting you.

Take one thought from the audit and look at what it actually creates in your life. An unconscious program can feel easy to follow because your brain has practiced it so much.

Write the thoughts without editing them

Start with a thought download. Let all the thoughts pour onto paper.

Don't judge, edit, or fix them. Then look at the quality of the thinking.

Are these thoughts helping you create, love, or produce what you want? Or are they being used against you or other people?

Don't turn the audit into another complaint about yourself. Deciding that your thoughts aren't good enough just adds another negative thought to the pile.

Be curious. Be interested. Sit with what you notice.

A familiar loop can feel oddly comforting, even when it doesn't serve you. I have had weeks of unproductive thinking, replaying situations and beating myself up. Familiarity isn't proof that the thinking is useful.

Choose what you want your brain to work on

Get a new sheet of paper. If you could choose the thoughts your brain produced automatically, what would they be?

What is the best use of your brain today?

Would you have it obsessing about an unclean house or the Oreos you ate yesterday? Or would you have it creating something that helps you or someone else?

You might choose thoughts about loving yourself, loving the world, being up for challenges, or being excited to solve problems. You might want to think about accepting yourself in a loving, kind, productive way.

Let yourself come up with the best thoughts you can think. This takes creativity and practice. There is no pressure to produce flowery sentences or get it right.

I like to imagine putting an audiobook of thoughts into my brain, in my own voice. Me talking to me about my life.

What would you want yours to say?

Practice thoughts you can believe

This is different from affirmations or pretend positivity.

In the Model, a thought goes in the T line. You know it is working by the feeling it creates in the F line. You have to believe it to feel it.

Saying a sentence you don't believe isn't the same as thinking a useful thought that changes your experience.

After you write the thoughts you want to practice, sit with them. Notice whether you actually believe them.

You may not believe you have the most beautiful body in the world. But you might believe you have a useful body, a healthy body, or a body that gets you from place to place.

You can start with a thought you believe and work toward an aspirational thought. The point is to create the feelings, actions, and results you want, not just repeat words.

Redirect gently

You don't have to aggressively change your mind. Think of gently moving a boat's rudder. Turn a little away from the loop and toward something useful.

I often walk without an audiobook or phone call and watch my brain think. Even with all the work I have done, it still wanders, obsesses, and wants to buffer.

I gently bring it back.

A powerful question gives your brain something to work on. How can I love more? How can I help my clients feel better? Which of my talents am I underusing, and how can I use them more?

Your brain can filter what it knows and find new combinations and answers.

You don't need to create what someone else creates. What does your brain want to create? What becomes possible when you stop judging it and give it a nourishing environment?

Do the audit. Notice your thinking. Then give that remarkable tool a direction you choose.