Did you know that human beings have 50,000-70,000 thoughts a day? I didn’t know this until recently. When I learned this, I thought it was such a ridiculously high number that nobody could possibly be aware of every single thought that passes through their brains.

And it’s true. Most of us rarely choose the paths of our “trains of thought” intentionally. Instead, we let our minds wander whichever way they please for most of the day, And a lot of our thoughts seem to escape out our ears without us even noticing.

Babysitting Your Subconscious Self

While letting our minds wander can be relaxing and peaceful, moments of consciousness and intentionality can help us achieve new heights of growth and progress.

If we never question what our subconscious is thinking about, we leave the door open for thoughts rooted in worries, insecurities, and fears to set up shop in our brains.

If you tried to record and question all the unconscious thoughts you have in a day, you would probably notice two significant things.

1. Many thoughts don’t hold up to scrutiny. (in other words, they aren’t true)
2. Many thoughts aren’t helping us get where we want to go in life.

You can test this yourself by asking the four questions Byron Katie calls “The Work”. (the 8 questions for intentionality appear later).

Q1. Is it true?

Q2. Can you absolutely know that it’s true?

Q3. How do you react, what happens, when you believe that thought?

Q4. Who would you be without that thought?

If you do this, you’ll probably begin to notice that many of your thoughts aren’t serving you (if you didn’t know this already). 

To fix that, let’s talk about how to facilitate some thoughts that DO serve you.

The Questions

The following 8 questions are designed to help you check in with your subconscious-self daily and begin facilitating helpful, productive, purposeful thoughts. These are questions that I use regularly to make sure I am living intentionally each day, and there are so many accomplishments in my life that never would have happened without this habit.

In my mind, the more intentionality, the better. 

note: I’ve also added some sub-thoughts to help clarify what these questions mean and how you might answer them.

1. Were my actions aligned with my priorities today?
   • If yes, how so? If not, why not?
2. Did I do anything for the people I care about today?
   • Did you check in on someone? Offer help or a listening ear?
3. What healthy habits do I want to start or continue?
   • Maybe you want to drink more water or stretch in the mornings.
4. What did I do to take care of myself today? 
   • Perhaps you had a fruit smoothie or took a moment to yourself.
5. What could I do to take better care of myself tomorrow? 
6. What are my next steps for my long-term goals?
   • Try to pick something measurable and easily achievable
7. How did I show up as the person I want to be today?
   • This would likely be something you did that correlated with your values.
8. How can I show up as the person I want to be tomorrow?

Personally, I’d suggest picking 3-5 of your favorite questions from this list (My favorites are 1, 4, and 8). Then, try to ask yourself those questions each night before bed or whenever it feels right for you. If you see positive results, you might want to do this indefinitely.

Takeaways

The main thing I hope you take away from this post is that you might have more control over some of the thoughts that pass through your mind than you once thought. You have the ability to think progress oriented thoughts that serve you well just by asking the right questions. So why not give it a shot?

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Did this post resonate with you? If so, I’d love to hear from you! Leave a comment or send me a message to share your thoughts. For more uplifting content, check out some other posts on my blog, follow me on instagram @morgan_barbret, or sign up for the Self Love Atlas Newsletter!

Cheers, 

Morgan Rita Barbret