Has a single thought ever changed your life?

[Entstoryench]

I've been reflecting on how important thoughts are, and how one thought can just change your life dramatically.

One example: when I was in my teens and early twenties, I was overweight. I was miserable and had no confidence. I always assumed that I always would be overweight and any attempts to loe weight were so half hearted.

Then one day I had this crystal clear thought: 'losing weight is completely in my control'. It sounds obvious, but I realised that if I changed my diet, I literally had the power to lose weight. Like, I actually had real control over this.

About a year later, I was 4 stone down and had to buy a whole new wardrobe of clothes. People didn't recognise me in the street and I replaced all of my old habits with lovely new healthy ones. 20 years later and I've pretty much kept it off and it was all down to that one thought that hit me like a tonnes of bricks one day.

Please share how a single thought changed your life!

Great stories - the one about working hard so you can leave home - LOVE the power in that thought.

Mine was the same - therapy epiphany at 30 or so - Sat morning, out of the shower, 'do I really have to straighten all this hair?' I thought, 'I won't be seeing my dad so no one will say anything bad...'

I was leaving my family, cutting them off, and realised that if I stuck to that decision, if I didn't give in to any suck back attempts, didn't respond to anything, then I genuinely would not ever see any of them again, so what I did with my life would be completely up to me.

It was a bit scary at first - 'well you've fucked it now, lets see what you're actually going to make of it' - but soon it became 'Oh my GOD! What could I do?! I could to this, I could do that, I could go there, I could change this and that.'

Will always remember - not straightening my hair that Saturday morning led to me picking my favourite things from the smorgasbord of life.

Thank you for the positivity in this thread.

‘I wonder if I have a book in me..?’

I was arguing with my boss and he said in exasperation "well, what do you want?" and I said "I want to go back to college to learn to program properly".

I hadn't realised it till it came out of my mouth.

So I handed in my notice, moved to London, did a masters, got onto a grad scheme and that lead to an interesting and well paid career in the City which hadn't been anyway near my radar growing up.

I was trying to manage my bills on my bank statement as didn't have much money. I suddenly remembered a saying I had heard recently that was comfortable people don't look at cutting back, they look at making more money.

It honestly was a game changer for me. I got serious about hustling and more forward that I wanted to be promoted. Within a few years I have more than doubled my earnings.

Another one -fell over and broke my wrist and my first thought was ‘fantastic I’ll get two weeks off work’ Handed in my notice and changed career.

Wow! Am absolutely loving these! Thank you all for sharing! 💪 💪 💪

What's got me thinking about this is a recent realisation that thoughts arent just these fluffy little clouds that come into your brain that you have no control of. That we really can take every thought captive and choose to reject it and replace it with something else, and that it might change your day or even your life!

I've been a real Negative Nancy lately. Huffing and puffing about being sleep deprived with the baby, the mess the kids make; all the banal stuff of running a household with young kids. I was taking offence at everything my husband did or said and just constantly wallowing in this low level self pity. I've recently realised that it's all a pile of of old crap!

My husband is just a human being being a human being, my kids are healthy and happy, the stuff will get tidied and I'm blessed beyond measure. Why on earth am I sabotaging my wonderful life with all this rubbish?

Every time I get one of those sabotaging thoughts about how I've so much laundry to do, or so sleep deprived, I reject that thought and remember that there are people with no clothes to wear or babies to wake them. The joy in my life has substantially increased just by changing how I think.

You don't have to accept the products of how you currently think, people!

Mine was realising that people treating me like crap wasn't my fault.

I didn't deserve it. They were just shitty people.

To be able to flip the perspective like that was a game changer.

Not a thought exactly. But a colleague of mine taught me in my twenties to strengthen every aspect of my life so that if one of them crashes (relationship, job etc, the others support you and stop you from going under. He drew me a diagram and it was an absolute lightbulb moment. My attitude to life transformed overnight.

No one had ever taught me a life skill before and I thank him to this day for that sane piece of advice. If life feels like it's heading in a downward spiral I focus on improving: health, fitness, income, home environment, family ties, friendships, fun etc and it really helps. Usually a few things can improve quite easily and give me a boost.

I used to be really anxious, I would worry what other people thought of me a lot. Then somebody said to me, that maybe they aren't thinking bad things about me they aren't thinking about me at all. I suddenly thought "I'm just not that important" and whenever I get socially anxious I think that.

Another one, stollen from feel the fear and do it anyway, but which I use on a daily basis is "I'll handle it"

Quite a few times in my life the thought "I am not willing to live like this anymore" has triggered a big change. Leaving an abusive relationship, a bad job, and more minor changes too. I've currently got that feeling again but this time am less sure of a course of action.

That’ I didn’t want my pregnancy & should have an abortion. How wild our thoughts can make us act. It’s not always for the deeper good.
It was so intrusive that I acted upon it. Was a while ago now but I’m so deeply regretful.

@Entstoryench great thread OP! Lots of uplifting and very insightful comments. I love your new perspective too OP. I need to switch my perspective like this.

Believing my husband when he told me I can do anything... I was suffering from anxiety and depression not helped by a mid life crisis now all the kids are at school..

I thought "maybe I can and maybe he's right".

I applied for teacher training, not really expecting to be accepted. I was. I then completed my PGCE in secondary education with distinctions throughout, juggling my own kids (and lively pets!)

I sat after a busy lesson last week, at the end of the day, looking round my classroom and have never felt so happy. I was thinking "this is mine. I did it!" I've honestly never been more fulfilled or felt so valued as a member of a team. Every day is a roller-coaster. And the kids are just amazing. Even the dicks!

Sorry that is absolutely doom & gloom!!

I love all these positive stories. Onwards & upwards! Life if too short for not progressing forward.

“You need to kick up more of a fuss about how bad your back pain really is”

three days later and I’m sitting in a post surgical ward having had an emergency discectomy.

My job role changed and I was really unhappy. Dreading going to work etc. I lost my dad last year and a friend of mine is going through cancer treatment and I just thought, 'Life's too short to feel this unhappy at work!' So I handed in my notice and leave at the end of October!
I have absolutely no idea what I'm going to do next but I'll just see where the wind takes me!

I love this thread! I've recently discovered yoga and it's calmed me a great deal.

Never being good enough and accepting terrible boyfriends/ jobs/ shite in general.

A thought is not a fact. I had to listen to that a few times before it made sense.

One amazing friend told me 'don't expect yourself from others'. Massive lightbulb moment. Huge. Has made me look again at friendships etc not gone NC, just not initiated contact. Massively revealing. Trash took itself out is the phrase, I think.

'Why am I putting up with this?'nearly twenty years in a miserable, lonely marriage with Mr Invisible whilst my toxic mother had just run off (again) with her latest infidelity. With the whole family's support.

Think I was trying to be the 'good' person who stuck it out no matter what, basically punishing myself. Fuck that! Got into therapy. Got out of the marriage and ironically ended up completely isolated as my family and most friends didn't approve. Funny how you can do it the 'right' way and still be the 'bad' one.

It made me realize how I had surrounded myself with utterly toxic scapegoating people. Never felt safer, calmer and authentically happier.

About 13 years ago a short term relationship I had ended. Another one. I was 24, still living at home and working in a city 35 miles away with a massive commute. I just suddenly thought, I’ll just move there and get a place on my own. So I did about 4 weeks later. 3 months later I met my DH who is from that city.

If nothing changes, nothing changes.

I use this when I’m thinking about eating yet more crap!

This is a silly one but I started to say "I meant to do that" with sometimes "and didn't I do it WELL" when I spill/break/drop something. It turns a moment of small humiliation (which can sometimes be the final straw in a bad day) into a laugh or a tiny triumph. Honestly, it's helped me because for me these little things add up, and now I brush those tiny mistakes off rather than worrying about how I looked / what people thought.

Same here. Woke up at the age of 36 thinking exactly that. Now have a 21 year old and an 18 year old.

"I've never been a bad person"

Hit me like a tonne of bricks when out for a run. Was just about to start counselling and realised that I had been brought up to think I was bad. That people would know, somehow find out that deep down inside me was a black and dark evil amd once they knew, they would never want to see me again. My friends, my DH, my DC... everyone. My mum had treated me like I was a horrible person but I was her own anxiety and insecurity that she was putting on me.

I was 39.

Mine was that it's important to like yourself and enjoy your own company. I decided that actually I really like taking myself where I want to go rather than waiting for someone else to want to go too. I have been for meals on my own, solo holidays, shopping and exploring in different cities, drinks etc and had some of the best times of my life. I am awesome company!

Oh my goodness. Me too. Until I was mid twenties I believed I was selfish and horrible as this is what I had been told by my parents. It was quite the epiphany when I realised I wasn't at all

Similar to you OP - I was overweight through adolescence and much of childhood, felt awful about it but didn't really believe that I could really change it.

Went to Uni at 18 with a BMI bordering on obese, and knew that I would probably have to stop drinking so much fizzy full-sugar drinks as I wouldn't be able to afford it/carry it home without a car. I had the idle thought that I might lose a bit of weight just from switching to drinking water instead, and it suddenly dawned on me that I was an adult now and everything that I ate/did was in my control - I could plan my own meals and wouldn't even have to tell anyone that I was trying to lose weight (and so if I failed, nobody would know).

Was down to a 'normal' BMI within the year, and have maintained that for 13 years now. It definitely changed my life.