Thoughts, Certainty & Your Internal Hall Monitor

For thousands of years the kabbalists have gathered on the first day of the Hebrew month, known as the new moon, because the first day is the seed of the whole month. Meaning, our actions and consciousness on the first day of the month have great bearing on our experience of the whole. Each day, week, and month has a different energy that is available for us. The energy of Iyar (Taurus), which begins this Saturday, is that of changing our thoughts.

 

It’s a big idea. We often speak of how our thoughts create our reality. This may seem nebulous, but it doesn’t make it any less of a fact! However, we also know how ephemeral and sometimes insidious thoughts can be. We tend to let our thoughts have free reign in a way that we would never allow our words. 

 

Think about your own thoughts and what you want to think about versus some of the things you don’t want to think about. Maybe some of the thoughts on these lists will resonate with you.

 

I want to think about:

• Gratitude
• The good qualities that others possess
• Intellectual pursuits
• My relationship with the Creator
• Fulfilling my purpose in life
• Planning ways to show others how much I love them
• Good memories I’ve shared with friends and family

 

I would like to stop thinking about:

• Negative qualities I see in others
• Past hurts or arguments
• Financial or health worries
• Mistakes or errors I have made
• Disappointments
• Second guessing my actions
• Doubt that I can achieve or receive something I want

 

The way we begin replacing the negative thoughts in our head with positive thoughts is through awakening our certainty. I feel that what having certainty means is very different than what most people understand it to be and is at a far more elevated level than positive thinking. Positive thinking is when you have a strong desire for something and you think in a certain way in the hope of actualizing that thought. Certainty is a completely different level of consciousness. Certainty doesn’t hope, certainty knows without a doubt. Certainty is trusting the Creator, knowing that everything that happens to you is for your benefit and your growth. It is accepting what is, no matter what is going on in your life, knowing it is ultimately for the best. Certainty is accepting the idea that life’s process is really the purpose. 

 

This is not easy! Rav Berg taught about this idea by sharing this,

 

The Bible tells us, Remember, Remember, and don’t forget, Zachor, Zachor, Lo Tishkach. There is not a single word or letter in the Bible that is superfluous, so what is the necessity of the repetition? By the time we read the second remember, we have already forgotten, and need to be reminded not to forget. But why should we have to remember? Why weren’t we created programmed with certainty? Because doubt is the illusion that keeps us earning the Light.

 

Doubts are like a mental hall monitor. While it may feel like our doubts are trying to keep us from harm, in reality they are fears, cloaked in the guise of good sense. If we start running too fast in one direction, our hall monitor shouts:

What if you fall?

What if you get hurt?

What if you utterly fail?

 

We hear our internal hall monitor, we slow down, we second guess, and in some cases, we give up. As you endeavor to change the very content of your thoughts in the days to come, keep an eye out for any doubts that may arise and squash them. They don’t serve you.

 

(I can almost hear you arguing with me, “but doubts are necessary, they make us take pause, they stop us from over-reaching!”)

 

Imagine if you said to your best friend on the night of her graduation, “I doubt you will be able to get a good job with your degree.” Or if, God forbid, a doctor said to a patient, “I doubt you’ll ever recover.” Imagine if a parent or relative had told you as a child, “I doubt you’ll ever make anything of yourself.” These are almost unimaginable examples. Most of us would never, ever speak to others in this manner. Yet, the doubts in your mind say these harsh things to you all the time. The big question is, why would you let yourself think things that would never be tolerable to hear from another person?

 

I wish you all good thoughts this month and always. It’s a process, like all things, but keep these tips in mind:

1. Trust the Creator that all things are ultimately for the best.
2. Recognize doubt for what it is, the anti-certainty. Learn to stop respecting your own doubtful thoughts.

 

Have a wonderful Taurus!

 

Thought into Action

Here is your mantra to strengthen your certainty and gain control over your thoughts:

This is all for the best. I trust the Creator and the process of life. – Rav Berg