Change the source of the stream, change the river, change the lake, change the ocean.

How do we change how we think? How do we change what we think?

The ways we cognize the world around us depend heavily on contextual factors from our environment, our upbringing, and our disposition. The fact that I think in English, for instance, plays a massive role in how I think. Having spent most of my adult years in a highly urbanized, affluent city has imprinted its values on me, leading my thoughts more immediately to frames of survival and success in that context. Values I was raised with, whether healthy or unhealthy, serve as parameters for my thinking—for instance, my mother strongly emphasized the importance of learning, and I take that as something good in and of itself.

At first glance, it seems like there is little we can do to change how we think. We are able to change what we think through internal or external dialogue—if I decide that I am a non-judgmental person, catch myself judging someone, and then recognize my judgment, I can take conscious action to change my thought. This is a CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) style technique that helps us change what we think after it has sprung up.

The first and most critical step in the process of changing what we think is awareness. With the tool of awareness, we can recognize a thought or a pattern. Once we have recognized a pattern, we can name it, identify it so that we now have an indexed reference point that we can point to. If we do not like what we see, if we find that it causes us pain, suffering, or confusion, we can examine it. Examination may lead to challenging the thought, breaking it down enough to leave it dispersed, dismissed, deflated from any power it once held.

Let's take a contrived example, CBT style, where someone has negative thoughts about themselves. "No one likes me" may be the unexamined thought. With awareness, someone can recognize the thought, and ask, "Is this true?" They may then be able to see that there are people in the world who love them and can dispel the notion that "no one" likes them.

That's all well and good—we can cognize our way through thoughts. Many of our thoughts, though, are deeper than that. The unexamined repetition of a thought transmutes itself into a belief. Once something is a belief, it is at the root. It is a part of how we think, not just what we think. Beliefs are springs for thoughts—they are generative, creating many thoughts that fit the frame of the belief.

Much like how beliefs are established through unexamined repetition, we can shift them through conscious repetition. Every time a belief or a belief-based thought arises, we can challenge it, examine it. Again, very CBT.

This method, however, leaves me wanting. The cognitive-based approach has always felt insufficient. It's tackling issues after they've arisen, perhaps treating and regulating symptoms rather than getting to the root. And perhaps the root is not even the whole issue—perhaps the root is what we think—but the bigger issue is where the root is planted. The soil, the pot, the larger frame, the environment—that is how we think. Let's get to the root, yes, let's plant the seeds we want, install the generative springs that nourish our mind, but also, how can we create a frame that supports our thoughts to be happy, healthy, aligned with our highest selves?

Anti-guru alert, I don't have the answer. I have some intuitions, some ideas for how to change how we think, so I'll list them here inelegantly:

• deliberate, regular practice
  • of a new belief (repeated verbally)
  • of a new habit that supports a belief (daily exercise, writing)
• information diet
  • deciding what information you allow into your mind
  • social and public media restrictions
  • deliberate consumption of chosen material
• community
  • who you surround yourself with will influence how you think
• environment
  • where you live will frame how you think
• pharmacology and psychedelics
  • using different substances to change the levels of neurotransmitters in the mind
  • using psychedelic journeys to write new stories about our lives

The question of how we change our thinking fascinates me. Just as important as how we change is what we change it to. Change is one thing—but it is definitive of the process, not the destination. What we change to is just as important as how we're changing.

We are all living in an environment of our own beliefs and ways of thinking. What beliefs and frames of thinking do you have that you want to change?