Today, I’ll talk about how to change our way of thinking. Perhaps changing our primary languages is the most powerful way to change our thinking.
Why think so negatively
One day someone tweeted on SNS, “Why do I think so negatively like this?” He seemed to take many things negatively. So he had not been able to try new things. In addition, he was not to be able to enjoy his life.
Sometimes we have such trouble. If we think more positively about many things, we can be more delighted and enjoy many things. But we take them negatively. It makes us lose the energy to challenge or enjoy our lives. So we want to change our way of thinking.
There are many ways to change our way of thinking. But I recently realized that changing our primary languages would be the most powerful way to change them.
Thinking without emotional prejudice
To explain it, let me talk about myself. I’m a native Japanese speaker. But recently, I have come to think about everything in English. In other words, I’m changing my primary language now.
And recently, I also realized that I can think without emotional prejudice when I think in English. Perhaps this is because I don’t have any impressions of words.
We usually have related impressions or emotions about a word. For example, if we hear “depressed,” we will get a bad image. On the other hand, if we hear “glad,” we will feel good. We have such connections between words and feelings. And we have built such a belief system since our birth.
Releasing our “long-term learned belief system”
At such a time, if we change our primary language, we are free from such a “long-term learned belief system.” Because we don’t have any connections between words and feelings.
For example, in my case, if I hear “I quit the company” in Japanese, I have a bad image because I learned quitting work is a bad thing. But if I hear it in English, I don’t feel that way. Because I don’t connect “quitting a company” to “bad feelings.” This connection is not built in my brain yet. So I don’t feel anything emotionally.
So I can think without emotional prejudice about many things if I use English. If I hear, “I quit the company,” I feel, “Sometimes it will be good. But sometimes it will be bad.” I am emotionally neutral. So I can judge calmly.
Rebuilding our emotional judgments from scratch
We have learned a lot of such emotional judgments since our birth. And to live or survive at an early age, we built our belief system. For example, someone might feel bad and stop his activity instantly when he hears the word “selfish.” Such emotional reactions often control us.
But sometimes, the belief system cannot apply to our current lives, especially if we have different natures. So we have troubles in our current lives, such as thinking negatively.
Changing our primary language will solve this problem because we can eliminate emotional reactions. We can also say that this is a way of rebuilding our emotional judgments from scratch.
Of course, there are many other ways. We can also change our way of thinking without changing our current language. But the connections between words and emotions are the deepest part of our minds. So changing our language could be easier than modifying our emotional judgments.
Conclusion
So I think that changing our primary languages is the most powerful way to change our thinking.
This might be challenging for those who are not good at learning other languages. But sometimes, it is easier than modifying our emotional judgments.
If we understand this possibility, we might be able to choose a suitable way to change our lives.
Thank you for reading this article. I hope to see you at the next one.
