6 Dimensions of Thinking, 1 Steering Wheel for Success

Thought leads to belief, and belief leads to attitudes. Attitudes influence while beliefs inform actions, and ultimately actions become habits which shape character that then forges destiny. This is the growth path that is taken by that powerful entity known as Thought.

But what is a Thought, anyway? Are thoughts things? What constitutes a Thought? What cannot be considered a Thought?

For a thing that occurs about 50,000 times a day in an average person's brain, I have come to believe that there are actually 6 dimensions of thinking and at least 1 way of steering your thoughts so that a desirable destiny can be dictated by you.

This is probably a relief to those of you out there who are nearly going mad over the 26 (or was it 23?) dimensions of quantum physics. Perish that thought! Let us get on with the 6 dimensions of thought, shall we?

The 6 dimensions of thought are divided into 3 pairs of dimensions, and they are:-

1. The 2 Polarities of Thoughts:

- Positive

- Negative

2. The 2 Qualities of Thoughts:

- True

- False

3. The 2 Kinds of Thoughts:

- Questions

- Affirmations

I dub them 6 dimensions and not 6 qualities or 6 types because these are actually elements that construct a thought and some elements can intersect with others from another pair. For example, there can be a False Negative Question such as, 'Why am I such a miserable failure in everything I do?' and there can be a False Positive Affirmation such as, 'I am the wealthiest, most opulent person of all time' (if that person is a shabby, unemployed but fully able-bodied degenerate).

Polarities of thought reveal whether or not a thought would be positive or negative to a person's well-being, or more specifically, if it would be useful, functional and purposeful to a person in any given situation. For example, a surgeon who is performing a brain surgery would categorise (if he still has the capacity to do the mental act of categorisation while performing brain surgery) as Negative or Non-Useful a thought such as, 'I have shaky hands. My hands are shaking. My palms are sweating.' But he would probably welcome (if he is giving any attention to any thought outside his brain surgery procedure at all) thoughts such as, 'I have firm steady hands. I know where to perform the incision. I know what tools to use. I know what exact steps to do, and the back-up steps in case my previous steps fail.'

It is important to note here that the 6 dimensions of thought are qualitative gauges for thoughts after they have been generated. It is possible to know whether or not a present thought is positive or negative, true or false, a question or an affirmation, but it would usually take a measure of time and a measure of practice with the act of observing in order to determine the 6 dimensions of thoughts.

Qualities of thoughts refer to how the thought relates to objective, empirical reality. Despite recent philosophical movements to the contrary, I still believe we cannot reject the fact that objective, empirical reality still exists and is still an important factor to be taken into consideration when making decisions and living Life in general.

There are many ways we can determine whether or not a thought that we generate is true. Even then, there are varying degrees of the truth or falsehood of a thought, despite the Boolean nature of the matter.

There are facts, then there are opinion, and then there are perceptions. Facts are simply observations about phenomena or things that have been made permanent in the mind because of the frequency and consistency of an observation concerning a phenomena or thing (for example, ever since the Earth was still void of Life and until now, the fact remains that triangles have three sides and one plus one equals two).

Opinions too have varying degrees to them - there are deep-rooted beliefs and then there are flexible opinions that would change once an observation has been proven wrong. Opinions are simply a formulation that arises in the mind after observing a thing or phenomena for a number of times, yet there are variable factors and elements yet to be considered that do not qualify that observation to be a fact.

Then there are perceptions. Perceptions are impressions or observations about certain things and how they behave. For example, if you were to live in a time where the concept of gravity has not been explained or introduced yet, you would wonder how or why things stay rooted to the ground or why things fall, but you would not know that it was because of the force called gravity. You would assume that it is just the way things are.

Kinds of thoughts just describe what shape a thought takes - in the form of a Question or an Affirmation.

To give you an analogy, questions are like the keywords you enter into a search engine such as Google, while affirmations are the results that Google generates because of the keywords you had entered.

When you are asking a question, depending on your intention, you are actively seeking out an answer, a truth, a reality that you would either adopt or reject, that you would either hope for or dread. There is that element of surprise still, the element of possibility of things being better or worse (again depending upon your outlook - whether optimistic or pessimistic).

But if you are stating an affirmation, you make it seem as if what you had just said is already true or you strongly believe is true. Therefore, you will always get experiences that confirm or somehow 'prove' to you that what you had just affirmed is true. Objectively speaking, affirmations can be true or false. But to your inner mind, everything is accepted as truth, in one way or another.

For example, an affirmation such as, 'things fall to the ground because of gravity' is a truthful one and a useful one because it keeps you from thinking you can fly off tall buildings; whereas a false affirmation such as, 'there is no such thing as gravity' is an extremely dangerous and harmful one especially if a person intends to act upon such beliefs.

Ideally, there should be a healthy mix and balance of thoughts comprising the varying elements of the 6 dimensions.

In this case, I hold to the school of thought that Truth should, above all, outweigh Positivity. I prefer Reality to Delusion. But then I also prefer Possibility to Grim Pessimism.

Strive always to seek out the truth behind what you think you know. Find the truth behind the truth. Once you have found it, find the truth behind the truth behind the truth. Until you are satisfied with a conclusion that is functional and useful for your working model of the world.

Let Truth and Positive Possibility both guide your beliefs, decisions and actions. Let not Positive Expectancy cloud your perception of what is true and real.

One habit that employs both Truth and Positive Possibility in a balanced and healthy mix, that is constructive and offers hope for improvement, is that of asking Positive, Objective, Constructive and True Questions.

When you have formulated a Question that is all at once positive, constructive, objective, truthful and does not deny reality in any way, you have a potent tool for transformation that no amount of affirmations-chanting can hope to do.

The habit of asking the right, most useful and truthful questions are what helped prisoners of war and sufferers of concentration camps survive their ordeals and live to tell their stories and be an inspiration to millions, not just positive expectancy or consistent optimism.

Asking the most perfect questions is not a thing that can be learned or acquired. It is already in-born, just that we were de-trained and de-programmed to be deficient and ineffective in wielding it (because we were often chastised for asking too many questions of our teachers). It is not a matter of suddenly deciding that we should start asking positive, effective questions from now on. It should come naturally, from a sincere desire to know the truth and reality of things as well as the most positive, most constructive and most possible way of changing things to our liking and shape the Life that we want.