Escaping the Thought Spiral: Using Substitution to Regain Inner Peace #212

Our minds can be unceasingly dramatic.  One tiny worry can snowball into a full-on production of Doom and Gloom: The Saga.  Catastrophic failure this....everything is falling apart that... One little worry or irritation, and suddenly it's a full blown downward spiral. Getting stuck in this mental loop is draining.  It zaps all the motivation, positive momentum, and joyful energy from life.

Enter the Law of Substitution, a simple mental hack that helps you trade those spiraling thoughts for something way more supportive. Once you get it, you'll be upgrading your mental playlist from “Stressful Greatest Hits” to something way more empowering. 

No pressure to have it all figured out or to force positivity—this is more about finding little moments of relief in your own head and mastering your mind. If you’ve been craving a way to reclaim your mental energy and feel more like your(Higher)self again, it's time to put the Law of Substitution to work for you. 

Christina Wooten helps you access the wisdom and support of the Spirit World to elevate your life.
She is a Certified Psychic Medium and Reiki Master Teacher.  Christina is the owner of Sedona Medium and co-host of Modern Life and Spirit podcast.

She offers Psychic Medium Readings, Soul Readings, Past Life Regressions, and teaches how you can start communicating and receiving messages from your Spirit Guides - through her program.
Learn more about her offerings here

Want to schedule a personal session with Spirit?  Have a reading with Christina - book now

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Robert Wooten is a Certified Reiki Master Teacher who loves to help others to increase their life force energy and heal mind/body/Spirit.
Sessions are performed remotely thru Zoom or by phone call, and energetic information received during your session can be recorded and shared,  to assist you on your healing journey.
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Transcript

Robert Wooten: 1:41

The Buddha said, happiness does not depend on what you have or who you are. It solely depends on what you think. And on this episode, we're talking about the power of your thoughts and how to make sure yours are the ones that are serving you best.

Narrator: 1:58

Welcome to the Modern Life and Spirit Podcast where we explore spiritual topics relevant to today's world. Your hosts, certified psychic medium Christina Wooten and Reiki Master Teacher Robert Wooten, break down how to work with spirit to create more positive growth in your life. Consider this podcast your go to spiritual resource for navigating the modern world.

Christina Wooten: 2:21

Hey there, kindred spirits. Welcome to Modern Life and Spirit podcast. This is Christina Wooten, certified psychic medium at SedonaMedium.com and Hi, Robert. Hello.

Robert Wooten: 2:30

I am Reiki Master Teacher. Robert Wooten, welcome.

Christina Wooten: 2:33

Thanks so much for joining us, for being with us today, we are going to be talking about thought because thought plays such a significant influence in how we perceive and experience and create our sense of what reality is, and it also has a big impact on us as vibrational beings. The thoughts that we have influence the intention of our energy field, the vibration of our energy field, and that, in turn, helps us in our deeper levels of connection with the other side. So in spirit communication, when we're trying to connect with those that are on the other side, we are lifting our vibration at the same time that they are bringing some of their vibration down to try and meet us, and we meet somewhere in the middle, and that process is a lot easier the higher and higher that we can rise in our vibration and maintain a base vibrational rate that is at higher levels, that means we can make that deeper level of connection that we're wanting to make with those on the other side. And it also means that we have a greater sense of mastery of ourselves and well being in general, because we are living and integrating those principles, rather than just talking about it or thinking about it or wanting to happen. We are being and embodying that particular energy. Our thoughts are really a cornerstone in building that vibrational rate. If you haven't heard our episode about natural law, the law of thought and intention, please go listen also to Episode 139 because that episode really explains natural law and how our thoughts shape our intention and shape the types of things that we experience. Also it has a very direct impact the thoughts that we have to the things that return to us. So it's an important universal natural law to understand, because ultimately, our spiritual growth is dependent upon applying and right use of these natural laws and energies. So today we're going to talk about how to master your thoughts, because our thoughts shape so much of our reality. They're so important in our vibrational rate. How do we take a greater control over those so that we are being intentional about the direction that we are moving into, that it's aligning with our goals, rather than feeling like our thoughts are kind of against us and dragging us down and habitual and obsessive and compulsive and so forth. So we are going to dive into that world of thought again. Yeah, when

Robert Wooten: 5:06

we look at this concept, we find that the types of thoughts that we have on a regular basis truly dictate to a large part how we think about everything in our life. For instance, if you expose yourself constantly to hearing about the terrible state of things in the world, then that is the way that you're going to begin to see the world on a regular, recurring basis. You're going to believe this world view, because you're you're subscribing to the thoughts, and you're letting those influences control what your thought process is, right?

Christina Wooten: 5:37

One negative thought leads to another negative thought, which leads to another, which leads to another, which you know. Before you know it, you've gone down a 30 minute spiral. Yeah,

Robert Wooten: 5:46

even though that, you can find plenty of evidence that there's so much more good in the world, if you've closed your mind because of these particular thoughts, then you're not going to be open to the other ways of looking at things, and the other openness that can show you how much good and love and compassion there is in the world everywhere. The Bucha said on this concept, what you think you become what you feel you attract. We're shaped by our thoughts. And when the mind is pure, Joy follows like a shadow that never leaves. And he thought that was so important that watching our thoughts was the foundation of the step of right mindfulness on the eightfold path to liberation. And if you want to do a quick experiment and how thoughts affect your vibration, you could do something simple, like if you think of lower thought like a. Anger. And if you think about what anger is, and you let a moment of anger just sit with you for a second, what makes you angry, what's a thing that makes you angry? And you feel heavy, and you feel this weight in your chest, and maybe it gets into your throat, and you can just feel the heaviness of this lower vibration, but then you breathe it out, let go of that thought, and then move to a higher vibration thought of, say, Love. And if that's too abstract for you, then compassion or caring, or even God. So sit for a minute with the concept of God, and you think it's up here in the top of your head, isn't it? It's higher. It's much lighter. You can feel your vibration move up. You can feel yourself actually, almost physically get lighter when you think of the concept of God or spirit or whatever it is you want to call this higher level of vibration. And so we can see a very literal translation of that can think one word and it can radically change your vibrational rate. So the objective is then to try to keep ourselves in this higher vibration way of thinking. So when we begin to understand the life changing importance of this concept, and we dig into it a little deeper, what we begin to understand is the importance of watching what we think in everyday life and not letting the input coming from outside of us dictate how we think about things and therefore the world at large. What this doesn't have to be just about like our world view. For instance, I just use that as an example. It can also refer to how we think about a person or work or a group of people ourselves, right ourselves, even exactly, Yogananda refers to this type of continual destructive thinking is a bad habit, and he compared it to alcoholism, and he referred to people who do it regularly as mental alcoholics, which I find a very visual way to think about this. His way of looking at it was as an over indulgence in habitual thoughts, and that a person just lets these come in and out of them, without any regard or critical thinking or validation of what these thoughts are and what they mean and how they affect you or anyone around you. And the saddest aspect of this is that it starts at a really young age, and the older person gets allowing this type of habitual thought to just run their life, the harder it becomes to change it. And he offered a solution, and he said a change of company can be the best remedy for acute mental alcoholism of any kind, for the will of the mental alcoholic has become a slave to habit. Hence he has no resistance whatsoever to evil. I love

Christina Wooten: 9:23

the description of the mental alcoholic because it is addictive behavior. One thought comes in, and then it leads to the next, leads to the next, it leads to the next, negative thought over and over again. But why would we do it? Because at the end, we just feel terrible. You know, we feel so uncomfortable. We feel lack of contentment in our life, frustration, irritation, powerlessness can be a result. You know, why else would we continue to, you know, be these monkeys that are pressing this button for this, you know, some sort of reward, or seemingly like reward, to get to the next thought, to next thought, because it's that base level of I'm manipulating. I'm using this anger energy, I'm using this, you know, outrage energy. I'm using this to motivate me to move myself forward, to do these. I think that there's, you know, an element of that that can be the case. But the significant thing is that it's just an addictive behavior, and that it's all about indulgence, that if you indulge the thought, you know, an alcoholic can, can't just have another one. Can't just, like little let me just have one. No, that one becomes 10, and next thing you know, you're on the street. You don't know what's happened, and you forgot to do all these things. So it's like that in our mind, that we can't just have one, that one is 10, is 20, is 200 is days of this discomfort and anger and more. It breeds more and more rage. It brings more and more greed. It brings forward, sort of the worst aspects of human nature. And so the light of awareness, that ability to start to observe your mind, to be the witness to, first of all, noticing the thoughts that are there, becoming intentional and curious about what is happening, so that you can begin to interrupt the pattern. And that's what we'll talk about in a little bit, is, how do you interrupt? How do we use these vibrational tools and principles to interrupt that addictive behavior and process? Because, as we know, before long, very often, we're kind of on a bender,

Robert Wooten: 11:33

right? You feel powerless. That's the insidious nature of in the early stages. Of the addiction, to not be aware of it, to let it just happen. You feel like it's just happening to you, right? And so what has to happen, obviously, is you have to apply some form of self discipline. Well,

Christina Wooten: 11:50

there's different stages, like I said, there's one is the lack of awareness. And then even in alcoholism or drug abuse or any form of addiction, there's also this stage where you're aware that what you're doing is really destructive, and inability to be able to do anything about that. So the depths of real insanity at that point, and then, you know, from there, there has to be some sort of an intervention that happens to shift the energy.

Robert Wooten: 12:20

I think it's the beginning application of some sort of discipline where you have to find yourself in some position that you can change, you can make a change. And I found this the other day on the internet, and I thought this was this really speaks to this. Excuses make today easy, but they make tomorrow hard. Discipline makes today hard, but it makes tomorrow easy, and the choice is yours, and I think that's where we begin with this concept of like you can observe your thoughts, and you can watch to see what they're doing. You can observe how they build on each other and how you're allowing them to sort of just become and override without any kind of real critical thinking or validation, as Yogananda said. And yet, at that same time, you have to understand that this is your world, this is your life. Your world is of your creation, and your world is of your thoughts. And so that's where we begin. That's where we say, All right, enough is enough. These thoughts are not going to rule me. I'm going to rule them by applied discipline, by applied effort and intention. A

Christina Wooten: 13:24

lot of times, willpower is associated with the ego principle, something to be defeated and to push down. But willpower can also be applied in such a way that it helps us to overcome the parts of ourselves that don't represent who we truly are as energetic, loving, spiritual beings. And so I think what you're describing is that willpower is being a gift, something that we can assert out into the world of okay, this is going to help me in my growth process to apply that. So I thought we'd talk about law of substitution, and I was first introduced to this many, many years ago from one of my mentors. And one of the things that he talked about was using the law of substitution, particularly around worry. So he was saying that with the law of substitution, it's it's a mental law, so it really governs how our minds and our thought process works. And the law of substitution says that the only way to get rid of a certain thought is to substitute one for another. You have to substitute so you can't just eliminate something. So then it's hollow space, because something wants to come into that space. So to have something come into that space, it can either be something of your choosing, which likely, if you just had a negative thought, it's gonna be another worry, thought or stress thought or anger, thought or whatever, in that spiral of self abuse, or you can intentionally substitute and create a new thought. So when this law came into my life, I had a massive amount of stress. I was very, very anxious about one particular thing that was happening in my life that I felt really out of control around. I felt, you know, the height of fear in my life I was experienced in that time. I was high, high stress in that moment. And when this was introduced to me, of you know, when you're having this thought, substitute it for something else, there was a part of my spirit that was just seeking neutrality. You know, I was so exhausted and overwhelmed and tired of this kind of up and down and just the high, high level of stress that I just wanted neutral. When you're practicing this law of substitution, you can choose a more positive thought, for example, or you can choose something that's neutral. And that's what I did, is I chose something that was more neutral. So instead of when I would have that thought, I'm upset about this thing that's happening, and suddenly it would be catastrophic in my head, and the worst result was going to happen, and everything was falling apart, that I would then start thinking of the number 13. It was a random number. It was just a number that came to me. The number itself wasn't significant. If you wanted to, you could use an angel number if there was one that was of significance to you. So every time I would have this thought or something that kind of was along this particular line, as soon as I noticed that that thought had come in, or a version of that thought had come in, I would immediately start thinking 1313, 13, over and over and over and over and over again until that other thought was released. So in the beginning I could be there. For like five minutes, 1313, 1313 because as soon as like the 13 was over, that thought was coming right back in of like, but what are you doing? Just sitting there, everything's falling apart. The 1313 1313 and what was beautiful about is that every time that thought started to come in, from then on, it always got easier. So it started to get to the place where eventually, after a few weeks, that once I would notice that thought I'd catch it pretty quickly, I would say 13, maybe a couple of times, and then it was gone, because my mind had sort of figured out, we're not going down that path right. And I appreciated the neutrality of just using a number, what I needed in that moment was like just something easy that I could really feel in that moment. I don't know that I could have related to the positive thought as much. I think that I was so much resistance around the positive because in a part of me was trying to prepare for the worst. It was that survival mechanism had really kicked in. So having that number to repeat over and over again, I didn't have to subscribe to the belief of a number. You know, I didn't have to deal with my resistance around a number. And that was incredibly peaceful. And I've used this occasionally when I was really stuck in something is to go back and do okay. You cannot let go of something without substituting something else when it comes to thought. So I've used these neutral numbers in particular. 33 is one of my favorites. 13 of you, 17 and all of those have been really, really helpful. I found

Robert Wooten: 18:16

that chanting a mantra, a very simple mantra in those times. Can also help if you find yourself spinning out for some worry, or you're really anxious about something about to happen or not happen, or an interaction you're going to have to have that you know is going to be difficult, you can just simply chant Om, manipad may hum or OM, Shanti Om, something very simple like that, much like what you did with the 13 and OM. Shanti means peace, right? And you can just say that repeatedly, and eventually you'll feel yourself relaxed, and like you said, you just sort of let it go, and you move on to the next thought. You move on to a thought of your own intention. So

Christina Wooten: 18:49

with the thought of substitution, we can't say things like, I'm just not going to think about this. So don't think about pink elephants, you're immediately going to start thinking about pink elephants by saying, don't think about this, or don't think about anger and frustration. Don't think about this. It brings that up. So it's just a reminder that self condemnation around the thoughts that you're having just generate more of those same negative thoughts also. So instead of receiving this as like you're self condemning, or you're just opening up to love, I want to love myself. I want to receive love in this moment, in this experience, and I'm reprogramming myself. I'm reprogramming these pathways who are very, very used to trotting exuberantly down this one particular neuro pathway that is ultimately leading to misery, that ultimately leads us to lack of fulfillment, that ultimately leads us to not enjoyment of life, to more frustration, to more hopelessness, to more of A sense of powerlessness, rather than reveling in the true wonder of that we're alive, we're living this amazing, incredible experience. And imagine how wonderful this must be for our soul to say yes, we're coming here. You know, experiencing this and powerful that has to be an incredible reason for us to do that, right? Yeah. So instead of being here and then, you know, coming to the other side and looking back on things with a sense of like, Oh, I wish I enjoyed life more. I wish I'd, you know, realize the many, many blessings that I had in that moment, instead of worrying about all these other things or getting caught in greed or getting caught in anger and resentment and pain around the past, but to be able to hold space for the things that we love, to be able to change in the world, but also be present with the miracle of life, the miracle of love that we have with one Another, the miracle of physicality. There's so many incredible things to appreciate that when our mind is taken over and in mental alcoholism that we really lose. We lose the presence of our spirit in that, and we become just not a fun place to be. Our mind is not a fun place to be at that space. I'd love for you today to think about one area, one specific thought pattern that's happening in your life, whether it's something that's directly influencing you, whether it's a worldview that's happening just I want you to identify one pattern that you're feeling like the mental alcoholic. On that, you know, I keep waking up in the gutter feeling like this, or I keep, you know, waking up with consequences of how poorly I feel as a result of continuously engaging in something that I know is not healthy and I know is not good for me, and I'm feeling really powerless around being able to change that, or I'm struggling with being able to make this shift. I want you to identify that one thing that's really hitting that nerve today. And if you have 10 things, that's okay, we got time. Okay, just think about number one, the one thing you want to focus on and think about that thought pattern and kind of where it has a tendency to take you. So maybe there's, you know, two or three identifying thoughts that kind of come in all around the same time, like, this is terrible, this is going to end up in the worst way, and everything is catastrophic. And, you know, just that example of think about what are those, you know, two or three threads that seem to run underneath the undercurrent of whatever this thought is. And then I want you to decide on something that feels right to substitute it, whether you are seeking a neutral, something easy, something you don't have to even believe in, something you you know can sort of rest in the number, any number that you want to choose, or maybe one that sort of spiritually comes to you, and if it you do have something that spiritually comes to you, make sure you look up the angel number online and see what that means. See if there's an extra message that's there for you, or think of a mantra or a short positive affirmation that reflects how you choose and want to feel about things. But either way, decide on what that is, and once you've decided on what that is, then it's just about commitment time. It's observing the thought. So in the beginning, you may catch yourself 30 minutes down that shame spiral, negativity spiral, and that's okay. If you catch yourself, wherever you catch yourself, just notice it and start at that place. So as soon as you feel it or sense it, go, Oh, I see what is happening here. 1313, 13. And you'll find that there's this part of your mind, at least for me, this was my experience. There's a part of the mind that's running in the background that's still trying to say these negative thoughts, that's still like, shut up. I'm trying to tell you about blah, blah, blah, blah, blah and over that you're just going to repeat with consistency and with clarity. 1313, I'm 13, and you'll find that that first moment that you have a relief where you feel the shift. You've changed your attention, whether you've diverted your attention or you've just things have shifted, you'll just feel this incredible relief of that mastery, the relief of knowing that you can shift that thought process and thought pattern. What you'll notice the first few times you do this is that you maybe have a minute or so after that, but you have, like, a clear thought, or you have things have kind of moved in a different direction, and then it's going to come back. It's going to go, oh, but did you worry about this enough? Yet Hang on, and the new addictive thought is going to come in, or the old one, and you're going to go, 1313, and you may just spend a few days in that space. And what I'll tell you is that it is incredibly rewarding to change ourselves when our mind has become a hazardous place to be, especially because a lot of times we just feel kind of victim to the reactive nature of our thoughts. But to really subscribe to I can make this change to devoting the time, effort and energy, and most important just the awareness of watching your thought, being the witness to the thought, and actively shifting it. It is so incredibly empowering. It is so uplifting, and it changes how we experience the Lord changes our reality to move from that heavy thought, that heavy intention, which is ultimately what shapes the circumstances as well, if you listened to the episode 139 the law of thought and intention. So I want you to do that today. Choose the offending thought. Choose what your substitute is. When you think about a substitute, don't make it too long. So if you're gonna do a positive affirmation, it's three lines long, honey, just know. Make it short. Make it sweet, make it something that you can in that time of stress, because you're going to feel that stress when you're substituting or feel that stress of the old addictive thought wanting to come in, you know, make it short and sweet so it's easier for you and it reduces that stress. I promise that you will appreciate this skill being in your toolbox. Because it will tremendously change your experience in your own head and your experience, ultimately, in your reality. All right, now it's your turn. Thank you so much everyone for joining us today. Thank you for all of your love, all of your light, everything that you have shared with us energetically, and all that you are doing in the world, to just continue to support your healing, your spiritual expression, your high vibration into the world. Thank you for that, and know that it is healing all of us. We are all benefiting from this work that you are doing together and you are doing here today. So thank you for that. I would also ask for you to take a moment and wherever it is that you are listening to this episode, this podcast today, to leave us a review. It means so much to us. It's really helpful to get this message out to other people, so that they also are able to do that deeper work, which benefits all of us as well. So please take a moment. Rate and review, leave us a message. Let us know how you've enjoyed this episode, or any of the other ones that you've listened to. We always enjoy your feedback. All right, everyone. Namaste. Many blessings,

Robert Wooten: 27:50

many blessings. The modern life and spirit podcast is for informational purposes only. The information provided is not intended to provide medical psychological legal or financial advice. Information provided is not to diagnose or treat any medical or psychological illness. To read the full disclaimer, see sedonamedia.com you