Life-changing quotes from As a Man Thinketh by James Allen
“As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.”
Can your thoughts really change your reality? Here are 5 gems from James Allen’s magnificent, 117-year-old classic ‘As a Man Thinketh’.
1. “Men do not attract that which they want, but that which they are.”
The Secret, a book on the law of attraction, exploded in popularity in early 2006 after heavy promotion by Oprah Winfrey. In its wake came hundreds of new books that promised you could get what you want if you just focused, visualised and thought positively about it.
This idea sounds great. It tickles our minds (that love nothing more than instant gratification and low resistance). In reality the world does not work like this. If it did, the 30 million+ people who bought The Secret should all be celebrities, real estate gurus, top athletes, etc.
Wanting is not enough. You need to align your burning desire with the appropriate action. Wanting to lose fat is not enough. You must become a health-conscious person and legitimately care about how you treat your body. Once you make this fundamental change, your body will also follow suit. Wanting to be a millionaire is not enough. You need to develop a millionaire mindset and start looking at the world through those glasses. Seeing how and where you can add value, and which emerging trends you can leverage.
It seems like simple advice, but most of us do not follow it. If we did, we would already be where we wanted.
2. “The body is the servant of the mind. It obeys the operations of the mind, whether they be deliberately chosen or automatically expressed.”
Your brain regulates the autonomic nervous system. It helps keep your heart beating, lungs breathing and your organs organing (yes, I just made that word up).
All these things happen at an unconscious level; however, the conscious mind can affect the unconscious mind. Just talk to anyone who suffers from panic attacks due to an overactive amygdala. They can experience extreme changes in their physiology.
- Breathing difficulties
- Chest pain
- Racing heart
- Terror and impending death
…even from just being an elevator.
These responses start in the mind. The person first has to freak themselves out before the body reacts.
For years it has been known that stress is detrimental to health. Stress being largely created by our own conscious thoughts and judgements. Many doctors refuse to perform operations on patients who are stressed due to their chances of survival being lowered.
The study of how our minds impact our health is called psychoneuroimmunology. James Allen was truly ahead of his time when he said that the body obeys the mind.
3. “A man's mind may be likened to a garden, which may be intelligently cultivated or allowed to run wild.”
Gardens come in many forms – some neat and tidy, others barren and overrun by weeds. Our minds are the same. The quality of your mind is truly up to you.
If you choose destructive behaviours like excessive video gaming, pornography, mainstream media and negative thinking, your mind will be like the weeded garden. If you read, meditate, play an instrument, work on puzzles, and do art, then your mind will reflect Eden.
We have the ability to change our mind. Neuroplasticity has shown us that our brains can physically change. For example, London taxi drivers forced to remember routes were observed to have bigger hippocampi. That is a brain region associated with memory and spatial relationships.
Buddhist monks, when scanned with an MRI, were noted to have more grey matter due to their deliberate meditation practice. If you want to accomplish great things, you must remove the weeds and allow the mind to grow naturally.
Look at the masses and see what activities they do. If you do the same, you will surely get the same results. But when you look at successful people and their habits, doing as they allows you to rejuvenate the mind.
4. “A person is limited only by the thoughts that he chooses.”
Every great invention and achievement was once a single thought. The realization of the thought and its manifestation into the world came through faith and decisive action.
When PayPal was conceptualized no one revered online banking. Facebook and other social media were thought to be for kids. When cryptocurrency was invented no one took it seriously nor did they think it would become something. The same goes for electricity…or going to the moon.
Many things we once believed impossible are now commonplace. The world is always changing. We don’t really know what’s possible until someone does it. A four-minute mile was thought to be impossible until it was achieved by Roger Bannister in 1954. Today over 500 people have broken that record. After Eddie Hall smashed the world deadlift record by a longshot – lifting the impossible 500kg – more people are now inching closer.
The select few who choose to allow their thoughts to take what ever form they want without shame or embarrassment are the ones who expand the limits of humanity.
What ever thought you have, assume that it is possible. Think about what actions are needed for it to happen.
5. “The sole and supreme use of suffering is to purify, to burn out all that is useless and impure.”
We all go through tough circumstances in life. Some worse than others.These circumstances should not be put to waste as they can provide great lessons about ourselves.
James Allen once said,
“Circumstance does not make the man; it reveals him to himself.”
You must learn about your weaknesses through your suffering so you can become a better man. Let’s take the example of losing your father, perhaps one of toughest situations you can experience.
How do you act?
Do you crumble and hide in a hole?
Or do you mourn whilst still keeping your composure and having the strength of mind to handle the funeral arrangements. Do people look to you as a rock during the situation, or are you just lost?
Use your suffering to make you stronger, helping you deal with future contingencies through wisdom. Situations can either make you better and more durable or they can destroy you with no remorse. Your perception about events that happen are the most important.
As the stoic Marcus Aurelius says:
“The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing.”
It’s very clear James Allen was ahead of his time. Now, you must go and pay attention to your thoughts. They will shape your life and ultimately how you will feel once it ends.
Do this and I promise you will be one step closer to living and dying well.