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Wendy Mackowski
has earned the Certification as a Professional Co-Active Coach (CPCC) after completing two years of training from The Coaches Training Institute. Wendy has also written many articles on various life & business coaching topics.

The Color of Your Thoughts: Where Are They Holding You Back?

by Wendy Mackowski, Inner North Coaching

I was driving down a wide and beautiful palm-tree lined boulevard in Orange County, CA last week going a consistent 45 mph and hitting every signal green--sailing along smoothly towards my destination. It reminded me of the old saying, "If you wait for all the lights to be green before you begin your journey, you will never start." Where are you having trouble getting started? What if you had the power to set the meters so you could consistently sail through green?

I began to realize our thoughts are like traffic signals in our minds and they either let us sail along smoothly, stop us in our tracks, or kept us idling in neutral? Let’s take a look at how noticing the color of our thoughts can help us sail more smoothly down the road of life.

Imagine that the constant dialogue you have running through your head was suddenly given a color. I’ve observed that people have three different types of head chatter--just like the signals on the road--that either help us on our journey or get in our way. Begin to observe your own thoughts and begin to notice what color you are in most of the time.

GREEN THOUGHTS
These are the positive and empowering thoughts that say "go"! They inspire us, move us ahead, get us to take risks, try new things, and move us out of our comfort zones. They give us a positive spin on ourselves and our circumstances, our lives and our world. When your thoughts are green you are comfortable with yourself and your world so you can therefore be "other" oriented and contribute the most to those around you.

The highest achievers are "Green Thinkers". They see a clear road ahead, and if an obstacle appears they immediately begin to look for ways over around or through it. They react creatively in the moment in any situation.

Interestingly enough, green is the color of our heart chakra (an Eastern name for the energy centers in the body), and many "Green Thinkers" are heart based, coming from a frame of reference of Love instead of Fear in all areas of their lives.

RED THOUGHTS
These are thoughts that can stop us right in our tracks. They can keep us stuck in one place, angry, terrified, impatient, wanting to move, but not knowing how. These thoughts always hold a worst scenario or doom and gloom viewpoint. Fear dominates and creativity shrivels. Someone in Red Thinking can look at a clear road ahead and begin to immediately fill it with blocks and barriers. Because we lack confidence when we have these thoughts we cannot contribute and are pulled back into a "me" orientation where survival instincts dominate.

All of us spend time with Red Thoughts--and sometimes we need them to balance our lives and help us know where we are going next. But too many people live in Red Thoughts most of the time which keep them from reaching their own potential and blocks their happiness. Red is the color of our base or root chakra and is predominantly Fear based. Survival instincts rule our thinking.

YELLOW THOUGHTS
These are our neutral thoughts. As humans we don’t stay here very long. These are non-judging, centering thoughts. They allow us to just be, to sit, to meditate, and to be completely free of any story--green or red. They are the place to re-energize, to re-center, or to move from red to green. Sometimes these are known as "observer" thoughts –this is where we can begin to observe the chatter and dialogue that is always running in our head. Yellow Thoughts allow us to pull above and look from a higher plane. This is an important place to work towards because the more you spend time here, the more you will find yourself better equipped to notice when you are in Red Thinking and to better choose to be in Green Thinking.

The color yellow is associated with the center chakra, located in your solar plexus, or gut and is often a place to connect with your authentic self.

CHOOSING THE COLOR OF YOUR LENS
Let’s return to the traffic signal analogy. Let’s say for a minute you get to be in charge of the metering system that sets the lights! You get to choose when they flash from red to yellow to green. What if you could decide how to color your life? What mix of colors would you want at any one time?

Begin to practice these three easy steps to learn how to color your world in the way you want!

Start to notice the color of your thoughts.
Be aware at any given moment which colors you are creating--you may need to learn to run some red lights at first!
Practice changing the lens--move from red to yellow, then yellow to green.

Wendy Mackowski, a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach, lives in Orange County, California and is the owner of Inner North Coaching. For more information about coaching, sign up for Wendy's free email newsletter, or permission to reprint this story, contact Wendy.

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