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*Inspired by James Allen’s “As A Man Thinketh”

I was moved to post this by a conversation that I had with Re over at badgalsradio about the Rihanna/ Chris Brown situation, and why women stay with men who abuse them.

The phrase “As a man thinketh in his heart so is he,” not only embraces the whole of a man’s being, but is so comprehensive as to reach out to every condition and circumstance of his life. A man is literally what he thinks, his character being the complete sum of all of his thoughts.

For example when I was a child of 9 or so years, I was told (in an angry and tearful way) that I was just like my father – I did not know what this meant (that I had curly hair? fairer skin than my siblings? A deep love and respect for the written word?), but I knew that it was not a good thing to be “just like” the good looking ladies man known as “Pops” (Daddy was an OG for real).

I grew up with this negative self-image (please be careful what you say to children, as they will continue to live up to your words long after you have forgotten that you said them).

I over ate throughout my childhood (probably so that I would not be anywhere near good looking because obviously that was a bad thing). You see I had been given a negative self-image and I kept this image for years (I live off of the residuals still), so because I thought of myself as a “bad” person I was sometimes a very bad person.

In some cultures, children are told (beginning in the womb) how smart, pretty, handsome and talented they are and the great heights they will scale in adulthood. These children grow into successful adults because they already think that they are beautiful, successful and prosperous human beings.

“A noble and Godlike character is not a thing of favour or chance, but is the natural result of continued effort in right thinking. An ignoble and bestial character, by the same process, is the result of the continued harbouring of groveling thoughts.”

We see this in victims of child abuse; whether said abuse is verbal, physical or sexual. These children:

• are often very sexually active
• prone to abuse alcohol and drugs
• May end up being abusers themselves.

Why is this? The very act of, and the circumstances which arise out of abuse removes the ability to cultivate a good self image – how can one grow a rose among the weeds?

So, the abused person is abused a second time by their own inability to think good thoughts about themselves and therefore “by the abuse and wrong application of thought” they descend “below the level of the beast” in some aspects of their lives.

It is a testament to the power of our minds and thought itself that we are able to rise above and erase the set of negative thought images planted in our youth and forge a new set of success thoughts for ourselves. As the plant springs from, and could not be without, the seed, so do all of our actions and experiences spring from the hidden seeds of thought, and could not have appeared without them.