Start With a Thought
How Managing Your Thoughts Can Help You Shape Your World
Hi, I'm Manuel Saez, 2x Founder, Award-Winning Designer, and Emotional Intelligence Coach 🌻 Here I Share the advice I wish I had while building my businesses ➜ I love fixing old motorcycles 🛵🏍️
What we think, we become.
The thoughts that live in our heads shape how we feel. Our feelings shape our actions. Our actions create our reality.
Over time, I realized that the things I kept thinking about, good or bad, ended up happening in one form or another.
If I thought, “This isn’t going to work out,” it usually didn’t.
If I thought, “I’ll find a way,” I almost always did.
I’ve tested this over the years.
What I’ve found is that when I make a conscious effort to shift a negative thought into something more positive, it creates a chain reaction of good things.
Almost instantly, the world feels different. In that state, when I’m more open, more grounded, ideas flow, things click, people respond better.
When I practice mindful thinking, life feels just the way it should be.
I know this might sound simple. I know it’s not easy. But I also know is possible to have a say in the narrative in our heads.
Negative thought patterns have been with me for as long as I can remember. Maybe they come from things that happened in my childhood.
Maybe from traumatic moments as a young adult. I’ve carried the habit of waiting for the other shoe to drop. A lot of us do. But we can move past that and grow into more emotionally mature versions of ourselves.
Here’s what helped me: how I purposefully chose mindful thinking and started reshaping my life in a better direction. 👇
Start With Awareness
All positive change starts with awareness.
For me, the first step was learning to catch the thought.
Before I could shift anything, I had to notice what was going on in my mind. Whenever I felt anxious, angry, or upset, I’d stop and ask myself: What have I been thinking? What thoughts led to this feeling?
Then I’d look for the pattern. I’d observe without judging myself, just noticing the thoughts with clarity.
Awareness doesn’t always come easily, especially when you’re tired, hungry, stressed, or overwhelmed.
But once I started observing my thoughts instead of automatically reacting to them, I realized I had more agency than I thought.
A single thought can set off an entire emotional chain reaction. But with practice, I learned I could pause, see it coming, and choose to respond differently.
That pause, that space between your thoughts and your feelings, is where everything starts to shift.
Developing that kind of self-awareness has been a cornerstone of my emotional intelligence.
It’s helped me build better relationships, make better decisions, and feel more in control of my life, even when things outside me felt chaotic.
Four Tips To Manage Your Thoughts
Here are four practices I developed over the years to help me manage my thoughts.
These aren’t about pretending everything’s okay. They’re about creating the conditions for me to feel grounded, clear, and capable, even on tough days.
1. Become aware of your negative thoughts.
As I mentioned earlier, awareness is where everything starts. But here’s something I’ve learned:
Not all negative thoughts are loud. Some are subtle, disguised as logic or self-protection.
“I probably shouldn’t say anything.” “They won’t care anyway.” “I’m not ready yet.”
These can fly under the radar unless you’re actively paying attention. The goal isn’t to stop having negative thoughts. It’s to recognize them before they shape how you feel, speak, or act.
Awareness turns automatic reactions into conscious choices.
2. Find the opposite thought.
Once I identify a negative thought, I ask myself: what if the opposite were true?
If I’m thinking, “I’m bothering them by asking for help,” I flip it: “Maybe they’d actually appreciate the connection. Maybe it would feel good to them to be helpful.”
Challenging the first thoughts that come to mind, especially if they’re negative, is the best way to open up to other possibilities.
The goal is to think beyond the obvious and create options that are more positive, and bring a generous perspective. One that brings you closer to others, not further away.
3. Give yourself the benefit of the doubt.
Negative thoughts tend to spiral into worst-case scenarios. We convince ourselves that things are doomed, that failure is inevitable.
Life isn’t black or white. We live in the gray.
And in that gray, there are just as many good outcomes as bad ones.
When we allow for the possibility that things might work out, we’re more likely to act in ways that make that outcome real.
4. Find the bright spot.
Even in the middle of hard things, there’s usually something to appreciate.
A small win. A kind word. A peaceful moment.
Shifting your attention toward what’s good doesn’t mean ignoring what’s wrong. It just keeps you from feeding the negative thoughts, which multiply and feed on each other.
More negative thoughts bring more negative thoughts.
The opposite is also true: positive thoughts bring more positive thoughts.
You Don’t Have to Believe Every Thought
The most powerful shift for me has been learning that I don’t have to believe every thought that enters my mind.
Thoughts are just visitors. Some are helpful. Some are not.
You get to choose which ones you keep.
The more I practice mindful thinking, the more I’m able to create from a place of clarity and intention, not fear or habit. And the better life seems to flow.
So if everything starts with a thought…
What kind of thoughts are you building your life with?
I’d love to hear how you manage your mindset, especially on the hard days. Drop me a reply or share your story in the comments.
Sending you good vibes 🌻
Manuel
manuelsaez.com
Negative thought patterns may just be part of being human. It is amazing how powerful it can be to simply identify a negative thoughts for what they are. It takes the power away from the thought and gives it back to yourself to decide what is true.