It’s Just a Thought: Emotional Freedom through Deliberate Thinking

by Thomas M. Sterner

Ever wonder why you continually think about this, that, or the other when you’d rather be enjoying a moment, pursuing a dream, or completing a project? Author Thomas M. Sterner knows you are not alone and offers methods for thinking, rather than being thought. As Tom’s thousands of clients know, directing your thoughts instead of being directed by them is possible and transformative. He outlines liberating ways to first observe and then master your thinking, allowing you

• recognize unhelpful historical and present-day programming
• understand how the conscious and subconscious minds interact
• experience the relationship between heart and brain

The skills Tom teaches prove that we are not the thoughts and emotions that can overwhelm us, and that on any given day we have the power to connect to who we really are and achieve what we really want and need. Filled with inspiring examples and practical action steps, It’s Just a Thought exposes our limitations and handicaps and gives us the tools to make overcoming them a joyful process of empowerment.

136 pages, Paperback

Published February 21, 2023

Reviews

[Meagan Daly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a quick read. I started and finished in one plane ride. I found there to be some useful information but it wasn’t quite what I expected. Based on the description, I thought it was going to be more about why we think about the things we do. It’s more about how to be aware of our thoughts and remove ourselves from them so that we are able to better control. Worth the read, but don’t expect your life to be changed. 😂

[Janine · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you ask yourself the following question:
“If I could be really good at dealing with a particular situation in my life, how would I like to be?”
And you are a truly curious about the answer, then this book is for you.
If you wish to be more in control of your reactions to difficult situations, thats where you would start.
You take a situation from your life that repeatedly causes you trouble, and you examine your standard response to it. And if this response is giving you undesirable outcomes every time, you have, with the help of this book, the opportunity to change it.
This book presents the essence of every coaching conversation: most of your thoughts are not you. just because they are running in the background does not mean they are the truth. You get to decide, if you choose, what you want to think. They key to understand is that really everything in our life begins with a thought we have about it. "We create our reality in every moment by the thoughts that we have and by our interpretation of those thoughts."

[Jay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thomas M. Sterner reminds us of something we often forget:
Most of the thoughts running through our mind… aren’t us. They’re old habits, past programming, and automatic reactions we never questioned.
This book is a guide for anyone who wants to stop being pushed around by their mind and start choosing their inner dialogue with intention.
~ If a situation keeps triggering you…
~ If the same reaction gives you the same bad result…
~ If you want emotional control instead of emotional chaos…
This book becomes your starting point.
Sterner breaks down the art of observing your thoughts, understanding where they come from, and gently rewriting them. It’s practical, calming, and truly eye-opening, a mix of ancient wisdom and modern psychology that shows you how to create emotional freedom in daily life.

[Danesh · Rating 4 out of 5]

The content was good. I learned valuable lessons. But it could have been a paper rather than a book. I would have preferred to listen to the content as a podcast or a five page document.

[Don Mcrae · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short but informative read on the power of our thoughts.

[Brian Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fantastic, quick-reading book about how to create “Emotional Freedom through Deliberate Thinking.”

“Sometimes I am asked, if you are practicing being fully present, being process- and not product-oriented, is that mindfulness? My reply is that mindfulness is a component of what I call the ‘practicing mind,’ but the practicing mind is much more. It would be more accurate to say the practicing mind is the skill that enables you to enjoy the process of becoming mindful; once mastered, that skill can be aimed at anything. Mindfulness is also a skill, and like all skills, you need to learn the mechanics, and they must be repeated until they become natural and free-flowing. This is important to understand because it drastically impacts your experience of transformation and expansion. When you possess the practicing mind, you stop pushing against yourself as you work at change. Instead, you surrender to the moment, and you feel content with who you are and where you are in this moment. You feel that you are where you should be and doing what you should be doing right now.

The purpose of this book is to give you an overview of the relationship between you, your mind, and what you experience as your thoughts. I hope to increase your awareness of who you really are so that you can step on your own path of enlightenment and find peace, joy, calmness, and power. Our world needs for you to understand your energy and to be more in control of it. This is a very pivotal time. Clearly, it is one of the most stressful in history, but it also offers opportunities that before were much more elusive.”

~ Thomas M. Sterner from It’s Just a Thought

Tom Sterner is one of my favorite writers and thinkers.

This is the third Note we’ve created on one of his great books. We started with The Practicing Mind and then featured Fully Engaged.

This is a quick reading, 120-page book (that I read in a couple hours before the family got up on Monday morning) all about, as per the sub-title, how to create “Emotional Freedom through Deliberate Thinking.” It’s fantastic.

One of my favorite lines in the whole book is from the dedication page. Tom dedicates the book to his two daughters and ends by saying, “You are both my best friends.” I smiled when I read that as I a) thought of his relationship with his adult kids and b) imagined MY relationship with my (10- and 5-year-old) kids when they are adults.

It’s packed with Big Ideas. Some of my favorite big ideas from this book include:

1. The Practicing Mind - And where to aim it.
2. Deliberate Thinking - Leads to emotional freedom.
3. The Heart’s Math - Is fascinating.
4. Struggle Redefined - Steps to mastery.
5. Don’t Cheat Discipline - Turn it into blissipline.

One last thing, I’ve added It's Just a Thought by Thomas M. Sterner to my collection of Philosopher’s Notes—distilling the Big Ideas into 6-page PDF and 20-minute MP3s on 600+ of the BEST self-development books ever. You can get access to all of those plus a TON more over at https://heroic.us.

[B S · Rating 4 out of 5]

Circling back to review this one. Although I found most of the book forgettable, there’s one thing that has stuck with me since reading. In situations of distress, when you find yourself ruminating, the author encourages to ask yourself “if I could respond to this situation in anyway I wanted right now, how would I respond?”, then do that. It’s a simple but powerful tool to remind yourself that you have autonomy over the way in which you react.