1 in 60,000

Depending on which website you use for reference, the average person has between 60,000-70,000 thoughts per day. That means you have a new thought every 1.2 seconds. That includes the time you are sleeping!
Have you ever had that one thought that led to an avalanche of other related thoughts?
Now imagine that you have had a negative thought and then the avalanche to follow is all negative. Does it work in reverse? I think so.
A very long time ago I had a friend named Steve. He and I used to hang out on my front porch on summer eve's and talk about everything. One the night before I was to go to London, I let him in on a secret fear of mine. I told him that I was afraid to fly, especially to fly over oceans.
The first time I did a long flight over an ocean was when I went to Hawaii. I was terrified. I kept envisioning the plane crashing into the water and sharks would come in for the kill. OK, I know that is not logical. I know that if a plane fell out of the sky into the ocean......sharks should be my last worry. But, hey, I was only 15 at the time. That fear continues into my 20's, until my conversation with Steve.
When I let Steve know about my fear, I told him that I was afraid that every time I got into an airplane I was afraid it would be my last. He asked me why I continued to fly. I told him that I had such a love of travel that I was willing to be terrified for a few hours so I could experience a few weeks in a new place.
Steve thought for a moment and then he said the one thing that changed everything for me.
He said, "Cathy, if you are meant to die in an airplane then that is how you will die. If you are not on a plane when it crashes, then you will be on the ground when it lands on you. How you're supposed to go is how you are supposed to go."
OK, I know it sounds strange that I took huge comfort in those words, but I did.
I did not know it then but Steve used a well known NLP technique of 're-framing' a thought or idea. He took my fear of flying and re-framed it onto my belief of 'how things are supposed to be.' He knew that I had faith that when my time is done, it is done. I was afraid that a plane would take me out before I was supposed to go. He actually put it in the frame of 'live your life and things will always work out how they should.'
Steve took that one negative thought and re-framed it so their was an avalanche of positive thoughts. Since then I have never been afraid to fly, travel, step outside of my comfort zone, because I know that God has already been there and I am fine. Yes, bad things happen, BUT I also know that "Everything is OK in the end. If it is not OK, it is not the end."
That statement has always been my other re-frame. I have never gone through anything where I wasn't OK in the end. In the middle of the deep, dark hole...I thought it could never be OK, but it always is.
Re-framing has always helped me to put things in perspective, and if I am going to have an avalanche of 60,000 more thoughts......I want them to be positive thoughts.