Are you creating joy or misery in your own life? Your thoughts can dictate whether joy or misery materializes in your life. Your thoughts have a great influence on your life, actions, and the results you get. Do you know that how you react to a situation will dictate your results? The mind is a very powerful tool. It can be your friend or your foe, depending on how you choose to interact with it. Understanding your mind and how to navigate its intricacies is critical to the outcomes you get. Therefore, train your mind to work to your own benefit.

How do you do that?

● Separate yourself from the situation.

● Take stock of your feelings

● Be proactive by going ahead of your negative thoughts

● Take the drama out of the situation, decide what story you want to tell yourself

● Seek to direct your thoughts in order to control your reactions

Don’t sit on the emotions of the moment; rather process it and decide how you are going to react in order to move forward. Most often, we miscategorize and/or incorrectly assign meaning to our current circumstances. Write down the thoughts, put them on paper so you can see that they are just thoughts. You don’t have to take them as hard facts because they are not. These are momentary impressions that soon dissipate or take on a different meaning, depending on how they are handled.

Soothe your inner critic: Remember again that your thoughts create your life, when you think negatively of yourself, your thoughts and actions affirm those views of yourself. While most of us find it difficult to believe, we can actually be fully in control of our thoughts and the resultant effect.

Think about what will make your circumstance or situation easier or better. Focus on life-giving, life affirming thoughts which will lead to mostly positive actions that can put you in control to obtain subsequent positive results. Be solution-minded and not problem-focused, seek helpful ideas to handle the situation, even in how you think about it. Be willing to change by being adaptable and flexible.

Gain control of your thoughts, remind yourself that the thoughts you are thinking are optimal. What do I mean by that? You can choose to be negative or positive about a situation in your life. Different people react differently to the same situation.

At a construction site, one worker stated that he was just cutting blocks while another stated that he was contributing to a masterpiece.

Your thoughts are not etched in stone, they are pliable, as you choose them to be. If in the moment you cannot think positive thoughts, that’s okay. Shift your mind to happy empowering actions such as being thankful for things in your life that are going well, that you are thankful for.

In summary, don’t obsess over any negative situation or problem. Rather, choose to empower yourself through controlling your thoughts and how you choose to interpret, react or handle the situation.