Joy In The Moment

Change Your Thoughts to Change Your Life

By Joy Pape

When you don’t like how you feel, you may realize you need to make a change in your life. But you may not realize the way to change your life is often to change the way you think. 

Thoughts are made up of words. Change the words you listen to and find words you agree with.

 We often think the way to change is to dislike the way we feel so much that we’ll get angry with the action and just change it. That’s often not enough and can even make things worse because we may then feel shame and guilt which are not positive motivators. Shame and guilt are made up of thoughts. If we listen and agree with them enough, they just keep on and on and get stronger. Remember, the more you think upon a thought the stronger it gets within your mind.

So, what should you do?

Recognize that thoughts precede actions and recognize the negative thoughts you may have about you, can make you feel bad about yourself. Recognize you don’t like the way you feel and think about how you want to feel.

Next, remember the importance of forgiveness, not only towards others, but towards yourself.

Decide not to feed, meaning give attention to, those thoughts that bring you down, but rather feed thoughts that are uplifting. For example, if your thoughts tell you that you can’t do something that you really can do, don’t agree with the negative thoughts. Tell yourself, “I can do this and I will.” Then, just do it! Even if it’s a little bit at a time.  You’ll be pleasantly surprised and can then do something else.

So, simply put, as the words in the song say, “Accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative, latch on to the affirmative, don’t mess with Mr. In Between.”-Lyrics by Johnny Mercer.

Listening to these kinds of words (thoughts) can give you joy in the moment.