Choices

Do your thoughts build you up or beat you up?

You have a choice, you know. You can use your thoughts for worrying, analyzing, chastising, criticizing, or engaging in Woulda-Shoulda-Coulda. Or you may choose to give yourself a break and think about your successful accomplishments whenever you have a chance. You may admit you have made mistakes in the past and probably will in the future, but they never turn out to be as dire as you imagine. You may ruminate about good times, good friends and good memories. You may even choose to reward yourself just for being you. It seems that the latter thoughts produce more good results. And even if they don't, you will have experienced more joy, choosing to concentrate on rewards, blessings and sweet memories.

There are many different ways to express the same thing. This is sometimes called tact or diplomacy. But even in ordinary situations, you can choose your words. For example, you can try to keep hula-hoop spinning around your hips, or you can rotate your solar plexus continuously, or you can practice belly-dancing. All of these describe the same motion. Which sounds most appealing to you?

Parents are aware of how their words affect their children, managers are aware of how their words affect their staff, and hypnotists are aware of how their words affect their clients. So just think for a moment how your own words influence you. So when you think, choose wards that empower you, rather than bring you down. This used to be called positive thinking or learned optimism. Now it seems like that elusive commodity called common sense.