What you think, is what you are

Thoughts are extremely powerful.  Our experience of the world is based upon our perspective of it.  Two different people can experience the exact same thing but will feel it differently.  The way we feel is largely based upon our perspective, which is created upon our life experiences, our knowledge of the world and the way we have learned to process information.

Sometimes we imagine that someone doesn't like us.  Everything they say to us gives us the sense that they dislike who we are.  Whilst this may be the case, often it is the way we read the situation that suggests they dislike us.  Once we form the idea that someone doesn't like us, it becomes very difficult to shake that idea off.  In fact it seems impossible.  But it isn't.  We can think differently. We can choose to think that the person does like us.  We can internally tell ourselves this over and over again. We can focus on the positive things they say.  We can look for the good in the person.  Pretty soon we will change our perspective.  That isn't to say that every single being on the planet is a jolly person waiting to happen.  There are people that do terrible things and it's likely impossible to think of those people as anything other than terrible. Though it is helpful to our sense of selves, if even those terrible people are thought to be in need of help.  This does not excuse their actions it merely releases us from our negative thinking.  Negative thoughts do not make us feel good.  Negative thoughts make us feel negative.  It's rather obvious when you think about it.

Likewise, if we see the world as negative, then that's exactly what it is.  Everything little thing that happens feeds into the idea that the world is negative.  We spot every piece of negative news, and filter out the good things.  Even if we just spill a drink, rather than it seeming like unfortunate but an easily fixed happenstance, it seems like a further example of the bad things that happen to us.  It becomes part of the spiral of negativity.

There is a wealth of discourse that tells us to see the positives, to think ourselves happy, to be grateful for our blessings and so on.  These practices actually work.  They don't work because of some pie-in-the-sky idealism, they work because of logic.  It is what we think, alongside our physical experiences, that creates positivity. For example, someone smiles at us but we don't notice because we are lost in negative thoughts, they smile again but still we don't see and even if they smile once more, by that time even if we notice, we are so consumed with negative thinking that their smile doesn't elicit a heartfelt smile from us.  We may smile back out of politeness but we don't mirror their smile.  We don't feel their smile.  Yet another person, not lost in negative thoughts, open to feeling a smile, shares a magical interaction.  Imagine scenarios like this over and over again as we stroll / struggle (delete as appropriate) through life - one person responding to positivity and the other being lost in negativity.  It's easy to see who will feel happy and who will feel unhappy.

Positive thinking really does make a difference.  There will always be personal situations and those situations we see in the wider world that will pull us down, they may even pull us down for some time.  Grief and personal illness are clear examples of this.  Yet even in these times, and perhaps especially in these times, it is vital that we use our thoughts to pull ourselves forward until there is a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel.  That glimmer will become ever brighter as we think ourselves happy. Of course we should also utilise support networks, take part in positive experiences and heal our physical selves.  

Loving wishes and peace,

The Renegade Glitter Fairy

xx