“You don’t have to think about everything you feel, but you will feel everything you choose to think about.

Levi Lusko

Counselors who specialize in cognitive therapy will tell you that your thoughts and feelings don’t determine who you are and how your life has to be. 

They are just emotions that pop into your brain. What we choose to do with them at that point makes all the difference.

For example, we can decide whether we want to linger on the fact that so-and-so never returned our phone call. 

We get to choose whether to get mad (and stay mad) that someone cut us off in traffic. 

We can decide if we’ll let everything go to crap when the thought that the day is ruined flashes into our mind.

These are all decisions that we must make every day, moment by moment. 

The decisions and reactions we make regarding what enters our brain determine how our lives will be—not the stimuli themselves. 

Don’t give your thoughts, feelings, emotions, and impressions more power than they have. You get to determine the course your life takes—not them.

But here’s the thing…

Just because you decide to go ahead and have a good day after a negative thought crosses your mind, doesn’t mean that’s the end. That thought may keep coming back, over and over. You may have to decide dozens of times a day to make your day the best it can be.

It would be nice if we could just make that decision once and that was it. It doesn’t work that way, however.

Moment by moment, we must decide what our outlook on our situation is going to be. How will we react to each interaction, event, or incident in our lives?

It can be hard when you first start taking control of your reactions to your thoughts. The task seems daunting. However, it gets easier the longer you do it. 

Begin making it a habit to think positively about your situation, no matter what you find yourself in. Find something good you can focus on, rather than something bad.