Support Your Thoughts and Create a Happier Life
Each thought builds on the next and if they don’t go in the direction that you would like then you have to learn to lead your thoughts to create the emotions that you want. You can usually tell when your thoughts are leading you in a bad direction by the way you feel. If you feel tired, sad, angry, or you’re in a mood that you don’t like, it’s usually supported by your thoughts.
As a young man I was constantly defeating myself at every turn. Even if I was in a good mood my thoughts would eventually come back to what I didn’t have:
• No girlfriend
• A career I didn’t like
• Negative savings
• No adventure
All these sour thoughts deflated my energy and brought my mood down into a depression. I tried to come up with plans to acquire these things that I thought would make me happy, but like most of my plans they failed. I gave up too easily. I wanted a quick fix, so I wouldn’t have to struggle through the pain.
I was focused on the fixing what I didn’t like about my life. I thought that’s what I needed to do to be happy. The problem with this attitude is there will always be problems to fix.
When I began appreciating what I had instead of worrying about what needed to be fixed I opened my mind to the joy all around me. I began to pluck little bits of happiness from a walk (the rustle of a tree, a smile from an old lady, and the flight of a bird) or a slow day at work (conversations with co-workers, the ability to laugh at my circumstances, and the feeling of time). When a thought went in the wrong direction I would smile and redirect my thoughts to things that made me feel good.
I am experiencing these little bits of joy more and more often by noticing something that makes me appreciate my life, instead of thinking about what I lack. What seemed like such an obvious change made my life not only tolerable, but enjoyable.
If I created a thought about the beauty of a bird I traced it back to why it made me happy.
It went like this:
5. Beautiful bird
4. Sleek light brown feathers with a tinge of dark blue
3. The contrast of the blue and brown on a moving object
2. The ability to process the scene with my eyes and brain
1. Being able to watch and understand the living dance of being alive
By tracing my thoughts back to their roots I began to understand what created enjoyable energy within myself and what thoughts wouldn’t create long lasting joy. My happiness was different than what I read about in any books. All I did was open my awareness to the power of my thoughts. Once I understood what brought my energy up I could create thoughts that supported my happiness.
If I was stuck in a boring meeting I would find things that kept my interest:
• The crease of a speaker’s forehead
• The fluctuation in people’s voices
• The nervousness in my own heart
• The sound of a co-worker sipping on coffee
I ran with each one, letting it build enjoyable energy within myself. I began to get more daring and playful with supporting my thoughts and I realized that I could enjoy almost any situation.
Next time your thoughts are bringing you down, find something in your life that can stop those depressing thoughts and turn your mind into a happy environment. Look for that one thing that intrigues you, then build your thoughts around it and watch the joy spring out of your mind and into the rest of your body.
