This week may seem to be a week of repetition but it just happens that these things have come to mind again because the end of the year is a good time to review important points you’ve learned all year long.

WILLIAM JAMES said
“The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.”

This is such a valuable concept for each of us to grasp onto at this time in our lives.

Things are chaotic. Things are stressful.

We don’t really know what’s going to happen at any point in time.

We could let these thoughts overwhelm us to the point where we do nothing and just watch our lives dwindle away while we complain about things.

We experience anxiety and fear.

In some instances that fear is warranted but in many others it’s not.

Knowing that when faced with a choice of thoughts, we can pick whichever one we want should be an immense relief.

Awareness that you can have opposing thoughts is the first step.

It’s not all black or white.

How you react or respond to something is totally up to you.

Several months ago i talked about contrast and clarity.

This is another place where you can use that exercise.

When you find yourself feeling anxious or down, take out a piece of paper and write your thoughts.

One per line.

When you’ve emptied your mind, go back to each line and write the opposite thought.

Don’t question whether or not you can believe that thought.

Just write it down.

Do that for every item on your list.

When you’re done with that, look this list over.

Go back and select the thoughts YOU WANT to think (you can circle the ones you want or cross out the ones you want to eliminate- pick whichever method is more symbolic to you).

Then it would be good to transcribe the ones you want to think onto another page (not necessary but helps to cement the feeling).

Carry this page around with you all day. Refer to it frequently, reminding yourself they you can choose different thoughts.

This won’t be easy at first because you’re accustomed to thinking those other thoughts automatically so give yourself some time to practice changing your thoughts.

Your world will begin to change too and you’ll see the power of intentionally picking what you want to think about.