In his book The Art of Life, Ernest Holmes said: "You must become the master of your own thinking. This is the only way you will realize freedom and joy."
I really do believe this is true. And I've been thinking a lot about how to become the master of my thinking.
We Americans, it seems, are constantly bombarded with suggestions from advertisers and the news media: "buy this," "do that," "eat this," "fear that." I think we're also influenced by the ideas and attitudes of the people around us. Conventional religion blasts us with messages about what we should believe and how we should think. And then there are the messages we hear in our own heads—messages that probably didn't come from us to start with, but came from the people around us when we were young. "You are this," "You’ll never be that," "This is what you can expect from life." Becoming the master of one's thinking seems like a difficult task indeed.
But I believe we really can liberate ourselves from any idea that doesn't serve us. This requires practice, focus, and determination—but thoughts can be changed. We are free to examine every idea for its validity, and for its value in serving the best in us. Even if someone has been suggesting, for our entire lives, that a certain idea is the right way or the only way to think, we are still at liberty to discard that idea. And then we get to practice and reinforce a better idea in its place, until it becomes a part of us. I've started working on this myself, and I've had a bit of success. For the sake of having greater freedom and joy, I think it’s definitely worth the effort!
Author Ann Young
Fantasy, Paranormal Fiction ... and Fact
www.annyoungparanormal.com
