“It is the mind that maketh good or ill, that maketh wretch or happy, rich or poor.”
—Edmund Spencer

What You Think Matters

What are you thinking right this moment?

Do those thoughts create calm and bring joy to yourself and others?

Or, do your thoughts feel like a python wrenching the breath out of you?

Which thoughts linger day after day? Those thoughts shape your life and determine how you face adversity and blessings.

The obscure and mysterious James Allen authored a small book in 1912. He taught the power of what we choose to hold in our minds every day. In As a Man Thinketh, James Allen gives us hope. Our thoughts give us the inner strength to grow, learn, and find peace in trying times.

Two fundamental truths unfold in the book:

  • Wherever we are, our thoughts brought us to that place.
  • We create our future first in the thoughts we harbor in our mind.

If you feel the threads unraveling, stop. Take a look inward at your own thoughts. Do they uplift or bring you down?

Over 100 years have passed since Allen wrote these words, but they ring true even today. The language of early twentieth-century sounds a bit different from our more conversational tone. However, the message continues to find its way into the work of modern writers like Ryan Holliday and Benjamin Hardy.

Whenever I find mindself moping about or ready to bite off someone’s head, the agitator usually sits in my thoughts. I have allowed negativity to creep in. My perfectionism begins a rant that I am and will never be good enough.

Time to stop. Re-group and examine the voices and thoughts in my head.

Pick one or two to carry with you. I hope you find a nugget to hold onto.

Thought and Character

“A noble … character is not a thing of favor or chance, but is the natural result of continued effort in right thinking…”

“Man is the master of thought, the molder of character, and the maker and shaper of condition, environment, and destiny.

Thought and Circumstance

“Man’s mind may be likened to a garden, which may be intelligently cultivated or allowed to run wild; but whether cultivated or neglected, it must, and will, bring forth. If no useful seeds are put into it, then an abundance of useless weed-seeds will fall … , and will continue to produce their kind.”

“Good thoughts bear good fruit, bad thoughts bad fruit.”

Thought and Health

“There is no physician like cheerful thought for dissipating the ills of the body; there is no comforter to compare with goodwill for dispersing shadows of grief and sorrow.”

Thought and Purpose

“Until thought is linked with purpose there is no intelligent accomplishment.”

“The will to do springs from the knowledge that we can do. Doubt and fear are the great enemies of knowledge, and he who encourages them, who does not slay them. thwarts himself at every step.”

Thought and Achievement

“All that man achieves and all that he fails to achieve is the direct result of his own thoughts.”

Vision and Ideals

“The dreamers are the saviors of the world.”

“Cherish your visions; cherish your ideals; cherish the music that stirs in your heart, the beauty that forms in your mind, the loveliness that drapes your purest thoughts, for out of them will grow all delightful conditions, all, heavenly environment…”

Serenity

“Calmness of mind is one of the beautiful jewels of wisdom.”

My favorite today…

“Tempest-tossed souls, wherever ye may be, under whatsoever conditions ye may live, know this in the ocean of life the isles of Blessedness are smiling, and the sunny shore of your ideal awaits your coming.

Keep your hand firmly upon the helm of thought. In the bark of your soul reclines the commanding Master; He does but sleep: wake Him.

Self – control is strength; Right Thought is mastery; Calmness is power.

Say unto your heart ” Peace, be still! ”

Three Actions to Think Your Way to an Amazing Life

Take inventory of what you spend your time thinking about it.

Determine if those thoughts bring productive action and calmness.

Replace negative thoughts and actions. Choose those that will give you health, purpose, success, and serenity.

Finally, from Ralph Waldo Emerson:

“Life consists in what a person is thinking of all day.”

Think well. Coose an amazing life.

And always—

Be kind. Be brave. Be you.

Photo: Stock Snap from Pixabay