Mundane, repetitive chores send my thoughts swirling and spiraling. I spent the day pressure-washing the deck. Not the most exciting way to spend my time, but the dirt and grime ran down the drain. I smiled.
I let some thoughts, the negative ones, slide away alongside the grime. I didn’t need them. I found a few memories that lightened my chore.
Children laughing. Quite conversations at twilight. Looking up at the night sky with my soulmate.
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 bring 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 the early twentieth century sounds a bit different from our more conversational tone.
Whenever I find myself moping about or ready to bite off someone’s head, the agitator usually sits in my thoughts. I have allowed negativity to creep in.
Time to stop. Re-group and examine the voices and thoughts in my head.
Pick one or two of Allen’s to carry with you. I hope you find a nugget. Hold that thought.
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 . . .
Say unto your heart ” Peace, be still! “
Three Actions to Ponder
- Take inventory of what you spend your time thinking about.
- Determine if those thoughts bring productive action and calmness.
- Replace negative thoughts and actions. Choose those that give you health, purpose, success, and serenity.
Think well. Choose an amazing life.
A song . . .
And . . .
“Life consists in what a person is thinking of all day.”
And always—
Be kind. Be brave. Be you.
Photos © Kathryn LeRoy
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