A Change of Heart & A Change of Fortune

It's funny how you can go from being melancholic one week, to feeling like things are slowly, slowly, beginning to come together sunny side up.

I've just listened to Russell Watson performing "Va Pensiero" and I must admit that it always reminds me of a time where I wasn't so easily led astray by my emotions and I suppose that was the price I paid for opening up about a certain crush.

But anyways, I said I wasn't talking about that so openly at this moment!

Revisiting An Old Point

I'm just revisiting a Bible verse that I was reading on Saturday that pierced through the gloom I'd been walking through: -

For the joy of the Lord is your strength. Neh 8:10

It's funny that, every time I now think about this verse I think about a posting I made some time ago about what can happen if we spend too much time focusing on the things that are not so right in our lives.

Back then, I said that we often go in the direction that we are looking so if we're looking to the negative all the time, then to the negative is where we'll inevitably head for.

What if we reverse that trend though?

Stop for a minute and think of the thing that is causing you to take up most of your thought life thinking about it.

Go on, I'll wait...

Done?

Guess what?

It's just a thought, that's all it is. It doesn't have to dictate the direction that your mood ends up in.

Tricked by Our Brain

In case you hadn't figured out, your moods can be easily manipulated at times to only focus on what is going on in any one moment, or a worry about a past or future moment.

Sure, there are times when medical help is often indeed sought and recommended and there is nothing at all wrong with that if it helps you get on the right path again. What I want you to realise is that the moment these thoughts occur, we don't have to do anything about them; they are just thoughts!

It doesn't matter what the thought is telling you, you are responsible for your own outcomes in life and you can spend every waking moment letting these thoughts consume and control you. Alternatively, you can realise that they are only a fleeting moment of activity from your brain that is constantly trying to convince you that what you think is what's real.

I'll say that again in case you missed it the first time around: -

They are only a fleeting moment of activity from your brain that is constantly trying to convince you that what you think is what's real

That is not the case.

Think of the last time a friend treated you poorly, or you lost that job, or got that sickness. Chances are there were other unforeseen elements going on that actually contributed to what you were going through.

In the case of poor treatment from a friend, think about this; they were acting based on what their brain told them was true about your friendship at the time. But what if their brain misinterpreted what you said?

What if you misinterpreted what they said?

I'm making it a rule of thumb now to make sure that if somebody I know has got something to say to me, they can say it to my face!

Think of all the signals that are lost when it comes over by phone call/text... you miss the eye contact, the body language cues, so it's no wonder your mind misinterprets what your brain was telling it had just happened!

We Are What We Think

I know, this has gone deep all of a sudden, but I've been reading a fascinating book by Dr. Daniel Siegel looking at the relationship between the mind, the brain & how it impacts on our relationships in ways that we never even would have known about unless we were made aware to watch out for them.

I don't claim to be an expert, I just know that, from my own experiences, I am learning not to always be so quick to jump on as true what I'm being told by my mind on the back of any event I don't understand.

You see, in a text for example, you miss the tone of voice so you cannot always tell when someone is joking or when they're being serious.

Final Thought

I've gone on for long enough about this and may have digressed slightly from what I was originally raising; that we are in fact able to control our response to any event that happens to us, whether that's to get bitter or to get better!

What I want to make sure other people see is that how we perceive what's going on around us, isn't always what actually is going on!

Watch the skies!