These last few months I’ve been spending a lot of time in the house on my own, and I’ve been going a bit stir-crazy. It’s not the house itself. It’s being stuck in my head. 

I’m sure like a lot of people, my default thoughts are ones that undermine me and talk down to me. For some reason it feels safer to think bad things about myself than it does to think good things.

I’ve read lots of places that joy is a choice. In response, I’d usually go “Huh, alright for you, you new age hippy,” then continue grumping through my day.

You know when you learn something, and you understand it in your brain, but don’t understand it practically? That was me.

The number one thing that affects how you feel are your thoughts, because they are with you almost all the time. So the number one pathway to choosing joy would be choosing your thoughts more carefully, right?

I don’t know about you, but I will explain how my grumpy, pessimistic and abusive thoughts feel.I feel like I have no control over them, as if I am powerless to prevent them, and since they come from somewhere that is not me and are unchangeable by me, they must be right and they must be the truth. 

I forget that they are just thoughts, and they turn into something bigger and scarier.

I forget that nothing can get in my brain without me putting it there. 

And if I put it there, I can take it out of there. 

I’m finally realising that I have control of my brain, and it’s the biggest aha-moment ever. I make my thoughts – all my thoughts. There doesn’t need to be any judgement or insecurity in my brain, because no-one else can get in there and see what I am thinking. There is no-one to judge me, and I don’t need to judge myself. It’s OK, I’m safe.

Really, my thoughts are just another environment. Like my study I am in right now typing this is an environment. My brain-environment either helps me do stuff (nice neat filing cabinet, laptop, comfy chair) or hinders me doing stuff (crap on the floor so I can’t move my chair, no laptop, nails sticking out of the floorboards). There is nothing wrong in cleaning up your brain environment. It’s not a big deal. By choosing more encouraging thoughts, I’m just creating an environment that lets me get on with what I am meant to be doing, living the best life I can.

(And the best life is always the happiest one!)

Becuase what you think creates your world. Not necessarily in a New Age manifesting-ish way, but in a common sense way. By choosing joyful thoughts, you choose a joyful experience and a joyful life. and even though it doesn’t feel like it sometimes, we always, always control what is going on in our brains.

I want to choose Joy, and right now, I feel so empowered and able to do it.