I was listening to a speaker share how our words have great power. If we say we are not good enough, don’t deserve happiness or are hopeless this is impacting our future. It is not always easy to be optimistic in the midst of severe problems.

The easiest emotions to have are fear, anger and anxiety. It takes a great amount of effort to decide to think better thoughts. When you take a moment to shift your feelings it turns around events.

I woke up today and had lost my glasses. I need them to drive so it is vital to find them. I searched around the house with the help of my wife and kids. We could not find them anywhere and my wife mentioned throwing out a bag that I believed may have them.

I now had to look in our garbage pail to find the bag. When I did this all of the trash become loose. I then had to clean it all up. During this moment, I felt anger starting. I told myself I would not let this ruin the beginning of my day. I cleaned everything up and washed my hands.

A few minutes later, my daughter found my glasses in her school bag. We all went out for breakfast and my day has been joyful. How often does an experience happen that feels hard and then we fall into a negative thought pattern? Even in the stinkiest situations (like mine in the garbage today) we can decide to not let it take away our peace.

This is a hard lesson but one I continue to work on. I know that the efforts to say better thoughts to yourself leads to more of the feelings you wat.