Thoughts, feelings and success!

“Oh God! What will I do if Philip drops dead on me?”

This was my first thought the other morning on wakening. Not a great start to the day! Previously, I’d heard about a colleague who had suddenly died, this had reminded me of someone who had also died suddenly last year, and before I knew it I was worrying about what I’d do if my partner died.

Didn’t expect it to have such an impact at the beginning of my day though!

Anyway, I lay there worrying for a while (5 minutes probably) then got out of bed with the intention of going for a walk to ‘clear my head’.

Have you ever noticed that when you’re trying to replace your negative thoughts with more positive ones that you can be having another conversation going on at the same time? That’s what happened to me, as I climbed up the hill behind my house.

I was busy saying ‘I am safe and all is well’ but at the same time noticing that my feelings weren’t changing, and I was still plotting under the surface about how I was going to manage when (when!!) Philip died.

So I took hold of myself. I started to make myself think of 50 things I was grateful for in my life. This is an incredibly simple exercise which takes some practice to do, and some discipline to get to 50, but in my experience it works everytime. And sure enough, by the time I’d got to the top of the hill, I felt no fear, but rather immense pleasure at what I had got in my life, and a real sense of joy back again.

Haaaah! I breathe a sigh of relief even as I write this, because not only does this exercise work, but it demonstrates very clearly indeed how I am in charge of my feelings. I can change my feelings by changing my thoughts. And when my feelings and thoughts change, my actions can change too. My whole day was different because I took charge.

Thank you!