Watch your thoughts, they become words.
Watch your words, they become actions.
Watch your actions, they become habits.
Watch your habits, they become your character.
Watch your character, it becomes your destiny.
I am writing this blog entry because nowadays I am having hard time coping up with the negative thoughts. It’s making me feel worthless so I want to speak about it so as to find ways to get out of this mindset—and be of help to others who might be experiencing the same thing.
First, let’s inhale and exhale. Let’s inhale the positive and exhale the negative. Let’s keep doing it until we feel good deep inside.
I want to believe how we are raised up contributes on our becoming optimistic.
Yesterday I watched videos of terrorists teaching kids to kill so I concluded they might become violent, heartless when they grow up.
What we input in our mind affects us. Remember, no one would be thinking on our behalf—we just get influenced by others.
How do we develop optimism?
Since we are unique from each other, we look at life differently.
When it’s dark, we may see ghosts around when all along there’s no—or we may see light despite darkness.
Here are my suggestions on how we can develop optimism.
1. Find quiet time/meditation to find out the cause of our pessimism.
As a Christian, I believe pessimism is rooted from sin. Anything bad that we think about is given to us by satan. satan wants us to think and feel bad about ourselves. This bears bad fruit and so we get to share something bad to others.
Proverbs 28:13 states, “He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy.”
It would be good to share our burdens/sins to anyone we trust. This will help us release what bad is deep inside us.
Galatians 6:2 shares, “Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.”
2. Seek God.
Matthew 6:33 reminds, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you."
Everything we need like forgiveness of sin, blessings, etcera is from God so we must seek Him FIRST. He is the source of everything.
But sometimes we ask ourselves why do we feel far from God? It’s because of sin. Psalm 66:18 says, “If I regard wickedness in my heart, the Lord will not hear.” God is a loving Father so He tells, “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more(Jeremiah 31:34).”
How do we receive God’s forgiveness?
1 John 1:9 is telling us, ”If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from unrighteousness.”
3. Surround ourselves with good, positive people.
One of our natural tendencies as a human being is we get easily influenced. That is why it is very important that we choose good people to be with us since they are one of the sources of our experience where we get our learning from.
Proverbs 13:20 warns, “He who walks with wise men will be wise. But the companion of fools will suffer harm.”
4. LAUGH IT LOUD.
I remember, there was a time our school missionary pastor would always ask us to just laugh, laugh out loud. During our morning devotion, he would give us time to just laugh out loud. All we had to do was laugh.
Here are the benefits of laughing:
-Laughing lowers blood pressure.
-Reduces stress hormone levels.
-Fun ab workout.
-Improves cardiac health.
-Improves T cells.
-Triggers the release of endorphin.
-Produces a general sense of well-being.
source: http://life.gaiam.com/article/7-benefits-laughter
Proverbs 17:22 tells, “A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.”
5. REMEMBER: Optimism is a choice.
At the end of it all, the choice is ours if we are going to live in pessimism or optimism. When we choose pessimism, we also invite negative things in our lives. If we choose optimism, we are claiming God’s blessings and goodness.
“Delight yourself in the Lord; and He will give you the desires of your heart.” –Psalm 37:4
The last life lesson I learned about optimism is that it directs us to a better life. When we keep thinking of bad thoughts, most probably bad thing will happen to us. So why don't we just think of good, beautiful thoughts so we experience God's great love.
