Useful and Useless Thoughts
"For there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so." I believe Shakespeare was on to something there. In Hamlet , Act II, Scene 2, his lead character makes that simple but profound revelation. And so it is with our everyday lives. Our encounters, victories, frustrations, close misses -- all are subject to our own internal voice. Those little electrical connections that are buzzing in our brains are evaluating, judging, and commenting on the activities and events that are happening throughout our day. We've all found ourselves at the mercy of our own thoughts, but when we figure out how to actively divide our thoughts into different categories, we begin to make some headway. I discovered that my own natural tendency is to drift towards negativity. Left to itself, my internal dialogue is rarely uplifting unless I'm actively pulling it in that direction. "Do I like this?" No. "Am I good at this new activity?" Not rea...