Statistics show positive and negative thoughts can’t occupy brain space at the same time.  If that’s not a real stat I think it should be.  I’ve done my own not-so-scientific research and results always prove this; thoughts and words are either on a positive track or a negative track, but never on both tracks at the same time. Like a train, our thinking has to enter a roundhouse to make a turn around.

A day can start in the thinking chair with a hot cup of coffee reviewing how grateful and happy I am when a thought slips into the roundhouse. Something someone said or did last week, or last month, has the ability to turn everything in the opposite direction.

Then the monolog in my brain begins: “I can’t believe that happened to me.  How embarrassing! She did that on purpose. She’s been my friend forever but who needs friends like that. Blah, blah, blah… Besides her clothes are always a little bit too revealing.  She’s probably after my husband anyway!”

The gears start grinding and a lifelong friend is now a husband-stealing hoochie momma all because thoughts entered the roundhouse and came out a run-away train.  Like the swirly contraption at fast food restaurants kids beg to put a quarter in, thoughts circle and circle in a downward spiral until they drop off into the negative thinking vortex. Then we wear ourselves trying to climb back out.

We don’t have control over a lot but our thoughts are on the short list of things we can boss around. How we think becomes our reality, either positive or negative. The secret to spending more time happy than frustrated is to think about what we are thinking about and change direction if necessary.