The Power of Thought

It's our thinking, not our circumstances, that determines how we feel.

William James, the father of American psychology, once said, "Thinking is the grand originator of our experience". As we think about something, we feel the effects of our thoughts.

Every experience and perception in life is based on thought. Our thoughts and consequent actions are shaped by ourselves, what we learn, and the world around us. We have innocently learned to interpret our thoughts as if they were reality, but thought is merely an ability that we have. We are the thinkers (the ones who produce) those thoughts. As Shakespeare said, '"There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so". An example of this is the placebo effect, which shows that placebos can have real, measurable effects on physiological changes in the brain.

When we realize that thinking is an ability rather than a reality we can dismiss negative thoughts that pass through. As we do so, we can maintain a positive feeling of happiness, because we no longer feel compelled to seriously follow every train of thought that comes into our heads.