You are your thoughts, All that arises, arises from our thoughts, We make the world with our thoughts. - Buddha.

There is a Hindu story about a man, lost in a forest, who, late in the night, comes across an abandoned house. When he enters the one room building, he is sees a small cot highlighted by the light of the moon. As he lays down to rest, he notices in the dim light, a chair in the far corner and on the chair - a small coil - a snake. The stranger stays as quiet and motionless as possible. Several times he thought the snake was beginning to slither and hiss - his heart pumps faster and faster - he has trouble breathing.

With the dawn, the owner of house returns and finds the stranger dead.

He removes the coil of rope from the chair and goes about preparing the body for cremation.

That may be an extreme example, but the story illustrates the power of our thoughts - we are what we think and many people think the worst. Much of the problem is caused by the blanket of negativity that covers us everyday of our lives - the doom-boom in today's media, pessimistic friends, unenthusiastic colleagues and the worst source of all - ourselves.

A recent study in the United States shows that Americans spend three days out of ten in a bad mood - all that negativity. The problem is we never take the time to be aware of our thoughts, we allow the river of negativity to constantly flow through our minds.

The first step in building a dam to stop this flow of negative thought is be aware of your thoughts - you must make a determined effort to take notice when you think in the negative. To help you become more aware of your negative thinking, for several days - carry a notepad and pencil and jot down all your negative thoughts - find out how many times your thought process has to deal with negativity during your waking hours - if you are honest in your note-taking, you will likely be surprised and alarmed.

Once you have taken this first step to be aware of your negative thoughts, you can use the art of visualization as the cement to hold the negativity dam together - with visualization you're setting up a powerful see and think one-two punch for positive thinking.

Example - if you're at your computer as you read this, look down at your keyboard. First, zero in to the delete key. - focus hard - burn the picture of the delete key into you mind. Think about deleting negative thoughts.

Next, focus on the control key on your computer keyboard - control for taking control of your life.

Use the theater of your mind to help you switch from negative to positive. Remember,be aware to your thoughts then control them though visualization - repetition and persistence is the key to positive thinking.

We become what we believe. - Sanskrit proverb