I wish I could tell you I wake up every morning feeling great and ready to take on the day. I don’t. I have tired days, crabby days, and days where I wish I could just roll over to the other side of the bed and just pause life at that moment.

On those days I will tell you that 9 times out of town what got me out of my funk, or at least able to see the day for more than just what I am feeling at that moment, have been the words I feed my mind. It matters and makes a difference.

I always pray and ask God for strength and to help me not let my emotions dictate my day. And then I become very mindful of what I feed my mind next. I search for positive quotes on Pinterest. I choose topics like courage, faith, trust and joy.

Joy is a powerful one because I believe you can still feel joy even when you don’t feel happy. Because happiness can be fleeting. But joy, that rests in gratitude. In appreciating and feeling contentment with the blessings you have, it takes pausing to focus on the blessings.

I also search for encouraging podcasts that will set my mind towards a positive attitude. Yes, I could easily feed the negative emotions, but what good would that do me? And if none of that works, a good cry is always helpful.

Right now I am on Day 2 of a journaling experiment. I’m listening to this speaker, Rachel Luna, and her enthusiasm and encouragement is reminding me of the incredible power of writing. More importantly of writing my truth with courage and with intention. With the intention to manifest and take action on some things that I feel will feed my soul and give me clarity.

One of the biggest takeaways from her talk today was “Now that you know better will you do better? You can’t play ignorance anymore.”

How many of us are guilty of squandering the resources we have? And we play dumb and just keep repeating the same bad choices. She’s right. There comes a point where you can no longer play ignorant anymore. We know better yet we choose to lie and pretend we don’t. Or worse yet, convince ourselves that somehow this time the same thing will produce different results. Wrong.

Negative self talk or buying the lies your mind can sometimes feed you can be so hard to shake off. What do you do to train your mind to see the good and move forward with optimism when your emotions are telling you otherwise?