Thoughts, man. They can convince us we’re absolutely crazy.

Sometimes my thoughts lead me to places of the, “what’s the point of everything?” variety; or the, “what am I doing with my life?” camp.

Those thoughts used to create my entire world—they used to fill me so deeply and so consistently that everything in my external world reflected that dissonance: my relationships, my jobs, my hobbies, etc.

I guess I got tired of that internal dissonance. I guess I got tired of it because that’s not how I choose to live anymore.

Even though those thoughts haven’t disappeared completely (and maybe they never will—I’m learning that the point is not to get rid of them), my reaction to them has changed. I’m learning that my reaction to them is the point.

I no longer ever feel victimized by my own life—caught in a tornado of high winds that whips me in any direction without my consent.

I know that my thoughts are powerful; and I know that just because I have thoughts sometimes, doesn’t mean I need to believe all of them.

Thoughts are only true if we believe in them. Belief gives them power.

And because I know that, these are the thoughts I choose to believe in now:

1) The same recycled air that steadies our bodies once filled Shakespeare’s lungs to speak his sonnets, and Austen’s fingertips to spread her sentences.

2) Our limbs are made of the same collection of atoms that built the pyramids, Andromeda and the fabric of space-time itself.

3) We are both the creator and the created.

4) We have smiles too big for faces, hands too hot for holding, mouths too open to keep in: We are powerful beyond measure.

5) We kayak through sand, throw kites up in storms, turn crazy in the wake of sanity—everything they say we can’t, we do.

6) We leave worrying at the door because we know that time does not run on plans for “two weeks from now,” “three months from now,” “five years from now!” Time simply allows the next adjacent moment to follow this one, and our only job is to just pay attention.

7) We are here to live a life that has never existed before and will never exist again.

8) We fill our bones with as much gratitude as calcium and then use them to jump, dance and hug as many other sets of bones as possible.

9) We’re here to have as many bad days as good, and to learn that the only difference between bad days and good days is the name we give them.

10) We are here to learn that the crux of our power is simply to create a life for ourselves that we feel good living.

This is my life, and I will embrace it every moment.

If this moment is nothing but the absolute abundance of spaciousness, I will embrace it.

If this moment swirls with 12 feelings and 16 thoughts all at once that confuse and distress me, I will embrace it.

Because I want to live a life of embrace, no matter what my insides are full of. And when I can feel that embrace of Self—that ultimate feeling of filling my skin to completion and having nothing good or bad to say about it—my thoughts shift to absolute bliss.

Our life is whatever we say it is.

I say that I’ll choose the thoughts that let me fly instead of walk.

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Ed: Sara Crolick