*Our thoughts determine our feelings

The picture on my blog is neutral. To me, it's a beautiful sunrise just coming over a view of majestic mountain tops, covered with snow topped evergreens--serene and peaceful. To others who might be stranded outside in this scene might think of it as a death trap, depending on the temperature and how long they've been out in it. But I was snug in my warm bed in our family cabin at the time this picture was taken, and I came out 20 minutes later and reveled in the view, but sad I missed the sunrise moment. Isn't it interesting how many thoughts and perspectives there can be of one view? And interesting the thought we might have when we think we missed out?
 Here's an interesting tidbit:

Our brains continually produce thoughts over and over again. Some people call these thought loops. On auto pilot, our brain wants to keep doing the same thing, just like when we move to a new house, sometimes we find ourselves driving home to the old house because our brain is on auto pilot. This is also true of our thoughts. Our brains want to be efficient and do the least amount of work. Our brain also looks for evidence to support our thoughts. It wants to prove that our thoughts are true. Our brain is really good at finding evidence to prove our belief. We will even look to others who support and agree with our thoughts. We will look for other circumstances that could prove our thoughts too. And the thought loops continue as we find evidence for our beliefs.

Now--we can always change our thought loops. It takes some doing--some practice--but we can change the way we view or think about things if we want to. Sometimes we don't want to, but if we are unhappy with how we're feeling, it's a good time to look at our thoughts and see if we want to make changes so we can change how we feel, behave, and the result we are getting. When we decide we want to change our thinking, we can practice deliberately thinking and believing new thoughts on purpose, and they become our new thought loop.  The old ones will still want to creep back in, but if we keep practicing the new thought, we can retrain our brain. I'm telling you this works. It takes practice, but it really works.  

I believe that Heavenly Father gave us negative feelings to help us recognize when we aren't ok with something so we can protect ourselves from harm. Then when we calm down and identify what is wrong, we can work on fixing it. Much of the time it is what we are thinking that needs to be adjusted, or just the awareness of our thinking, but it's not really our circumstance that's the problem. When we decide we aren't ok with our circumstance, we can chose to change it or remove ourselves from it when it is within our control. When it's not within our control, we are the ones that control our thoughts, feelings, and actions regarding that circumstance. If we are able to be mindful our thinking, then that helps us see things differently. It might enable us to redirect our thoughts, or help us decide we are totally ok feeling those negative emotions because we want to hold to the thought or belief that is creating it. We can choose to think or feel differently and make choices (or actions) that can improve our situation--or at least feel better about it.

We may decide we don't want to change our thought, because we find it actually serves us in some way. (Maybe it protects us from getting hurt, or motivates us find the help we need along with the negative emotion we're feeling.) Just being aware of our thoughts and the feelings they are creating can help us be ok with the negative feelings that come with that belief, or break the cycle of those thought loops so we can practice thinking positively, if we want to feel differently.
 

When we understand that our circumstances are all neutral, then we gain power over them because we can choose how we want to think about them. But when struggles come, we can also look for or seek the good or even just the neutral things that have come or might come from those experiences. It can take a while to do that, so be patient with yourself! Of course you're going to feel angry if you've been thinking upsetting thoughts for a long time with lots of evidence to prove your belief! The good part is that you can change it up if you want to. Positive thinking can help us feel peace, understanding, inspiration, or even empowerment. Since how we feel about our neutral circumstances determines how we’re going to behave, we can choose to be our best selves by deliberately choosing how we want to think about our circumstances.

Now sometimes we want to feel negative emotions. That is totally fine. In fact processing or digesting emotions is a great place to start that (you can read about on my blog number…). Whatever thoughts we choose to think, the consequence will be how we feel, fueling how we behave because of those feelings.  You can decide on purpose what you want to believe and feel about your circumstances. And if you’re struggling with a good thought to come up with, just remember D&C 6:36 “Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not.”

Doctrine and Covenants 6:36