YOUR EVERY ACTION,

YOUR EVERY THOUGHT

IS YOUR CHOICE!

     Naw!  That’s not possible, you say?  Not only is it possible, it’s true 100% of the time! 

     You CHOOSE your behavior.  No one makes you mad.  You choose to feel mad about something someone says or does or thinks. 

     No one embarrasses you.  You choose to feel embarrassed about something you or someone else chooses to do or not do or say or not say or think or not think.  But it IS your choice. 

     Anger.  Embarrassment.  Humiliation.  Envy.  Jealousy.  Guilt.  These things don’t just fall down from the sky and land on your shoulder.  You, we, all of us, choose these emotions and the time-wasting behaviors that come along with them. 

     So, you don’t like hearing that, or thinking about it because you don’t want to have to admit that you’re that wimpy, wussy, weak-willed, fragile, malliable, stupid.  I mean why would anybody CHOOSE to feel angry?  It’s much easier to blame others for the upset negative feelings we have and the accompanying nonproductive behaviors.  Isn’t it? 

     That moron cut me off in traffic!  He’s a jerk!  He makes me so angry I think I’ll race up alongside him, give him the finger, and then cut HIM off!  I’ll show him!  Hey, that’s great . . . the stuff heroes are made of, right? 

     Why not instead just STOP for just a minute and take a deep breath, collect your self-control and mentally step back from the nutcase driver who just prompted you to choose to feel angry, and, instead, think to yourself that:

          A) He’s in some kind of emergency situation or under great stress or

          B) I am not going to choose for that Looney-Tunes to cause me to choose to feel upset.  He’s not worth it!  

     When you find yourself choosing negative and upsetting behavior, pinch yourself, take a deep breath, remind yourself that you are in fact making a choice.  Change the channel in your brain from “Bad News” to “Mellow, Happy Music.” 

     Go ahead and take the risk of choosing to overcome the negativities by bringing in the (There’s a really old song my parents used to sing: “E-liminate the negative.  Ax-cen-tu-ate the positive . . .”) awareness that you need only blink and then choose –in place of all the uproar– a positive, productive behavior, thought, action, response.  Go for it!          halalpiar