For most of us, life is full of challenges, victories and minor or major disasters. Generally these events have a significant impact on whether we are happy or unhappy at any particular time. Of course a really serious disaster can cause us major grief and have a long term impact on our state of mind. 
It’s very easy to feel powerless as we are buffeted by the ups and downs of life.
Have you ever thought that life doesn’t have to be like this?
It’s true that we have little control over the external forces that impact on our lives in either positive or negative ways. However we are not nearly as powerless as you might think! It’s not really the good or bad events that makes us happy or sad, it’s how we react to them. This is an internal response to an external event and guess what, we can have a lot of control over what our internal response is.
It’s really important to appreciate this concept as that’s the first step to achieving a lot more control over your life. If we become aware of how our mind is responding to an event and what emotions are being created and we understand that we can have a reasonable degree of control over our mind, we can start to control our responses to various events. This idea is summed up in the often used quote “If we can control our thoughts, we can control our lives”.
I can give you a practical example of how this approach really works. When I had finished typing this article, I thought that I had saved it until I found that the computer had sent it into the cosmos. My initial response was to swear at the computer and Microsoft and then start to get angry. “Hang on” I then said “What have you just written? Isn’t it all about controlling our reactions to external events?” I was then able to step in and control my urge to get angry and then calmly start to retype the article.
If you can accept this idea and put it into practice, you will start to realise that you and not fate can have a far greater degree of control over how you run your life and when you decide to be either happy or unhappy
If you think that this idea is worth considering, our book “How to stay Healthy, Active and Sharp in Retirement” can give you a lot more useful information and advice on how to better control your own mind. It’s available on our Home page.