by Barbara A. Clark

Created on: November 29, 2007

Mind Games: Our Daily Routines

If I were to ask you if you know people who play mind games, perhaps you would think of someone who is manipulative and who is clever at psychological warfare of the mind. Perhaps you think of a young child who is afraid of the dark, imagining a monster in the room and the more the child thinks about it, the larger the monster grows.

But what about the games that your mind plays out everyday with your own thoughts? We go along in life, day by day, almost on an 'auto-pilot' mode with our thoughts. If we wake up late, we may spend the entire day racing, trying not to be late, worried about being late, stressed out about hurrying, which seems to delay everything in our path to getting to our destination on time, causing more stress about being late... It becomes a vicious circle as the entire day's mood is affected by these thoughts which multiply the more we think about them. Our mind plays a game of thoughts and our thoughts become reality. These are the mind games of our everyday lives; our daily routines.

If you were to stop and examine your thoughts each day, you can become aware of the times when you are most apt to slip into these runaway habits. Becoming aware is the first step in consciously attempting to shift any negative thoughts into more positive ones. You are, in effect, creating a new mind game: one that is on purpose and that is filled with positivity and peace.

So the next time you wake up and find yourself having any negative or stressful thoughts, try to stop and reflect for a moment. Find something to be grateful for. Focus on that for a few moments. Feel that feeling in your heart. Smile! You will find that you are starting a new mind game for the day and this one has a happy ending.

As you practice this, you will get better at it each day to the point that it will become part of your daily routine. Although it is not possible to totally control all of our own thoughts or to not ever have a negative thought cross our mind, you will find that with practice, you can learn not to internalize the negative and quickly focus on the positive. Then amazing things will begin to happen and amazing people will show up in your life and you will love the life you are creating. So, try it! What do you have to lose? You won't lose your mind; just the old games!

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