Positive Thoughts and Beliefs Create Positive Reality

I am constantly telling people “practice being kind to yourself. The kinder, and less critical, you are to yourself, the kinder and less critical you will be of others.” And it’s so true. We addicts/codependents can be very critical people and very judgmental. It becomes a pattern of thinking we use against ourselves and eventually it spills out onto everyone around us.

Through Recovery I’ve learned that my thoughts and beliefs create my reality. Reality rarely creates my thoughts or beliefs. When I live in my head, instead of living in the present moment, I create my own “reality,” a false one. Miserable thought builds on miserable thought until I am an anxious, frustrated, sad, miserable mess emotionally. That used to be my only way of life.

Recently, I’ve trained myself to become more focused on the actual, true reality around me. Now, if I turn on some favorite music, I actually listen to the songs and enjoy them. In the past, I’d turn on some favorite music and barely hear any of it because I was too trapped in the darkness of my mind: Replaying the past, making assumptions about why someone said or did something, or “what if-ing” my way through a non-existent future.

But no more. It takes effort to pull ourselves out of our heads. Most addictive personalities are so used to isolating and fearing the worst because we spend too much time alone with our toxic thoughts and beliefs. And those very toxic thoughts and beliefs create a toxic reality around us. A beautiful day becomes a stormy emotional nightmare. And only because we choose to create our own false reality through our negative thinking and beliefs.

Today, I am choosing to have positive thoughts. I’m also reexamining my beliefs and getting rid of the false ones— the ones my parents, or teachers, or society forced on me. I’m “living one moment at a time, enjoying one moment at a time,” just as the Serenity Prayer teaches me to do.