Thinking shapes the world

The world is a framework, a scaffold, a shell of a house we are free to fill and decorate however we like. Thinking does not passively receive the world, it actively creates a world. Think negatively and the sunshine is faded and opaque; think positively and you bathe yourself in bright sunshine. Focus on something and that becomes your world. Change your focus and your world changes too.

We have far more control over the content of the world than we sometimes realise. Our reaction to the world colours our world, making it easier or harder to navigate.

For instance, don't be surprised when the world seems to confirm what you are feeling (e.g. you feel hard done by and subsequently suffer a string of bad luck) because those very same feelings are, in part, creating the world you are experiencing. It's like painting a room red and then complaining the room is red!

The world is not a settled, definitive place. It is responsive to our reaction and our emotional state because how we view the world limits what we see. We partly create the world we experience, which gives us the freedom to react and determine what is in the world. For example, flying in a plane can be scary or awe inspiring; stammering can mute your voice or make you talk louder; depression can be a darkness or a path to enlightenment; Parkinson’s can be crippling or liberating…