“The only possible way to improve the conditions of one’s life is to improve one’s emotional condition.” (ODAT, 28 November)
And the emotions are a corollary of thought, so, to improve emotional condition and life, I must think different thoughts.
I once wondered why I was depressed. Someone explained to me that I was depressed because I was thinking depressing thoughts. This plain cause-and-effect relation had eluded me.
I was thinking depressing thoughts, and believing them because they were mine—I thought myself quite the cleverest person I knew and therefore entirely trustworthy.
The way out of the depression was accepting that I was wrong, that my thoughts were not to be trusted.
Someone said to his sponsor, “I’m unhappy!” The sponsor said, “What if you’re wrong?”
A spiritual writer says we’re happy and we do not know it: we obscure the happiness with clouds of unhappy thoughts.
Quite.