The Power of Mind Over Matter - Practicing This Mindset to Change Your Life

Take a second and think about a time that you were frustrated, annoyed, mad, or had any negative emotion towards someone, something, or a situation. Now imagine that you never had to feel those emotions again. I know you think I'm crazy for even suggesting such an idea, but I promise, it's possible! Your mind is a powerful place, but guess what? You control its power! If you want to change your mindset, attitude, and perspective, you can do it in the 5 minutes it takes you to read this post; all you need to do is open your mind to the fact that it's possible.

For as long as I can remember, anytime I was feeling a negative emotion, my dad would tell me "Mind over matter." I never understood what he meant, or more so, I never believed what he said. For those of you who may have never heard of the phrase mind over matter, it's basically the idea that you can control what emotions you feel; the practice of experiencing a negative emotion towards something and choosing to change it to something positive, to move past the situation or to change the thought process behind why you have the negative emotions. Five years ago, my dad died and it seems like almost immediately after that, the philosophy on life that he always tried to teach me, made sense. Up until that point, I thought that I couldn't control how I felt. If I got mad, I would stay mad, and that's just how it was. Even worse, in certain situations, in response to his "Mind over matter" comment, I would reply, "I don't care, I WANT to be mad, I LIKE being mad." Of course, this was during my teenager years so that didn't help, but I truly liked the feeling of being annoyed or angry at a situation because I thought it deserved the emotion or aggression. I can remember countless times sitting in the backseat of the car being mad at the world, and him trying to tell me to just let it go and be happy, and I genuinely didn't think I could and I didn't want to. I don't think I realized this at the time, but I feel like I was staying mad, just to spite the idea of mind over matter. When my dad died, subconsciously I think I felt like I should really try to adopt this philosophy for myself because he lived by it (and it worked wonders for him) but the actual understanding of it, and seemingly, the ability to control my emotions came instintaneously; although I had the power to do it all along, I just didn't believe I could.

With all that being said, here is my challenge for you. Next time you feel impatient, angry, or even disappointed, try to reach within yourself and choose to be happy. It can only be of benefit to you. You will be in a better mood which will lead to a more productive day and you will not give the person or situation the power to control you, you have the power to control you. As the cliche goes, you don't have the power to control what happens to you, but you do have the power to control how you react to what's out of your control. When put in a negative situation, your intitial emotion will be involuntary, but once you realize and accept that emotion, you can choose to change that frustration to joy. Tell yourself that this crappy thing happened but it doesn't matter, it's in the past, it's not affecting you right now, so there's no need to continue the emotion that stemmed from it. Move on with your day and your mood and you will feel so much better. It is such a freeing moment when you realize this mindset because it will change the way you live and approach your life. I encourage you to spread this to everyone whose path you cross because maybe, just maybe, we can create a more friendly, patient, and positive society.

That's all for this post, I hope I made your day! Thanks for reading,

Gabriella