Let’s face it: trying to think, feel, stay, and be positive during normal times is challenging enough.

But during times of collective crisis, it’s more important than ever.

Why? Because we are all interconnected at the very essence of our seemingly physical, material world.

Every single one of us contributes to the energy of the whole.

And energy attracts more energy. Think of gravity, magnets, etc. When there is a charge built up, it becomes ‘magnetic’ and becomes a tremendous force.

Think about - it’s just a few weeks, we’ve banded together and inadvertently shown how we can contribute to lessening carbon emissions and potentially regenerate precious parts of our ecosystem that are otherwise under constant strain.

And so having the ability to master our individual thoughts and emotions is critical to contributing to a collective state of being.

So I want to shed a different perspective on the whole topic and provide practical tips to foster a more constructive way of engaging with your thoughts and emotions by understanding and mastering the spectrum of positive and negative that they can fall on.

Before we dive in, I want to acknowledge that there are so many people I have learned from over the years - more than I can mention - but here are some of the main ones who have contributed to me developing my own practice of mastering thoughts and emotions and who have influenced this article. I've also linked to some of their books below: Esther (Abraham) Hicks, Dr. John Demartini, Dr Joe Dispenza, Dr. Candace Pert (Molecules of Emotion), Bruce Lipton (Biology of Belief).

So how do we do it?

First, it’s important to understand that our thoughts (and beliefs - which are thoughts we’ve habitually thought about) influence our emotions.

And the emotion is the result of how aligned or not we are with our True Nature of Infinite Potential. Irrespective of your beliefs about religion and spirituality, there is a Higher Aspect to all of us, which when we are tuned in, tapped in, and turned on to it, we access the infinite potentials that exist when Being that, and very simply speaking, we feel good.

When we are not aligned with that aspect of ourselves, we do not feel good.

So our emotions form part of a built-in guidance system that signals to us - at all times - how aligned or not we are with our true potential, which is pretty amazing.

But here’s the kicker - energy begets energy of its same kind - so if we do not master our thoughts and emotions, they begin to attract thoughts and result in emotions of the same kind and it becomes extremely hard to break free from that forcefield.

And if you consider this on a collective scale it’s imperative that we use this global crisis as an opportunity to learn how to master our thoughts and emotions; otherwise, we could potentially contribute to our own demise.

Here are practical steps you can use to begin mastering your thoughts and emotions and cultivate a healthy, positive, creative, mindset and state of Being:

Catch yourself as soon as you think and/or feel bad.
Identify or name the feeling - is it doubt, fear, panic, regret, etc.
Acknowledge yourself for stopping it in its tracks (instead of judging yourself)
Identify words/tendencies you’ve used to generalize, sensationalize, distort, or delete facts
Immediately find the very next thought that is both true, and fosters a better emotion
Continue on this ‘track of better thoughts’ until you genuinely feel better - even if you have to go from despair to anger - there is more constructive energy there, so don’t try to ‘fake it’ - genuinely find the thoughts and feelings that will make you feel better.

It’s important that you don’t try to jump to a thought that is unrealistic for where you are right now and don’t believe is possible or true
If you come across a thought that doesn’t feel true or make you feel better, change it and go back a little to something that is potentially more general and within ‘reach’ of what does feel true and possible and better and continue until you have self-soothed yourself into a better feeling state.

For example, if you find yourself feeling despair because you start to think that you’re not going to be able to pay your next bill, the very next true thought that makes you feel better might be one of anger that this is all happening. Allow that. Anger may have more constructive energy than despair for you in that moment and that's ok.

Sometimes if you try to reach too far for thoughts and feelings that are not true for you at that moment, it won't feel good or better. Anger might not be ideal, but if it's better than despair, allow it.

However, you don’t have to stop there. Simply, continue to find the next true thoughts that make you feel better.

Some examples might be: “I’m not alone in this. There are people who are working on the situation and have the intention of helping. I may not have everything I really want right now, but I have enough of what I need. This is not permanent. There are lots of things I can do right now. There are things I can do right now that I actually couldn’t do before….”

Obviously, each of us will have different sounding "self-soothing" based on what is actually true for us.

Use this opportunity to begin a practice of self-soothing and mastery over the very things that we cannot escape no matter where we are or what we are going through - our thoughts and emotions.

Here are some of the books that I refer to regularly that have greatly assisted me and will outline many of these as well as many other techniques in more detail:

These are not affiliate links:

The Astonishing Power of Emotions: Let Your Feelings Be Your Guide (Law of Attraction Book 4) By Esther/Abraham Hicks

The Biology of Belief By Bruce Lipton

Molecules of Emotion: Why You Feel the Way You Feel By Candace Pert

The Values Factor: The Secret to Creating an Inspired and Fulfilling Life By Dr. John Demartini

What are some of your favorite books and resources on this topic?

Share, contribute, and stay well!