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I’m a firm believer in the idea of mind over matter. The idea of mind over matter, in a nutshell, means that the power of each individual’s will (the mind) is greater than that of the world around them (the matter). Through the use of will, the thinking goes that one can change the world around them in very real and powerful ways. This idea is the premise behind such phrases as “if you wish and wish, it’ll happen” and “if you tell yourself something long enough, it becomes true”.

The problem is, most of us allow the world around us to dictate our mood, our feelings, and often times, our actions. And while this is completely normal, and in many cases unavoidable, it is also not always necessary. Realistically, the world does dictate much to us and we are often at it’s mercy. For instance, if you have a job, and you need money, you have to go to work. Or if you need food, you have to go to the grocery store. These types of situations are not the ones I’m really referring to when I talk about mind over matter. There are some who do think these, and other, aspects of life are under the control of will. But I’ll talk about on another day.

For now, I’m talking about more personal aspects of life. The way you feel on a given day. The wall you feel in general. Your mood… the outlook you have on life… these types of things. They are completely under our control, no matter how much we think the world has to do with them. You know the saying “if life gives you lemons, make lemonade”… that’s what I’m talking about. Now some people might argue that this isn’t so much a mind over matter issue as much as simply having a positive outlook. But I can tell you from personal experience that a positive outlook isn’t always enough. Sometimes you have to will that out of yourself. Sometimes the most positive outlook can be seemingly shattered by events that the world throws our way.

No matter what the world throws our way, remember that it’s up to us to decide how we react to it. Every single situation that we step into has more than one course of response. Every one of them. There are no exceptions. And it’s in that moment that we have to use that will to make us respond and react in the best possible way. There are poor reactions, and there are not so poor reactions to any circumstance. Some people perpetually react poorly to their circumstances. These people are usually very unhappy people. A quote from a great show seems fitting here: “you live from self induced crisis to self induced crisis”. And there are a lot of people that do live that way. Very few moments in our lives can be considered an actual crisis. More often than not, it is the way we respond to something that creates a crisis. While we can’t avoid the real crisises, we can avoid the “self induced crisis” and that’s my point to all of this.

This post is more of a reminder to myself than anything else, so I’m going to talk to myself now:

Hey… you… look back at the choices you’ve made. Look at how you responded to this situation or that one… and how that response affected you and the world around you. Then decide: is that a response I want to make again? If the answer is no, then will that response out of your option pool. And when a situation presents itself that makes you want to resurrect that poor response, will that dead reaction right back into the ground. And try something else… something different… something that will lead you to a better outcome.

There’s a reason “they” tell us to make lemonade… you know… when life gives us lemons…