Managing our thoughts

By Engr. Carlos V. Cornejo

Our thoughts are powerful because they dictate our actions.  Whatever is that action that we have done in the past, it did not happen by itself, but was thought out beforehand.  It is therefore important to guard our thoughts because it is the control tower of our actions.  In other words, our thoughts control our life.  If we think of evil thoughts, evil actions come about.  If we think of good thoughts, good actions follow.  And actions later on define us or would tell the world who we really are, as famous saying of Ralph Waldo Emerson goes, “Sow a thought and you reap an action; sow an act and you reap a habit; sow a habit and you reap a character; sow a character and you reap a destiny.”

In other words, our destiny is tied directly to our thoughts.  And that destiny starts here on Earth and ends up in the next world which has only two destinations:  Heaven or Hell (Purgatory is part of Heaven or is Heaven delayed).  In other words, our thoughts are the battleground for sin.  That’s how important our thoughts are. It could dictate where we will go in the next life.

The battle against sin is not fought outside of us or in our environment but ultimately in our mind.  Our environment or upbringing can make us prone to sin but in the end, it is our mind and heart that makes the decision to sin.  You can be surrounded with drug addicts in your neighborhood but if you decide not to be like them, you will not become like them.  That’s the power of choice and it all starts and ends in our mind.

Bo Sanchez has a wise saying on guarding our thoughts, he said, “Whatever is always in the mind, it becomes bigger.”  That thought might be someone who had hurt us with his words, although it was just a joke and was not really a big deal.  But if you keep that thought of how it hurt you always in your mind, you could blow it out of proportion, and you end up exacting revenge on that fellow, and the end result might be something you will regret later on for the rest of your life.  We encounter so many of these in the news of people holding a grudge, and end up murdering the person who hurt them. But if you examine what they were hurt of, it was just a small matter.  Their ego and their lack of habit of being able to forgive and of letting go of small hurts got the best of them.  As Richard Carlson would say in his book of the same title, “Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff” or don’t make a mountain (big problem) out of a molehill (small problem).

So, what should we think about? St. Paul gives us an answer in his letter to the Philippians, “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”  (Phil 4:8) In other words St. Paul is telling us to think of virtues and values so that our thoughts will only bear good fruits.  But there’s just one problem, thinking about virtues and values is not something we do automatically.  It can only be a product of years of effort.  And that effort is what we call formation or feeding our mind with good knowledge or what we call wisdom.  Wisdom is knowledge about values.  And wisdom is derived from reading of Scriptures, self-help books, spiritual books, attending values seminars, retreats, recollections, etc.  Our mind needs formation in the same way as our body needs the right food in order to be healthy.  So, instead of wasting our time accessing useless and senseless videos and images in the social media and in the internet, we will much better off in life (happier, wiser and more successful) if we start focusing on reading Scripture and self-help books.