How to Handle Tough Times: Lift Your Spirit

The most powerful force in this universe is a positive thought properly used. Outward circumstances or conditions do not determine what our lives become nearly as much as the thoughts that dominate our minds. No one can ever overcome anything until her thoughts are creative and positive.

Mentally, as you raise your mind above the conflicts you face, your personality will receive help from God in the form of clear thinking, resolute reaching out toward happiness, deeper understanding and renewed strength. When your thoughts are in confusion or you feel depressed, you live in an unreal world, you cannot see your way out.

Here are three ways you can replace confusion and depression with the courage and insight to face your problems and overcome them.

1. Monitor your moods.
These days on the financial websites and in newspapers, there’s often a chart showing stocks going up and or down. Understandably, whenever the graph goes down, people get worried; when it goes up, they’re happy.

Well, everything in this universe moves according to a rhythm. This is true not only of the stock market but also of human moods. A person need not be overly concerned when his mood drops a little; that’s normal. Nor need he be overly elated when his mood rises. That, too, is normal. Our present consideration is when your mood goes down and stays down. That’s when you need real help; you need an answer to the question, "How can I lift my spirit?"

2. Think of the sun.
When you’re discouraged, despairing, or in a time of darkness, never forget that the sun will ultimately shine again; its absence is never permanent. Hang on to your faith, know that soon you will rise into the light again.

There was once an old Scotsman, one of those philosophical characters from whom you can learn a great deal. He said, "The human spirit perishes without the sun. I once sailed on a vessel for three weeks and did not see a crack in the clouds. The crew became morose, gloomy and sick. But I had a secret that kept me up. Every day I would go out when the clouds hung low and do two things. First, I remembered the golden sunlight of days past; second, I thought of the golden sunlight that would come when those clouds had rolled away. Thus, I made my own sunlight. I distilled it in my heart. I manufactured it in my mind. I could feel it warming my bones, entering into the essence of my being."