You are not your thoughts

You are not your thoughts. People get trapped in this. I got trapped in it, for a long ass time. People think because they have a tendancy towards negative thoughts they are negative, which eventually becomes their whole world.  But there is a process in who we are. We have choice.

Like if one day you are driving down the road, and someone suddenly cuts you off and drives ahead, our natural reaction would be of anger, of indignation, of hate. That is the REACTION, an effect of the cause. Next step is rationalization or observation. We analyze what happened, why it happened (maybe he was late for work or woke up late) and the how we are involved in the situation.

Step 1 and 2 are just reactive states, parts of the mind firing signals. But the real part, the part that really is YOU and really consists of YOUR CHOICE is the next part. You can let that situation control you, (aka you can decide to let that jackoff ruin your whole day and make you in a foul mood) or you can pull up and out of the situation ( deciding that okay maybe he was just late and I happened to be there during his drive) in which you are the master of the situation. So yes you will have reactions, and yes you will analyze things, but the real part of your mind which is really you, is your CHOICES. YOUR ATTITUDE.

My friends and I talked today about self effort vs. divine grace and which really get's the job done on the spiritual path. It's both. Choosing to attune yourself to higher divine qualities (love, compassion, honesty, perseverance) instead of the downward easier choices (anger, selfishness, dishonesty, cowardice) in all situations no matter how hard is your self effort. Choosing to turn towards goodness and deciding to put your energy into bettering yourself and the planet is definite self effort. Divine grace is those divine qualities, so we are meeting grace half way. Divine grace flows when we are aiming our will towards it, when we decide to open ourselves to it. I will consciously work to turn myself to grace over the easier, lesser path. Or as Frost said

Two paths diverged in the woods
And I 
I took the road less traveled by
and that has made all the difference.