As it says on the CD sleeve for @JewelJK’s great album, “Picking Up The Pieces”, “What we call reality in actuality is our perception of it.” That sounds philosophical, and it is, but also it’s… reality, and it has practical applications.

My friend Sarah told me years ago that she would always think the very best of anything I said or did. That is a wonderful philosophy and a gift of love, and when I learned something when I thought more about it. The key word is ‘think’. You can change your reality in your mind.

In “Buddha In Blue Jeans”, Tai Sheridan says this about feelings: “Your feelings are your heart and gut response to the world. Everything you feel is okay. Feelings can be difficult. Accept your feelings. / Sometimes you can trust them as honest responses to people and events. Sometimes you can’t trust them, they are reactions to people and events. Keep sorting this out.”

Suppose your partner says she’s going to the store and she says, “No, I’ll just go alone. Be right back.” In your mind: “ Whaaaaaaat? She doesn’t want me with her? Is she mad at me? After all, I was just cutting my toenails, nothing important.” Your mood falls into the toilet as she drives away.

That’s a perfectly okay response. It shows you love her. So you try to find a way to think the best of it, and you remember that your birthday is next week – she’s probably going out to buy you a tie or a pair of socks. You have altered your reality and you are happy instead of miserable. Of course, it could also be that she is mad at you. *Your* reality will be the one you choose. If she’s mad at you, work it out when you find out. Why spend a week stewing about it? You might become angry with her for no reason.

Always strive to create love and happiness inwardly and outwardly. Thinking, but not over-thinking, is good; worry is bad. You create your own reality and it is always valid, even if you have to stretch to believe it. So stretch.!