Paying attention

Lately it has been apparent to me that
it is so important to pay attention to the
thoughts that we entertain. Sometimes I
realize I am on a negative rant and all of
a sudden I am not feeling so good. Not happy.
Then I look at what I have been thinking and
I can see right away what happened. I catch
myself in the negative spin much sooner than
I used to, but still I can be in that spin for thirty
minutes before I realize what I am doing. I want
to get better at this :-). It is true there was a time
when I could be spinning downward for a couple
of days before I would catch myself, so there has
been much improvement. However, I wonder how
much lovelier my life would be if I caught those
suckers right as they were coming into my mind.
Is it even possible to do that? I think it is, but it
takes a high level of awareness, no more running
on auto pilot. It is one of my many goals for the
new year. What if we all attempted to do this?
How different would our world be?