When I was a child sometimes people would say, “you think too much”. Such a funny thing to tell a child, especially a child like me. I was very imaginative, but I was also very busy, always busy, creating something or going somewhere to do something.

I always had an awareness that there was power in thoughts, because happy thoughts can make you feel good and sad or negative thoughts can make you feel down or tired. It was difficult for me to turn off my thoughts, causing me to have a long struggle with insomnia. For that reason I turned to prayer and visualization late at night when I couldn’t sleep. However, it would not be until many years later that I would learn about focusing my thoughts into action, and about calming my mind, actually I’m still learning about that.

After leaving home I had other interesting experiences with the power of thoughts. Often when the phone would ring I would know who it was ahead of time, especially if it was my Mom or someone I was close to. One time I even decided to “will” my mother to call me because I needed to talk to her but I didn’t know the number for where she was staying. Within several hours she called me.

During another period of my life I was sharing a house with 3 Japanese girls who knew very little English and had just come to live in the USA. It was kind of my job to help them acclimate and learn English, but my knowledge of Japanese was zero. Sometimes however, they would be speaking to each other in Japanese and I would respond to their conversation in English, with correct information or answers. They were always surprised and would ask, “How did you know what we said?”

Prayers are like thoughts too. I have often experienced having my prayers answered. I have been led to books I needed to read, people I needed to talk to, or places I needed to be at a particular moment because I had prayed for a specific type of help. I prayed for a friend who had been trying to conceive a child for 6 years, and a couple months later she was pregnant. I prayed for another friend who was having vision trouble due to diabetes and their problem cleared up within a hours. I’ve had too many of these experiences to write about all of them.

Some people would consider these experiences to be just coincidence, and once someone even told me, “you’re not that powerful”. Okay, I’m not that powerful, but I think that’s mostly because I don’t focus on using my thoughts in these ways. Usually when these things happen it’s because my heart is moved to help someone or to care earnestly about something. When the heart and mind work together, thoughts can be very powerful.

On the other hand I have experienced that my thoughts can be pulled in so many different directions that I become powerless to do anything. I also have experienced being so focused on one thing that I miss or forget something else that’s important. So this week I want to practice focusing my thoughts more carefully on positive and productive things. Of course I should do this for the rest of my life, but I think I’ll just take one day at a time for now.

Just as thoughts will influence our emotions and actions, emotional experiences and activities will also influence our thoughts. The mind, heart and body are like partners performing a dance together, but it takes a lot of practice to make the dance beautiful.