Our mind can do incredible things. It is a well-known fact. Our mind can determine the kind of day we’d have, it can hold information, and it can do so much more. However, our minds can also do some no so pleasant things. Our mind can sometimes wander into not so happy places. Often, our minds can go to a harsh place – thoughts and feelings – that are full of criticism and doubt. These are the times in which we need to put our mind in check and remind ourselves that feeling or thinking something doesn’t make them true.

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The world constantly tells us to “listen to our feelings,” but, sometimes this saying can be dangerous. The reason for that is that often our feelings can be untrue. Our feelings are sensations that are responding to so many things: our thoughts, our fears, our experiences, our anxieties, other people’s expectations, what we ate, or how we moved that day. So when your thoughts are running wild, and you’re trying to get to the bottom of your deepest, darkest emotions to unravel and unpack them and try to find an answer, what you need to know first is that feeling something does not make it true.

You can feel that you are worthless, that doesn’t make it true. You can feel that someone dislikes you, that doesn’t make it true. You can feel that you are a genius, that doesn’t make it true. You can feel that you’re falling behind and you’re the least successful person you know, that doesn’t make it true. You have to be able to separate your feelings from reality, because if you start losing touch with reality, your emotions become reality, and that’s a dangerous place to be. Our minds can tell us many things and guide us in many different directions. And, through it all, we must remember that just because we think or feel something, doesn’t make it true. So, when your thoughts are running wild, remind yourself of the reality. It is usually much different.