Nothing dismays you but your thoughts.

Your mind sets you up. It has been set for discouragement or defeat. You can reset the dial of your mind. Set your mind to reconfigure itself with encouragement and delight. Encouragement and delight are your allies. Discouragement repeats itself and holds you back.

When you bake a cake, you have a recipe. You assemble the ingredients. You put them in the bowl in a certain order. You chop and stir and blend. You pour the batter into a pan, and you pop the pan into the oven, and later you take the pan out.

When you prepare a chocolate cake, a chocolate cake comes out of the oven.

When you follow a recipe for a carrot cake, a carrot cake comes out of the oven.

Of course, sometimes a miracle occurs, but generally speaking, the kind of cake you bake is the kind of cake you get.

I compare this baking of your cake to the functioning of your mind. Your mind structures certain ways of thinking, and the results pop out. Your brain waves are accustomed to acting in a certain way. Sometimes your thoughts are like cows who automatically go to the barn. Sometimes your thoughts batter your heart. Then your heart becomes like a horse that never gets to enter the race. Admit, your thoughts are often like reins that hobble you.

At the same time as your mind may set you up, it is determined for certain results to occur. It is as if your mind ties your shoelaces together, and then wonders why it takes you so long to get where it thinks you should be. The mind whips you to go faster at the same time as it cuts you off. And then it berates you.

How many times during the day do you berate yourself?

Do not count. Simply consider. Then reconsider where your mind will pasture.

Could not your mind be a kind owner of its thoughts? Could it not cheer you on? Could it not congratulate you? Could it not call you beautiful and say:

"Look, you have been trudging along. You have been fraught with obstacles before you, and then I have chastised you for coming across them. I told you to look for boulders in your path, and then I blame you for them. I believe I may have badgered you. Unthinking mind am I to cry error when I corralled you to it. Hmm, why can't I, your mind, be nicer to you? I can be kind as well as sharp. I can be on the lookout for you without confining you. I can open up the world for you. I can convince you of anything. Why, then, do I not convince you of opportunity and wonderfulness? Since when did I get to be such a defeatist? I apologize. I have been like a wife who nags. Now I shall be your cheer leader and cherish you. I will no longer barrage you with recrimination. I will set you free upon the world to seek your fortune. I have called enough misfortune to you, while pretending I was your friend. I have disguised golden opportunity, and told you it was danger. I have tripped you up at every corner. I have set traps for you, and then said 'Aha' when you got caught in them.

"From this day forth, I, your mind, will disentangle myself from thoughts of doom. I will let fresh air in. No longer will you be a slave to the thoughts I give you. I will no longer dismay you. I set you free from the past."