Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life – My Journey to a Healthier Mindset

We all know life can feel unpredictable, sometimes even unfair. But after everything I’ve lived through, cancer treatments, losing my mom far too early, broken bones, heartbreak, and most recently a torn Achilles that has sidelined a trip to Italy, I can honestly say this: life is what you make it.

The way we respond to life’s twists and turns is the one thing we can fully control. Our thoughts create our reality more than we realize, and learning to harness that truth has been one of the most freeing lessons of my life.

How Our Thoughts Shape Our Days

Most of us don’t realize how often our inner dialogue runs on autopilot, and often in a negative loop. A worry about a doctor’s appointment turns into stress about “what if.” That stress sneaks into our mornings, follows us through the day, and by night, we feel drained and discouraged.

The good news is we can interrupt that cycle. When your mind wanders to “what if it goes wrong,” try replacing it with “I am healthy” or “everything will work out in my favor.” When you dread going to work, reframe it to: “I’m grateful for the skills this job lets me use,” or start envisioning yourself thriving in the career you truly want.

It’s not just wishful thinking; science backs it up. Dr. Joe Dispenza, who writes about the link between the brain and the body, says, “The brain doesn’t know the difference between imagination and reality.” So when you repeatedly picture yourself succeeding or healing, your mind and body start to follow that path.

My Personal Connection to Nature and Faith

Everyone finds their inner calm differently: some meditate, some paint, some cook, and some hike. For me, it’s being in nature, lakes, trails, or even a quiet dock.

One afternoon, after a yoga session on a dock at Megunticook Lake in Maine, I sat with my coffee and allowed my thoughts to wander. That’s when it really hit me: we have a spark inside us, the intuition, the wisdom, the quiet guidance, and we have the choice to listen or drown it out.

Megunticook Lake, Maine – Yoga, Moment in my Mind

Teachers Who Helped Me Shift My Mindset

Not long ago, I had dinner with a dear friend I’ve known for nearly nine years. We’ve crossed paths off and on over the years, but this time she seemed… transformed. There was a calm confidence about her, a quiet glow that felt almost magnetic.

She shared how she’d been working on her mindset, re-training her thoughts, staying consistent with meditation, and leaning into gratitude. Her life has begun unfolding like her own version of a fairytale: opportunities falling into place, meaningful relationships deepening, her goals no longer feeling out of reach.

That night, she passed along some of the tools that helped her most, recommending authors like Abraham Hicks, Napoleon Hill, Joe Dispenza, and Neville Goddard. I went home curious and started diving into their books, YouTube talks, and audio clips. I was surprised how deeply the information reached me, and was eager to try and put it to work and learn more. Authors I enjoyed listening to were: 

One line from Napoleon Hill stuck with me: “Your mental attitude is the only thing you have complete and unchallengeable control over. You can control it if you wish. That truth will either set you free or offend your excuses.”

I love that because it’s simple and bold; what we believe, we eventually live out.

Because what you believe, you will become. What you think about, you attract” (e.g., Napoleon Hill)

Practicing “Cosmic Housekeeping”

Hill also talked about doing a little “cosmic housekeeping”, catching your mind when it drifts to fear, worry, resentment, or envy, and stopping it like you’d stop an unwanted guest at the door. Replace it with gratitude, faith, or empowering thoughts.

It sounds small, but this shift in inner dialogue can change the way you handle stress and even how you interact with the people around you.

Write It Down and Picture It

Journaling and vision-boarding have become my favorite tools:

  • Want to meet the right partner? Write down the qualities you’re looking for and picture yourself sharing life with them.
  • Dreaming of a better job? Write what it looks like and how it feels to thrive in that role.
  • Want financial breathing room? Imagine what that comfort feels like, how your day flows when you’re not worried about bills.

Putting pen to paper makes your goals tangible, and picturing the emotions attached to them helps them feel real.

Fuel Your Body and Mind

Our mindset isn’t just in our heads, our bodies set the tone, too. I’m a big believer in staying hydrated (well, I’m trying) and eating foods that help your brain and gut function well. I recently introduced a friend to the Yuka app, which scores foods 0-100 for their ingredients. Simply swapping an item that scored 5 for one that scored 45 helped his digestion clear up, proof that small changes add up. We can do better, baby step by baby step. Reducing processed foods, sodas, and sugar while adding more wholesome options can make your brain less foggy and your moods steadier. I know it’s easier said than done, but perhaps knowing will help us to make small, better choices daily.

I enjoy Dr. Dispenza’s discussion regarding stress. Dr. Dispenza says, “Stress is when your brain and body are not in balance.” This stress shows up physically in ourselves because “the body can’t tell the difference between a thought-driven worry and a real threat.” So you stay tense with shallow breathing. “Hormones of stress are addictive, and we can become addicted to our own thoughts. And it’s a scientifically proven fact that long-term effects of the hormones of stress push the genetic buttons and create disease. So if you can turn on the stress response just by thought alone, then it makes sense that your thoughts can literally make you sick.” In theory,  that would also mean if your thoughts can potentially make you sick, shouldn’t they also be able to make you healthy? That is the test. And I think it’s worth practicing to try and find out. 

Finding daily rituals that ease my mind: morning stillness, a nature walk, reading, prayer, or even just sipping coffee on the porch. These small moments help balance the body’s stress response.

Choose the Right People and the Right Inputs

The voices and habits we surround ourselves with matter just as much as our own thoughts. If you spend your time with people who constantly complain, gossip, or expect the worst, those patterns quietly seep into your thinking, even if you don’t realize it.

As Napoleon Hill wrote in Think and Grow Rich:

“Every man is what he is because of the dominating thoughts which he permits to occupy his mind… those thoughts can bring him success or failure, peace or turmoil, happiness or misery.”

This is why the people you surround yourself with, and the conversations you allow into your daily life, matter so much. Positive voices encourage growth and calm. Negative voices, or even habits like doom-scrolling the news, can steer your thoughts toward fear and worry.

Habits are just as powerful as the company you keep. Little daily choices, what you read or watch, whether you take a walk or stay glued to your phone, how often you pause to breathe and reset, all shape your inner state. Replace one draining habit (like late-night scrolling) with one that lifts you (like a quiet evening walk or ten minutes of stillness before bed). Over time, those small swaps can completely shift your energy.

Charleston on Yacht Fate – happiness with my friends

Resilience Through Hard Seasons

I won’t sugar-coat it; life still throws curveballs. Last year, I broke my tailbone just one week before heading to France. This month, I tore my Achilles and now face surgery and a long recovery. It has forced me to cancel fundraisers, weekends with friends, and even my long-planned Italy trip with three of my best friends. 

Torn Achilles – Down, but not Out

But I’ve learned to trust that there’s often a reason for delays and detours. Maybe staying home positions me to help someone who needs me here. Maybe skipping that flight kept me safe.

I’ve realized that every setback has taught me something invaluable and often led to unexpected blessings. Each challenge, in its own way, left me stronger and, many times, happier than before.

As Napoleon Hill said, “Faith is the only antidote to fear.” I remind myself of that when life feels uncertain. I trust that once the storm passes, I’ll return to those moments of feeling whole, and I’ll keep striving to create more of those moments in between life’s challenges. In this blog, I am sharing some photos that truly remind me of the happiness and peace I experienced during those moments. I am forever grateful for those, and want to share them with you all. Not to boast or brag, but to say, I have challenges too. It seems to be quite often, actually, but now I see how some of these perhaps I have created by thinking too negatively, or some have just happened, and I must accept that it is all for a reason. Trust the process. 

Ringing the bell – Beating Cancer

Abraham Hicks captured it perfectly: “Many of your journeys, like from not enough money to enough money, or a sick body to a well body… You don’t let yourself feel optimistic until you get to where you think you want to be, but you can’t get to where you want to be until you are first optimistic.”

Practicing a different mindset is a daily challenge for me. But sharing what I’ve learned, and what I’m still working on, leaves me hopeful that as I’m learning and growing, you can do the same. Helping you begin to shift your own thoughts and move toward the life you want, as I do the same.

Simple Practices to Try Today

  1. Morning Stillness: Spend your first 20 minutes in quiet reflection or meditation.
  2. Interrupt Negative Loops: When your mind drifts to “what if,” switch to gratitude or a positive reframe.
  3. Nourish Your Body: Hydrate and choose foods that fuel energy and clarity.
  4. Protect Your Energy: Limit time with chronic complainers.
  5. Visualize Daily: See yourself in the job, relationship, or state of health you desire.
  6. Prioritize Wisely: Breathe before tackling to-do lists. Ask: what’s worth my energy and what can wait or be delegated?

Closing Thoughts

We can’t control every circumstance, but we can control our mental attitude, and that changes everything. The better we treat our minds, our bodies, and the people around us, the more peace and opportunity flow into our lives.

I’m still learning every day, often the hard way, but I know this much: we hold more power over our happiness than we realize. 

With love and peace,
Tiffany

P.S. Want to learn more? Check out some of the videos a friend shared with me, and I would like to also share them with you. 

Napoleon Hill: How to develop an unbreakable positive mental attitude; 17 Principles of success

Neville Goddard: Manifest your desires

Joe Dispensa: How to rewire your brain in minutes 

Bashar Darryl: Simple ways to master emotions; Unlock the power of now

Abraham Hicks:  https://youtu.be/nzjf5ojVNPE; How to let life be easy; Good things arrive when you stop chasing; Pay attention, the universe warns you

Wayne Dyer: God Isn’t Somewhere Else — God Is the Energy Inside You – Wayne Dyer

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