Whether we know it or not, we each have a box within our mind where we stuff away some of our thoughts, ideas, dreams, fears, and prejudices. We started when we were young, not even aware of doing it. It could have been something like your fear of water, or an old saying such as “if you step on a crack, you break your mother’s back,” or the idea that you’re not successful unless you are rich, or the belief that you’ll never amount to anything, or the dream of becoming a doctor despite coming from a low-income family, or so many other things. Those thoughts or ideas we unwittingly hold onto and have held close have influenced our way of living.

Do you believe your hopes and dreams cannot become real, so it is best not to bring them out of your box? Do you feel your prejudices are the only way to think? Have you allowed whatever you have put into your box to stay there without thought or review, or are they stuck there because you are unwilling to see them differently?

Maybe it is time you look inside your box to see what you have placed inside and whether any of them are worth keeping. Time sheds new light and perspective on our life experiences, so those beliefs, prejudices, hopes, and dreams may not be the same today as when you put them inside…yet they remain there.

Sometimes, it takes courage to look inside your box. Most humans don’t like change, nor do we like to be wrong about anything. We’ll fight to the end to prove our thoughts are the only way for people to think or act.

Once you take the leap and open your box, you may be surprised that it contains more negative than positive ideas and beliefs. When you consider each thought or belief, you must evaluate whether those destructive ones have become a part of who you are. This review can be painful, but when you study them, you will realize that the negative ones are based on fear, and by exposing them as that, they lose their fearfulness and power.

By exploring your box, you can tell how you live your life. Do you live like the glass is half-empty or half-full? By releasing some of what you have stuffed into your thought box that no longer serves you, you will find yourself feeling freer and less burdened in your everyday living.

This is a crucial time in our history when every thought matters. It has become so easy to blame everyone and everything for anything negative in our lives that we feel we have no power over how we live. We have forgotten that it is us alone that creates how we live. Our life is nothing more or less than a chain of our choices. Knowing this, it’s a time to get out a broom, open your mind box, sweep out what no longer suits you, and live the way you want with love, peace, gratitude, and happiness.

JOAN S. PECK is an editor and author of short stories, spiritual books, and novels and a contributing author in several anthologies. She served as former Editor in Chief for Chic Compass magazine, an international magazine based in Las Vegas.

Joan is a writer of both non-fiction and fiction books. She first began writing in 2008 as an author of spiritual non-fiction books. Prime Threat Shattering the Power of Addiction, written with her son after his death in 2005, won a Top Shelf Book Award Nominee.

Nine years later, she published her first fiction books under the pen name J.S. Peck and won a Top Pick for Spirited Woman for Death on the Strip, the first book of her six-book mystery Death Card Series. Through her strong, likable characters, Joan has become known for expressing addiction and human sex trafficking concerns throughout her fiction books. She has an extraordinary writing ability filled with humor and tenderness that brings readers into each book’s storyline, holding them hostage until the end.

Her books are available on all book sites, and her website (Writing with Soul) – www.JoanSPeck.com

With so much happening in the world today, people are questioning life as we know it and their role in it. It is impossible to ignore how many people verbalize and ask, “What is my purpose?” They want to know why they are here. Many are floundering and feeling at odds with being at peace with themselves, believing they have missed the mark.

For those who know me, my quick response to what I believe our purpose is—“To love. Love is the most important thing.”

Although I believe my response is the most meaningful, I learned something the other day that put a whole new perspective on finding purpose in life and how it can help others find theirs more definitively.

A dear friend of mine shares a house with her son, his wife, and two children. They share some of the chores and cooking. It is lovely for all of them and has worked out exceptionally well. Since it was her night to cook, we had to stop our conversation, and she ended it by saying, “It’s nice to have purpose.”

I thought about what she’d said and realized how out of whack most of us view the meaning of purpose. We are trained by society to believe in excessive terms when we define our purpose and our role in life.

My friend has a regular 9 to 5 job, and cooking dinner several times a week is just one of many things she does at home and in the larger world. Her idea that cooking gave her purpose made me look at the concept differently and more straightforwardly.

It means that as a writer of novels, I don’t have to be a best-seller to have meaning and a sense of accomplishment. Another friend, who earns more than six figures a year and feels he has failed because he hasn’t made $1 million, doesn’t have to reach that goal to have a sense of accomplishment. Have we reached the point where we think having a purpose means an extraordinary achievement? If so, does that mean anything less doesn’t count?

We know better than that. It’s the daily accomplishments that give us purpose in being. Beyond that, it’s a sense of gratitude for accomplishing those small tasks that bring us joy and a sense of purpose.

I have found myself amazed by some of the seniors I come in contact with and hear their stories about their life, bringing them to where they are today. We each accomplish so much in our way. It has made me wonder if our true purpose in life is to be open to the opportunities that come our way and, like the many seniors who feel fulfilled, treat those experiences as if it was like catching the brass ring on the merry-go-round of life. Then, maybe, our purpose is simply to enjoy life. What do you think?