Our thoughts really do create our lives. They've done a lot of

Hear the words of Alana Stewart, clear and radiant with conviction: “Our thoughts really do create our lives. They’ve done a lot of research showing if you’re an optimistic, positive person you will be a healthier person than if you’re a sad, depressed, negative person.” In this saying is revealed the ancient wisdom that the mind is not a mere servant of the body but its ruler, shaping not only how we perceive the world but how we endure within it. The thoughts we cultivate are the seeds from which our destinies grow.

To say that our thoughts create our lives is to acknowledge the power of the inner world. A person may walk the same road as another, yet one finds despair in every shadow while the other sees opportunity in every ray of light. Science, as Stewart notes, confirms what sages have always taught: that joy, hope, and resilience strengthen the body itself, while bitterness and despair corrode it. Thus, optimism is not naïve—it is a medicine, flowing invisibly through the spirit and the flesh alike.

The ancients spoke of this with reverence. Marcus Aurelius, emperor and Stoic philosopher, declared: “The soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts.” In his reign, burdened with war and plague, he did not yield to despair but turned inward, shaping his mind as a fortress of calm. Though surrounded by turmoil, he lived as proof of the truth Stewart repeats: to guard one’s thoughts is to guard one’s life.

History, too, gives us luminous examples. Viktor Frankl, imprisoned in the Nazi concentration camps, endured horrors beyond measure. Yet in his book Man’s Search for Meaning, he testified that those who clung to hope, even in the darkest night, lived longer and stood stronger than those who surrendered to despair. His own survival came not from strength of body alone, but from the flame of optimistic thought—the belief that life, even in suffering, held meaning. This was not fantasy, but the deepest form of truth.

The teaching is clear: if you fill your mind with sadness, negativity, and despair, your body will mirror it—growing weary, sick, and broken. But if you nourish yourself with positive thoughts, even in hardship, you call forth resilience, strength, and healing. This does not mean denying pain, but rather refusing to let pain become your master. To think with hope is to open a door for possibility; to think with despair is to shut it.

What, then, shall we do? Each day, guard your mind as you would guard a temple. Do not allow it to be polluted with bitterness or envy. Practice gratitude, for it shifts the soul from emptiness to abundance. Seek company that uplifts you, for thoughts are contagious. When sadness comes—and it will—meet it with compassion, but do not let it take root. Replace it with affirmations of life, with small acts of joy, with the steady habit of choosing hope.

Thus let Stewart’s words be carved into memory: our thoughts create our lives. They shape the body, guide the heart, and determine the very quality of our days. Choose them wisely, as a farmer chooses the seeds for his field, for from them grows either the harvest of health and joy, or the weeds of despair. And if we train ourselves to choose well, we may walk through this life not only as survivors, but as creators of light, carrying strength within us that no darkness can extinguish.