Changing a Thought

"Everyone wants a better life; it starts in the heart and ends there also."
The following paragraph is an excerpt from a book I am reading.  It is written by Christopher Hansard, titled The Tibetan Art of Positive Thinking. 
If you constantly think in a negative way, you shorten your life span.  Relationships become fearful and problems increase.  You lose your ability to discover joy in simple things.  This creates further negativity.  Life becomes complicated.  Negativity adores all thats that are overly complicated.  Complication conceals negativity, keeping it safe from exposure.  You get so caught up in the complications that you lose sight of the underlying negativity that is creating the problems.
I had a change of thought yesterday.  I would like to share it with you.  The pastor at the church where I play piano said last Sunday, "I don't drink alcohol anymore because I can't just stop at one.  Most people cannot simply stop at one.  You need another, and then another, and then another.  Before you know it, you are drunk.  And that is when it has become sin.  So I choose not to drink because I know my limitations."  I thought to myself, "Well, I can have just one drink and be satisfied.  I don't drink to get drunk, and when I did get drunk, it was on purpose.  I decided a long time ago I don't like to get drunk.  But it's easy for me to stop at one drink.  Why am I stronger than him in that area?"  God enlightened me yesterday while I was thinking about his words and my responsive thoughts.  "Tammy, that is his weakness.  It is not your weakness.  Your weakness is food.  You get drunk with food.  That is the way you drown your negative thoughts.  But it is the same strength.  The strength you use to avoid drunkenness is the same strength he uses to avoid being a glutton."  I thought to myself, "Ah!  I already have the strength!  I just need to utilize it in eating as well as in drinking.  It's no different.  I drink to enjoy it, not to abuse it or abuse myself.  So should I eat to enjoy, not to abuse it or to abuse myself."  It was a liberating change of thought.  I already have the strength.  Changing the way I view food is not an impossibility.  It is a complete possibility, and I already have the tools to do it with.  So today, I ate well.  I ate with heart, and I enjoyed every bite of it.  But I did not overdo it, I did not stuff myself, eat mindlessly or selfishly.  I ate til I was satisfied, and it was a far more delicious feeling than having stuffed myself to the gills.  I, Tammy Marie, am in control of what I eat now.  Food no longer controls me.  YES!!!