Each person is more susceptible to certain kind of thoughts than others. Certain thoughts and ideas we ignore, and others spur us to immediate action. Thoughts concerning subjects we love have more power on us than other thoughts, but even thoughts and ideas that we don’t care about, if we are frequently exposed to them, eventually sink into subconscious mind and influence us.

Everyone has desires, ambitions and dreams that he or she may foster from childhood. They may be thoughts of parents, teachers and friends, and which have lodged into our minds, and are carried around throughout our lives. Are they necessary? Do we need all this excessive baggage?

In order to reduce power of outside influences and thoughts on your life, you need to be aware of thoughts and desires that enter your mind, and ask yourself whether you really like them, and are willing to accept them into your life. Analyze your motives and actions, and you will be surprised to find out that many of them were triggered by outside influences.

You do not have to accept each and every thought, idea or information. Think and find out whether you entertain certain thoughts because you decided to do so, or because they just popped into your head due to outside influences.

Learn not to accept every thought that you encounter. Find first whether it is for your own good to follow it. It may not be so easy at start, because mind will revolt against this control. If you want to be master of your mind and life, you should not let other people’s thoughts, desires and motives rule your life, unless you consciously choose so.

Remez Sasson writes and teaches about spiritual growth, meditation, positive thinking, creative visualization and mind power, and issues a biweekly ezine, "Consciousness and Success". He is the author of two books, "Will power and Self-Discipline" and "Visualize and Achieve".

I believe that we come into this life with a specific purpose and that part of bringing that purpose to fruition is to undergo certain experiences or life lessons. I also have a theory that first half of our life is about learning our lessons and second half is about putting that knowledge into practice in service of others (fulfilling our life purpose, if you will).

Does whatever is happening feel familiar? Can you remember other times in your past when you felt this same way? What pattern do you recognize? If there is a sense of familiarity around what is going on, then it is very likely a life lesson. This is a definite opportunity to learn lesson once and for all, since life lessons tend to keep presenting themselves to us so that we may learn them.

Feel calmer? Take inventory. What do you need in order to complete this lesson? Sometimes, awareness of pattern or life lesson is all we need to break cycle. Sometimes we need to take concrete action or develop and build skills to strengthen ourselves or an area of our life. There are times when we just need to understand that experience is linked to our life purpose, that by having that experience we will be better prepared to more effectively fulfill our life purpose. If that is where you are, then figure out how to start expressing your life purpose.

5. Where do you need to take action?

Are there a number of people pushing your buttons? What is common thread on what is going on? Recently, a client had 6 different situations that were bringing him down. We started by discussing each one, but pretty soon a pattern of feeling not in control and not respected started emerging. We looked at his life and identified a major area where he was feeling frustrated and it was causing him to lose self-respect. He realized that this was real area that needed to be addressed. The primary difference between this and a recurring life lesson is time element. All of situations are concentrated now, not spread out over a lifetime.

Feel calmer? Identify what action you are going to take and when. Then do it. Also, write one postcard to all individuals who were pointing out situation to you following guidelines above.

6. How does this serve you?

Sometimes a difficult situation that drives us mental provides us with an unseen payoff. For example, a client was frustrated because her daughter and new husband often seemed to be at loggerheads, fighting over spending time with her. As we examined this, she realized that benefit she was experiencing was to feel special because they were fighting over her. In fact, she was able to accept that she was creating situation in order to feel special. (That is enlightened aspect we talked about earlier).

Feel calmer? A postcard is in order here, thanking individuals involved and releasing them from their contract. Identify other ways to get that same feeling.

I hope you find this helpful. As a final note, I wanted to mention that emotional response tends to be different than feeling in that feeling is current. It exists in present and unites you to present. Emotional reaction appears to be triggered by a present event, but in fact is seldom related to present. It usually has a lot more to do with past or future, and contains a sense of powerlessness.