Who do you blame for the problems in your life? Is it your boss, your spouse, your parents, your child? Whoever you give the label as being the source of your problems, you're also giving the power to control your life. You're reacting to their behavior and letting it ruin the quality of your life. It's as if you're a puppet and you've given them the power to pull your strings.

Reclaim your power. Take responsibility for your own life. Do this by consciously deciding when and how to behave in a situation instead of responding as if you're on auto-pilot. If you had a problem with your boss, keep it at the office. Don't bring it home with you and obsess about it when you could be focusing on something else – something that would promote your self-growth or just increase your sense of happiness.

If you have a problem at home, keep it at home so you don't create unnecessary problems at work. For example, if you're angry with a spouse, don't bring that anger to work and take it out on co-workers or customers. If you don't shake off the feeling of anger, that'll just make you even more unhappy and, instead of experiencing stress in one area of your life, you'll now be experiencing it in two arenas.

Concern, worry, blame and anger keep you joined at the hip with the problem and make you feel powerless. If you can view the situation from a different point of view, you'll realize that in every moment of every day you can decide to take the next step into greater knowing, awakening and inner peace. You can control your thoughts and emotions instead of having them control you.

It's a simple as stopping the obsessive thought as soon as you recognize it and replacing it with another thought of your own choosing. You can say something as simple as "I choose a peaceful thought instead of this" or "I choose to remain calm" or  "I prefer the feeling of compassion instead of this" or "I choose to experience this event with trust and gratitude."

You can also adopt the attitudes that "everything assists me on my journey of self-awakening," "everything works out for the best" and "nothing lasts forever" — neither what we deem good nor what we label as bad.

Your mind acts like the puppeteer for your life and it can only focus on one thought at a time. Your habits, beliefs, intention and choices determine which thought keeps your attention and how long it runs rampant in your head. Something upsetting, disappointing or anger provoking, doesn't have to negatively impact all areas of your life.
 
Ultimately, it's up to YOU to decide who's going to control the quality of your life. When you make that choice you might want to ask yourself, "do I want to be right or happy?"