It’s yet another early morning, and you woke up late for class. To make matters worse, that essay you just stayed up all night trying to finish is due and your printer just ran out of ink. Things just couldn’t get any worse. You quietly think to yourself, “WHY ME?! Why do I always seem to have such bad luck?!? I just can’t seem to get anything right these days.”

I have had more than my fair share of negative and discouraging thoughts running amuck through my mind during my life. However, throughout these past four years at MSU, I have learned how to let go of the negative and start using all of my energy to completely focus on the positive things in life. The results I am now experiencing have transformed my life.

I have come a long way from the boy who first arrived at MSU’s scene in fall of 2010, to the man that I have grown into and fought to become today. When I first arrived at MSU, I did not know where or how I fit into the world or the “bigger picture” of things. I felt like I didn’t belong. There were so many students on campus, and it was easy to feel insignificant.

It was during my freshman year that I also began dealing with some family issues, lack of a love life and the loss of my grandfather, who had always been like a dad to me. I began my struggle with serious bouts of depression and anxiety. I remember routinely asking myself, “Why am I even alive? What exactly is my purpose in life?” I had so many negative and dreadful thoughts running through my mind that I couldn’t seem to overcome.

It was not until halfway through my junior year here that I began to realize what was wrong. I had been diagnosed with major clinical depression, but I didn’t want to use prescription drugs to alter my state of mind. I reasoned that an issue stemming from my current mindset could also be changed naturally at a mental level. I wanted my journey toward happiness to begin with changing my thoughts and approach to life. I had recently dropped out of my fraternity, quit the party scene and spent a semester learning how to love myself and truly be happy.

To be happy, I had to understand that the universe does not operate from “outside-to-in” as modern day society suggests, it operates from the “inside-to-out.” This information is even given to us in the Bible, where it says, “Do what’s best—as above, so below” (Matthew 6:5-13). What this means is that nothing in the outside physical world can exist without it first existing in the internal “spiritual” or mental realm of life. This concept is basically getting at the idea that “if you can see it in your mind, you can hold it in your hand” or “Ask, and you shall receive.”

Now the real question is, “OK, well if you can ask and just receive anything you want from the universe, why didn’t you just ask for happiness in the first place?” Well, there is a little bit more to it. During my bouts of depression and anxiety, while I wanted to be happy, all I could ever manage to focus on was just how unhappy I had become and how miserable life seemed to be. I felt so sure that everything in my life was going wrong, and as I started to slip up in school and make mistakes, things just seemed to get worse. Have you ever had bad things happen to you in life, and the more you seemed to focus on those bad experiences, the more things seemed to fall apart?

Here’s how I’ve managed to handle this problem in a way that has completely turned my life around. Everyday instead of focusing on life from a negative point of view and constantly berating myself for past mistakes, I choose instead to look at life and all of my experiences from a positive perspective. This is referred to as “The Power of Positive Thinking” and this process has caused me to constantly challenge my interpretation of reality to focus on positive thoughts.

In life, everything can either be a blessing or a lesson, sometimes it can even be both. Our experience of life depends directly on our interpretation. For instance, if you go about your day always focusing on the negative side of things, you will be bound to only “see” or experience the negative. However, if you choose to go about your day constantly focusing on the positive side of things or taking a look on the “bright side,” you are directly altering your life experience and therefore are likely to see the good in even the worst situations.

In each moment, we are given a choice. We can either give life to the moment, or take life from it. By constantly viewing my life from a negative perspective, I realized I actually had been stripping away all the good from my life experiences. You see, always focusing on the possible negative outcomes only takes life away from all of the possible positive experiences that you could have. It is from this “inner” paradigm shift from a negative point of view to a positive perspective that has enabled me to completely overcome severe clinical depression and anxiety. I am now the happiest I have ever been, and I owe it all to learning to focus on the good things in my life and becoming a master of my thoughts.

Nathan Belyk is a communication senior. Reach him at belyknat@msu.edu.