i am not my thoughts

Vritti sarupyam-itaratra 1.4
"Otherwise, thoughts take on the forms of the world around us, harden like clay, and presume that they are you."

Unless I sit down every morning and remember that the Universe is Joy, Love, Peace and Truth and that as a part of the Whole I, too, am an expression of Joy, Love, Peace and Truth, I quickly get absorbed in the everyday routine of getting breakfast ready, cleaning the kitchen, and preparing a yoga class. My mind is busy planning and anticipating. 
In that state, I can easily find myself latching onto thoughts of discontentment, disappointment, and detachment. If I allow that to happen, I quickly sing the Winter Blues. 
For me, the one proven way to prevent my thoughts from determining my emotions is to stay in alignment with my connection to God and to practice non-attachment to the thoughts that distract me. This is much easier said than done. A sure fire way to get out of the funk is to take a walk in the woods or to practice yoga. I need to consciously and physically (re)move myself.
In his app Yoga Sutras, author Trip says, "Thoughts are as superfluous as the rain. Just because rain falls on us, doesn't mean we are the rain." We were not our thoughts about our past, or projections of our future. 
So every morning, I sit and contemplate my true essence and how I am part of the Whole and how my thoughts and actions can  serve the world.

As a water bead on a lotus leaf,
as water on a red lily,
does not adhere,
​so the sage does not adhere
to the seen, the heard or the sensed.
(Buddha)

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