‘The mind is it’s own place, it can make a heaven of hell, and a hell of heaven’ - John Milton

Have you learnt how to make your mind your friend? If your mind’s not your friend, then it's working against you. All the time. Making your mind your friend involves being comfortable with your thought processes and where these thought processes lead you, or being comfortable with your beliefs and the situations you end up in because of them.

When you've learnt to make your mind your friend, you'll never need to be depressed again, you'll never need to develop an addiction (which is always only a quick fix mask to hide a negative emotion), or negative habits. You'll never need to form these because all of them are defensive coping mechanisms, invented or used by you to dull the pain. Why bother wasting time (and possibly your life) dulling the pain when you can work towards removing it instead?

Consider this - if your mind isn't your friend, you'll need an addiction of some sort to escape your hurt or pain. Just as an aside, an addiction doesn't always mean drugs, cigarettes or alcohol. Some people are addicted to over eating, or not eating at all, some to exercise, work, pessimism, anger, undermining or work. You can be addicted to anything. An addiction could perhaps be best described as something you do that’s destructive or has a negative impact on your life or others in your life, and whose purpose is to hide or mask a feeling.

So, what are you using to block out your issues? To numb your pain? Is it work, parties, lack of commitment, loose relationships, reckless living? This list could go on.

It’s your own mind that keeps you captive, not your circumstances. Your own mind is the only thing that has the power to make a heaven of hell and a hell of heaven.

Here’s another thing to consider – you will never be prisoners of your past, no matter how bad or horrific, when you learn to make your mind your friend.