Navigating Your Mind

Eventually, I am going to die…I don’t want my painful experiences, struggles, or the life lessons that have resulted from them to be forgotten or to fail to have an impact on my children, family, and the world.

For many years, as a clinical social worker and a therapist, I have been helping people to cope with their losses, to stop their fears from holding them back, and to move forward in life toward their goals and dreams. But I can only reach so many people when I am helping them on an individual basis. For that reason, I am writing this book so I can share with a wider audience the experiences I have had over the years and the wisdom I have acquired in hopes that more people will benefit from it.

The most important concept I have learned throughout my life is: What I do today is based on what I thought yesterday. What I do tomorrow will be based on what I think today. This book reflects that understanding—that my thoughts shape my reality. The process of navigating my mind is finding the right thoughts to move me forward to my goals and to a richer, more joyful life. It hasn’t always been an easy process, and I have often wished I had a guidebook to help me through it. What I have learned, in the end, is the most valuable gift I have to pass on to others.

This book is the navigation tool I have created so others will not flounder about in the waters of life. I hope Navigating Your Mind will help you to navigate away from the fears and losses that hold you back from enjoying life and instead allow you to set your course toward your own goals and dreams. In the process, you will gain a better understanding of yourself and others.

This book is not about taking the easy way. Despite my presenting you with all of the information in these pages, you will still have to do quite a bit of work if you want to overcome your difficulties and move on to having a fulfilling life that feels closer to “easy sailing.” But the information I provide will make that process easier if you listen to the message and apply it to your own life. This book’s information will provide a compass for you to navigate life’s difficulties, and having that compass will make life easier for you than staying on a course with no destination, which you may currently be on.

Right now, you may well be taking the easy way by not making any effort to advance or improve your life. Believe me, I understand that because the easy way is easy—at least it seems so at first. But I have found that whenever I have tried to take the easy way, in the long run, it ended up being harder precisely because I tried to take shortcuts. Life presents us with difficulties and experiences from which we are meant to learn. If we try to avoid having those learning experiences, life will keep presenting them to us until we finally do face them.

The best strategy then is to face life’s difficulties with courage from a VIP perspective. No, VIP does not mean “Very Important Person.” But if you face life from a VIP perspective, you can become the very important person in your life. VIP stands for:

Values: Positive ideas that you deem to be correct and desirable.

Integrity: Steadfast adherence to a strict moral or ethical code. In other words, doing what is right even when no one is looking.

Principles: Rules and behavior that are good for you and those around you.

Conducting life based on VIP will give you more opportunities for peace, joy, and happiness. As you face your fears and stop giving into temptations, addictions, and demands from people or society, you will clear away what you do not want and begin to listen to yourself so you can truly be free.

Most positive regards,

Kristopher L. Walton
Psychotherapist, Author, and Keynote Speaker