There are so many people trying to influence how we think.
Many years ago, newspapers were the only media, then came radio and later TV.
For many years, adverts, articles or programmes on these three media were being used to influence the way we think and what we buy.
In the last 20 years, the internet has exploded and now there are people trying to influence us, using many different apps and tools to do so.
At times I find it difficult to resist this barrage.
There are thousands of people out there trying to make us think in the way they want us to. We have to resist this and make sure we are making sensible decisions for ourselves. How do we resist all these influencers?
We have to believe in ourselves and that we make sensible decisions.
Self-belief is vital to enable us to control and enjoy our lives. I use a list of positive thoughts to help me to believe strongly in myself.
The list is specific to me and includes a list of positive thoughts that help me particularly. I look at the list several times per day and slowly, I start to really believe the positive thoughts I have listed.
The first thought on my list is that I am IN CONTROL. I capitalise it because this is so important. For me, and I suspect everybody else, there are some parts of my life that I do control and other parts where I have little or no control.
I have control of what I do, some influence over what friends and relations do and no influence over anybody else.
The important thing here is to identify what I have control over. When I am down it is sometimes easy to think I am not in control, but there will always be many things that we do have control over and we must focus on them.
Geoff Peck from Woosehill Church, writing on behalf of Churches Together in Wokingham
