Sometimes life feels like it is out of control. No matter how much you plan, prepare, or set goals at one point or another your life is going to feel like it has gone a little crazy.

Now I hope you have taken some times this summer to rest, relax and renew yourself mentally, physically and spiritually. Hopefully you have gotten a chance to get away and spend time with your family and friends. My prayer is that at this point you are not feeling like your life is out of control. If you are it’s okay, and it is going to happen.

As I look at my calendar, school is starting in less than a month! It is a time during the year when stress is at an all time high…..school starts, community programs start, in a way it seems like September is more of a “New Year” than January.

A friend told me one time that if you want to change something about yourself, start it in September because our natural rhythms for change occurs more during September rather in January……food for thought.

At this point may feel prepared for the fall to come. You may feel like you have things under control – but then “it” happens. “It” could be an unexpected car repair, an unexpected medical bill, an earthquake, hurricane, tornado, or any number of things that puts you back to square one. Suddenly you feel as if you’re completely off course, and it seems like it is almost impossible to recover.

At times like this, there are a few things it may help you to remember. First of all, no one can control every aspect of his or her life, and adversity comes to all of us at one point or another. It doesn’t matter how happy we try and make ourselves be, it doesn’t matter how many spreadsheets we make or how good our attitude is. Bad things happen to good people all the time.

Second, I would like to suggest two things that you can do when you feel like things are starting to get out of control. The first is to pray about it, to ask God for help and strength when things are troubling you. Granted that might not be a short term solution but it is something that I feel is a big help when you are feeling bad.

The second thing is to think about what your response is going to be. When you find yourself overcome with feelings of fear, helplessness, and overall chaos, you can choosing to shift the focus of the thoughts that are running through your mind. Our mental image of ourselves greatly determines the path that our lives go down. So mentally choose good feelings and sooner or later they will come.

Your feelings are a direct result of the thoughts you think, and one of the ways we can try and prevent feelings of lost of control is to set aside some time every morning and evening for positive affirmation, or prayer which can be an effective way of getting these thoughts back under your control again.