Engage good thoughts or keep your mind silent

Let me continue from where I left, my previous article highlighted the fact 'we become what we think about' - hence it is imperative for us to either engage with good thoughts or keep our minds silent. How can we do this ?

For this, we should think about those things that should concern us, that is a person should leave what does not concern him. According to Ibn al-Qayyim (was an important medieval Islamic jurisconsult, theologian, and spiritual writer);

The most beneficial remedy is that you preoccupy yourself with thoughts of what should concern you and not those that should not concern you. Thinking about what does not matter to you is the door of every evil. Whoever reflects upon what does not concern him, then he will miss what does concern him.(al-Fawa?’id 1/175)

When I read this, I just recalled DR. STEPHEN R. COVEY's first habit - Be proactive and the concept of circle of influence and circle of concern. According to him;

Proactive people focus their efforts on their Circle of Influence. They work on the things they can do something about: health, children, or problems at work. Reactive people focus their efforts in the Circle of Concern--things over which they have little or no control. (DR. STEPHEN R. COVEY: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People)

The bottom line is, thoughts occurs to us, whether it is negative or positive but we do have choice to either ignore it or pursue it, i.e., we have control over which thoughts we choose to follow. - Engage good thoughts (Circle of influence) or keep your mind silent (Circle of Concern).