There is power in repetition. How many times have we used it to remember facts for an exam or temporarily recall some important piece of information when we can’t find a pen to write it down? How often have we been uplifted by hearing a compliment more than once on the same day or been torn down by hearing another’s criticisms several times in a row?

It’s amazing how often our thoughts can circle around to the same thing or follow similar patterns. At the risk of overly simplifying things, I suggest that our brains often get stuck in negative repetitive ways of thinking – patterns we must actively work to break or derail. And the best way to do that is to replace the negative with the positive. For we will think – and we will often think repetitively. So let’s repeat the good stuff.

Several years ago, I was plagued by a great deal of worry. At best, it was distracting. At worst, on some days, it was almost debilitating. I wanted to bring an end to the cycle. So I started a worry notebook. I carried around a small notebook with me, and every time I found myself worrying about something, I wrote it down in my notebook and said, “God, I give it to You. It is no longer inside of me, no longer has a place in my mind.” Then I would look back over the list from time to time and see all the things I used to worry about that had slowly become unimportant or less troublesome in my thought life.

But to paraphrase a famous teaching of Jesus, it’s not enough to clean out the house and leave it empty; after cleaning out the bad, we must infuse the good.

A couple of years ago, my dad introduced our family to the idea of a “blessing box”. He gave each of us a small wooden box and slips of brightly colored paper. Then he encouraged us to develop a new habit of gratitude. Every time we encountered a blessing in daily life, he suggested we write the date and a summary of the blessing on a slip of paper before adding it to the box.

I’ve given up keeping a worry notebook – though there are days when I think taking up that habit would be useful again. But the blessing boxes at home and at work: those have been filling up steadily. I need to keep using them until they are full and I have to start new boxes or buy bigger boxes. In this way, I will use repetitive thoughts focused on the positive in a way that gives life.

Let this be a motto for each of us day by day: May the input I give myself and others repeat what’s good and true, what’s blessed.