This meeting was an interactive session led by Alexandra Holcbarova, and the topic was ‘Strategies to Improve Your Life’. Alex started with the quote ‘Ten men wisely led will defeat 100 without a head’, and pointed out that it is our thoughts that dictate our feelings – therefore thinking can change our lives. We tend to judge ourselves by comparing our situation with others, but this leads to wanting to look better or wishing to live in better circumstances, whereas we should aim to feel better. The average person has about 70,000 thoughts a day, and these, together with our behaviour patterns, lead to the results or outcomes that we experience. Our behaviour and feelings are often blamed on external events or other people, but it is our own responsibility to take charge of our thoughts so that we achieve positive feelings. Often procrastination is a fallback action, and we fall into the trap of taking refuge in our ‘comfort zone’. We are then effectively allowing our past to shape our thoughts and therefore our feelings, and this can have an adverse effect on our lives right now. We must set goals to shape our lives, and if this involves adopting a new habit, then having identified this new habit, we should think about why it is important to us and how it should be implemented. In addition to positive thinking we can use other ways of maintaining a calm demeanour, for example using breathing techniques. Another contributing factor to feeling good is balancing our self-focussed thoughts with thoughts about other people, so a mix of strategies is often the way to go.