What a load of horseshit.
You will never be able to will away your diabetes. No amount of positive thinking will ever remove the emotional scars left by an abusive parent. And more importantly, as much as self-help gurus like to claim otherwise, no one can eliminate all of their negative thoughts. One can reduce the number of them, certainly. With practice and discipline one can change their overall thought patterns from a net negative to a net positive, but no one is ever going to be able to eliminate all negative thoughts from their brain. If anyone tells you otherwise they are lying or trying to sell you something, probably a self-help book, and that's for one simple reason: we can't control the thoughts in our brain any more than we can control our physical reactions to external stimuli (which is to say, we can to an extent, but not completely). Think about the number of stupid, irrational thoughts that pop into your head on a daily basis and you will know this to be true.
In fact, it's not just our thoughts we can't change! Think about all the other things you wish you could change about yourself but can't, not much, anyway: your looks, your intellect, your natural proclivities & talents, your level of social aptitude, your athletic prowess or lack thereof, the number of social connections you possess to ease your way into a job you want, your physical health, your mental health, the number of years you'll likely live, your attachment style in relationships, your geographical location (many of us can't afford to move), and so many other things. I'm not saying we can't change at all, but the amount of change we capable of achieving is very small.
What, then, are we to do? How can there possibly be freedom when we are trapped as we are? When we let go of the illusive freedom promised by pushers of positive thinking and face the cold, harsh reality of life - that our genetics and environment doom use to to be a certain way, that there is really very little we can change about ourselves - how then can we be free?
Simply put, you have to look at this truth from a different perspective.
Some way, somehow, you were placed in a random body that is capable of many things. This body you were given is temporary. And for as long as you have possession of that body, you are free to do whatever the fuck you want with it. There are no permanent consequences to your actions! When you are done using this temporarily animated shell, it will wither away and you will be free of it. There is literally no need to be attached - and why would you unless you were an unbelievably foolish person? What idiot would get upset when his loaner body got old, or if it were a little dumber or uglier or weaker than he had hoped for? It's just a loaner body! So make use of it while you can, be prepared to let it go, and realize: the body is not you. YOU are free.
What, then, are you? That's the great question, is it not? It's actually very simple: you are merely one cell with a predetermined role to play in a body. As one of countless cells, you are not so very important even though you are necessary for the body to go on. We as Americans are very focused on the importance of our individual identities, but this is the wrong way of looking at things. While it is important to recognize the role you play - we couldn't function as a world if you didn't - it is far more important to recognize that the body is what matters, not the individual cells. So let go of your own sense of self-importance and realize you are the body. The whole body. The entirety of the universe...that is you.
Once you truly understand this, you will be enlightened.
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