Sorry, this was an useless post so now it's gone
"Trying to control your thoughts" sounds like a recipe for failure. If you exert force on trying to change a thought pattern you often strength it.
On the other hand there are a variety of ways to influence your thinking. Meditation is useful.
I use a variety of techniques to interact with my emotions. Most of them not easily describable.
Goal setting is a good way to prime thinking.
If it's worth saying, but not worth its own post (even in Discussion), then it goes here.
Notes for future OT posters:
1. Please add the 'open_thread' tag.
2. Check if there is an active Open Thread before posting a new one. (Immediately before; refresh the list-of-threads page before posting.)
3. Open Threads should be posted in Discussion, and not Main.
4. Open Threads should start on Monday, and end on Sunday.