Today celebrates something I do far too much of.

It’s World Thinking Day, and while the focus this year is on poverty and hunger, sadly, most of us will go about our daily life bogged down by the usual thoughts about bills, mortgages, relationships and trying to remember whether we need more oven chips for tonight’s tea.

What I’d like to achieve on World Thinking Day is not to think at all, or to think only of nice things. I’m guilty of thinking too deeply about not-so-nice things, working myself up into a frenzy over the same old worries.

Do my friends really like me, do people talk about me behind my back, why don’t my parents listen to my side of an argument over that of my siblings, will our house fall down if we don’t tackle the damp patch?

Many of my thoughts are similar to those I had when I was a teenager. I thought I’d grow out of being concerned by what people think of me, but, despite having a busy life and a family to fill my head, I still fret about it.

World Thinking Day was introduced by Girl Guides and Girl Scouts, with a different, worthy, focus every year.

I promise to devote a few minutes thought to poverty and hunger, but for me, today will revolve around positive thinking. As Morecambe and Wise used to say, it’s the thing to try when things look black. Not that my life is doom-laden, but I would like to put a positive spin on things to boost my spirits.

My friends must surely like me or we wouldn’t meet up so regularly; I’ll never come out smelling of roses in any disagreement with my siblings, so what’s the point in stressing about it; and the damp isn’t that much of a problem – seeing Haiti on the news I shouldn’t complain. But thinking along those lines isn’t easy.

People suggest meditation and yoga as an aid to more positive thought.

But I find that lying on a mat with soft music playing gives rise to even deeper contemplation of my troubles.

I’m full of admiration for Plato, spending all day and every day mulling things over. I’d be driven mad. And it’s very antisocial. I wonder how many of his mates told him to ‘get a life’.

People say that by thinking positively good things will happen. So, today I am going to put that to the test. I’m going to banish all negative thoughts. I’m going to mentally file them away under ‘trash’.

And then, tomorrow, no doubt my brain will press the retrieve button and they’ll all come rushing back to overwhelm me.