Humans seemingly have between 12,000
to 60,000 thoughts a day. According to some research, as much as 95 percent of
the thoughts we have today are the same as the ones we had yesterday.
Approximately 80 percent of human thoughts are negative. These stats are pulled
from the Cleveland Clinic Wellness website. The brain has been hardwired to
think “negatively” because fear saved us back when we were in danger of being
eaten by saber-toothed tigers.
As a teenager 99.99 percent of my
thoughts were negative. I suffered from depression and OCD. It was traumatic for
me, but I got over it. Negative thoughts lead to negative emotion. Negative
emotion leads to stress. It may also hinder our abilities. I remember, as a
teenager, staring at my textbook for hours, unable to focus, because of high
levels of stress.
I admit, I don’t know very much
about ISIS. Whenever I see an ISIS story online, I don’t click on it. I know
that reading about ISIS will bring my mood down. I’d rather watch Downton
Abbey. (I believe their adorable dog is named Isis.)
Good feeling thoughts produce positive
feelings. I believe we’d all rather feel happy instead of sad. The secret is to feel happy before we get what
we want, and then what we want will come to us. Louise Hay’s “You Can Heal
Your Life”, Jack Canfield’s “The Success Principles”, “Think and Grow Rich” by
Napoleon Hill all illustrate the power of Positive Thinking.
It took me a while to get in the
habit of consistently thinking happy thoughts. I have been through so many
traumatic events in the past… and yet it has made me a stronger person. I no
longer focus on the (negative) past because I know that will bring my mood
down. I focus on what I’m thankful for: my inner strength, my friendships, the
fact that the sun rose this morning, my colorful bedsheets, the birds chirping
outside, Zumba, fall foliage, fun college memories :), the savory chowder I’m about to
eat, the cute Nestle half-pint bottle of water next to my computer…
Find something to be grateful for at
this moment. It could be the colorful coffee mug at your desk, or the cake your
friend split with you last weekend, or if you found a Netflix show/movie you
can’t get enough of, or looking forward to your upcoming hiking trip. Relaxing
is important; I’m a fan of Netflix. (I love Gilmore Girls, any show with Bobby
Flay, and I just watched Zootopia for the first time. I also enjoy Daredevil-
it’s very violent, but has a great storyline.)
Once you’ve found something to be grateful
for, keep your focus on that. Whenever negative thoughts come up, I look
outside the window. I focus on the scenery outside. And if it’s raining or if
there are no windows, I think of puppies. If you want to make the process
easier I recommend watching Abraham Hicks videos on Youtube. I start my
mornings with her. Esther Hicks is the wonderful woman behind Abraham Hicks.
She’s funny, articulate, intuitive, and has a soothing accent. I recommend
Youtube-ing “Abraham Hicks 17 seconds” for tips on maintaining a good mood. She
also has videos about manifesting a lottery win (I have yet to watch that :), making money effortlessly,
creating fulfilling relationships, realizing self worth, letting go of the
past. She’s got it pretty much all covered!
Abraham Hicks advises us to not
focus on “what we want” if “what we want” is causing us stress, worry, or
anxiety. In the past I was overweight. I stopped looking in the mirror because
at that time I didn’t like my reflection. My goal was to get back down to a
size 2 in 3 months, which meant losing 6 dress sizes!
I was already hitting the gym 5 days
a week, but I wasn’t losing any weight. In addition to over-eating, I didn’t
truly believe I could be a size 2. I was stressed out. When I re-started
Positive Thinking (this wasn’t my first experience with Positive Thinking) my
life became easier and I lost weight! Instead of looking at my reflection and
thinking “oh god, how did this happen?”, I began saying to myself: I have a
slender and beautiful body. It didn’t matter that I wasn’t immediately losing
weight; I chose to see my body as slender and beautiful. After a couple of
months, I lost weight. When I’m happy, I tend to eat less. My metabolism stayed
the same, but I stopped feeling hungry all the time.
Sometimes it’s easier to not think
about “what we want” if it feels like work. If I felt anxiety while picturing
myself having a slender body, (that means I would have to run 10 miles a day! And
live on celery!) then I wouldn’t think about it. I was able to picture myself
having a slender body because I had past experience with Positive Thinking. But
if it was too difficult for me to picture that, I would think about puppies.
Puppies are enjoyable to think about. I wanted to lose weight so I can enjoy
health, and fit in my jeans. Well, what do puppies and being healthy have in
common? The answer is: they’re both enjoyable. The secret is to find something that fits the vibration of what you
want. It becomes easier to think happy thoughts when we start with
something general: such as puppies or a favorite Netflix show. Focus on that
for a while, and then the following thought will be positive as well. When a
thought comes in to contradict that (my first puppy peed all over my bed),
ignore it, and replace it with a better general thought (my second puppy had a
crush on my neighbor’s cat). You may find it to be easier than you think!
Practice
feeling good first. If what you want causes you stress, go general. Think of something
that’s easy to feel good about. We want things because we believe we’ll be
happy when we get them. Be happy first,
then everything you want will come to you.
My memoir
Fall and Rise: My Journey to Happiness is available on Amazon (links below). It
details my journey from severely depressed to consistently happy. I know if I
can find happiness, then so can anyone :)
No comments:
Post a Comment