Power of Positive Thought
Aug 23, 2016 Elaina Curran
Why are some able to maintain a happy outlook on life, no matter the circumstances, and yet for others, happiness is so elusive? We can all recall a happy moment in our life or identify a particular activity/person/thing that makes us happy. However, maintaining that feeling of happiness throughout our daily routine and getting us past life’s challenges can be, perhaps, a tad more difficult to achieve.
On February 4, 2014, The Guardian reported on the tremendous popularity of self-help books. This prompted New York magazine’s Kathryn Schutz, as quoted in the article, to write, “…we’ve made very little empirical progress towards understanding our own inner workings. We have, however, developed an $11 billion industry dedicated to telling us how to improve our lives. Put those two facts together and you get a vexing question: can self-help work if we have no idea how a self works?”
The more we look outside ourselves and rely on external factors, the more tenuous and fleeting our happiness becomes. Have you ever found yourself saying, “I would be happier if I had more money?” “I would be happier if only I had a boy/girlfriend?” “I would be happier if I could only lose weight?” While all these things can certainly contribute to moments of happiness, how might we hope to pursue a lasting feeling of happiness?
Solution Focused Hypnotherapy recognises that when we engage in certain processes, the brain releases various reward chemicals, the most important being serotonin. This helps enormously in promoting a sense of well-being. One of those activities is thinking in a positive way. Maintaining a positive attitude and employing a habit of positive thought allows us to cope so much better in life and can greatly influence our general level of happiness.
There is certainly something to be said about the old adages, “seeing the glass half-full”, “looking for the silver lining” or believing that there is a light at the end of the tunnel, no matter how dark and long that tunnel is. We all have problems in life. It is inevitable that we will experience sadness, anger and worry at some point. Not everyone, however, who experiences redundancy, for example, will develop panic attacks. So, if it is not the events, then it must be our thought patterns surrounding the events. Positive thoughts and maintaining a positive attitude can power us through difficult times and help get us back on an even keel.
The brain, for all its’ complexity, cannot distinguish between emotional reality and imagination. Say we negatively forecast an event and imagine that next week’s exam or job interview, for example, will be a disaster. The Primitive/Emotional Mind, which looks out for our survival, will register our negative thoughts and go into crisis mode, as if the event is already happening. Falling into negative thought patterns, which includes negative introspection of the past or negatively forecasting the future, only moves us further away from being happy, calm and in control.
Happiness is a subjective emotion and we all have our own unique ways of working toward it. However, we are what we think. Our thoughts shape our emotions and our emotions then influence the life we experience. Adopting positive thought patterns can contribute significantly in helping us reach, and sustain, a happy state of mind.
By: Elaina Curran, DSFH, CNHCreg, AfSFHreg
Published in BS35Local Magazine, August 2016