I’m reading an interesting book called Counterclockwise by Ellen Langer. As someone that is fascinated by the mind-body connection and its relationship to healing, I’m always gathering new information to shape my opinions.
I want to share with you an excerpt I read last night:
One reason people come to see being depressed as a constant condition is that when we are content we don’t check in with ourselves to see how we feel…Thus, when we are depressed we ask why, and when we’re happy we don’t ask. As a result, when we become depressed we don’t have complete information about our mental state and we have little evidence supporting our happiness, which allows us to imagine we’re always depressed.
This reminded me of a passage from the Bible, the oft-quoted Proverbs 23:7 states “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” The idea that we can affect our health simply by what we think has powerful ramifications in all aspects of our lives.
I’m sure you’ve seen this in your own life, where a challenging situation drains you emotionally and it seems to spiral downward further and further each moment. In a sense, what Dr. Langer’s getting at here is that your “this sucks” thought process will only help you find the overwhelming difficulty in things instead of the positive light.
Turn your brain around for a change, put your energy into focusing on love and gratitude, thankfulness instead of sadness. It may be difficult at first, but who said changing your life was easy?
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