I was walking out of a late lunch with my family this afternoon and said “It’s pretty nice today.”
“Probably because it’s only 90 instead of 100,” my mom said.
“I guess. Just a matter of perspective,” I answered.
As I’ve pondered throughout the afternoon and evening the need for a topic today, this came to mind. I recently read The Noticer by Andy Andrews, in which the title character takes it upon himself to provide struggling individuals with a new way of looking at things. Though my final review of the book would be fairly neutral, there is an importance to understanding the power of perspective.
The glory and burden of being human is the ability to attach meaning to life’s events. So much of how we experience things is determined by our outlook, for as Shakespeare wrote in Hamlet, “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”
What are you thinking? When you see something happen, do you ask how it can get worse or look for a solution? Do you think of every reason something can’t be done instead of contemplating a way it can?
My belief is that life is about making decisions. Choices determine actions, which lead to outcomes. Your response to events has a ripple effect on your future, shaping the next set of events.
Next time something comes along, take an extra moment to breathe and understand your perspective. Ask yourself why your first thought was whatever it ends up being. That is the first step in changing your life.
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Quick! What's this guy thinking?
Researchers in Europe presented an enlightening study yesterday that shows your ability to decipher another person’s emotions depends on whether you’re in your right mind.
OK, that isn’t exactly what they said. To be totally correct, it was shown that the right side of the brain is more efficient than the left at connecting someone’s facial expressions to their emotions. Further, positive images were determined quicker and clearer than negative ones, which goes against a previous study performed in the US.
When you see a face, you have an impression of what’s going on with that individual in roughly 100 milliseconds (that’s 0.1 seconds, for you non-metric types). Another study I read recently theorized that this is a survival mechanism, allowing you to quickly figure out how much of a threat there is in the environment.
An interesting thought occured to me: Why is it that the positive (“approach”) expressions are handled faster than negative (‘withdrawal”)?
Wouldn’t it make sense to have more sensitivity to the bad than the good? I mean, you need more reaction time to avoid a life-threatening situation, right? (Ignoring, of course, the fact that we’re talking about fractions of a second.) Maybe it’s due to an inborn desire to be able to discern if we can relax first instead of having to mobilize all our resources, which takes a lot more energy.
I think it’s pretty amazing that, even before you blink, you’ve got an idea of what your friend is thinking.
Makes you wonder what else you’re doing before you know it, huh?
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“…the dreamers of the day are dangerous men…”
You Shouldn’t Be Reading This
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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I Hate “Old Age”
Are You “Normal?”
Jack LaLanne, alive with possibility at 94.
As I mentioned in my last post, we have a weekly spinal care class at Gage Chiropractic Center and one of the topics is the lessons we’ve learned from the aging of our population.
You probably don’t realize at the turn of the last century the average life expectancy was 49 years. Today, it’s nearly 78, a roughly 60% increase in the amount of time you “should” be here.
A few slides later, I make a confession: I hate “old age.” That’s not to say that I discriminate against the elderly, it’s about the phrase itself and all that comes with it. Those two words have become an excuse for every ache and pain, a crutch to lean on when in actuality it only exists in the mind.
Want proof? Dr. Joseph Mercola pointed out today the results from an astounding study demonstrating the fact that simply thinking “20 years ago” can reverse the aging process to some degree.
The findings are reported in the upcoming book Counterclockwise by Ellen Langer, which will certainly be on my ever-expanding reading list. (Somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 now.)
How does this relate to chiropractic? Well, as I’ve told you before, chiropractic care helps you express your full healing potential. Helping you maintain proper alignment across your varied joint surfaces (spine, knee, jaw, etc.) removes a physical stress, which makes it easier for you to live longer and better.
You deserve the best of you. Start thinking like it.
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