What Are You Telling Yourself?

Life is shaped by the mind. We become what we think.
--Buddha

We all know about the benefits of positive thinking and of having a positive attitude toward life. A positive attitude influences the way we feel; we feel confident, enthusiastic, happy, joyful, and in control of our lives. It is of particular importance to you and me because it is well proven that our thoughts directly affect the functioning of our bodies; our thoughts translate immediately into physical or emotional reality. No sooner do thoughts enter our minds than changes occur in our bodies or emotions; it is as instantaneous as switching on a light. Think how wonderful this knowledge is. It means we can actually have some influence on our bodies and emotions and can make a positive contribution to reducing our pain and healing ourselves.

We all have a tremendous healing force within our bodies. Our bodies have a natural self-righting or healing mechanism that strives continuously to heal and repair any damaged part. All the individual cells in our bodies are already doing their best both to heal us and to lower our pain levels by producing endorphins, our own natural painkiller. With the encouragement of a positive attitude, they can do even better.

By carrying out the following experiment, you will prove for yourself that your thoughts, your emotions, and your body are inextricably linked.

HOW THOUGHTS AFFECT YOUR EMOTIONAL AND PHYSICAL BEING

Test Your Muscles

1. For this experiment you will need a piece of paper. Use your dominant hand--that is, the hand you write with--and hold the piece of paper firmly between your thumb and your third finger. Now, hold the other end of the paper with the index finger and the thumb of your other hand. Test the strength of your grip by trying to pull the piece of paper out from between your thumb and third finger. You will find this very difficult to do.

2. Next, deliberately introduce some negative thoughts. With the paper held as before, between your thumb and third finger, tell yourself you are a weak and powerless person, a victim of pain. Now try again to pull out the paper with the thumb and forefinger of your other hand. You will find the paper slips out quite easily. Your muscles will have immediately become weaker because of your negative thoughts. Now, very quickly, in order to rid yourself of the negative thoughts, blow all the thoughts away and shake your hands to rid them of any unwanted vibrations.

3. Last, grip the paper again in the same way and this time treat yourself to lots of positive thoughts. Praise yourself and tell yourself how wonderful you are, that you are strong and invincible and in charge of your life. Now try to pull out the paper. You will find that your muscles are now full of strength and the paper cannot be easily removed. The positive thoughts have given instant strength to your body.

BUILDING A POSITIVE ATTITUDE

The experiment above will have given you some idea of the power of our thoughts to affect both our bodies and our feelings. Imagine the healing that can take place with the right thoughts. Yes, we can encourage self-healing, with all the cells of our bodies functioning more efficiently and producing those wonderful pain-reducing endorphins for us. With positive, strengthening thoughts we can also choose to enhance the way we feel, encouraging a more serene and uplifted spirit within ourselves.

I appreciate that we are often told to “be positive” and I understand how you may feel when hearing this remark in the face of your pain. You may have tired of being told to “be positive,” perhaps thinking, “It’s easy for ‘them’ to say because ‘they’ don’t have the pain” or “Anyone with this pain would be fed up.” This sort of negative attitude is always easy to justify by saying we are only being “realistic” about our position. However, it is not the situation itself that is causing us to think these and other negative thoughts. A situation may be a challenge, but no situation is “bad” in itself. It is our attitude toward the situation and our interpretation of it that is important. We may not be able to change the situation, but we can change the way we view it. We may not be able to wish away the pain but we can change how we feel about it.

We can learn to befriend the part of our body that is troubling us, respect it, and be patient with it. We can learn how to help it to function more efficiently by not forcing it to do what it now finds difficult. We can learn how to relax, to pace our activities, and to take advantage of all the many other wonderful ways in which we can use our own natural powers to help ourselves. We can learn how to keep our thoughts positive and supportive. We can grow to understand that we are more than our pain and have deeper parts of our being that can be content and happy despite our physical difficulties. Being positive means focusing on the positive aspects of life and on what we can do to help ourselves. Remember: positive thoughts are not a luxury--they are essential to our well-being.

THE THINKER IN YOUR MIND

Having a positive attitude does not mean that you never have unhappy, angry, fearful, or disapproving thoughts in your mind. However, your attitude to life, and to your pain, will not be in your best interests if you constantly allow unhappy thoughts to dominate in your mind. You can’t control the thoughts coming to your mind but you can choose which of those thoughts you follow. Your thoughts are not a power in charge of you; the power lies behind the thoughts with you, the real you, the thinker of the thoughts.