happychooseOur thoughts come together to give us perspectives and attitudes through which we define and relate to the world around us. Arguably, nothing will hinder you in life as severely as a bad attitude. We have the privilege of choosing our thoughts, helping create our attitudes; an emotional influence independent of the circumstance. We do not have to think every thought that falls into our minds, we also can think things deliberately.
It is easy to take what we have at face value: to take our subjective view and assume it is the best view. We can adjust our thinking, and form a new attitude. It is easy and comfortable to stay stuck in old patterns and old ways of thinking. We can choose to feed the thoughts that irritate us, or make us miserable, or we can feed the thoughts that uplift us and make us feel good about life and ourselves: it will have an impact on how we feel overall.
Our thoughts and minds are incredibly powerful, but our minds cannot distinguish between a real event and something we merely think about and believe. An example would be when we wake up from having a nightmare, even though it isn’t really happening, our body responds physiologically with anxiety as if it were. The signals the brain receives are real, so the brain reacts as if it were real. This is also exemplified in the success of the placebo effect, in which individuals have recorded improvements in overall health based on their thoughts and beliefs in the treatment they were prescribed or taking.
happypillsAccording to the Mayo Clinic, positive thoughts not only make you feel better, but they have been discovered to help individuals reduce the risk of hypertension, heart disease, depression, and it can even boost longevity. There is a wide body of research which supports the theory that having a positive attitude will lead to a healthier life mentally and physically.
While negativity and pessimism could contribute to stress, anxiety, and a reduction in overall health. Harvard and Boston University both found that pessimism could be a contributing factor to heart disease. A study at Yale University also concluded that a positive attitude toward aging contributed to longevity.
Our minds are powerful, and what we think on a daily basis does play a role in the choices that we make, how we feel about others, and how we see and experience our lives. The power of the mind is so impressive that individuals can improve their health merely through their thoughts. In one interesting study illustrating the placebo effect, patients were signed up to receive arthroscopic knee surgery, what one group of individuals were unaware of was that they weren’t going to receive any surgery, but they were going to be told that the surgery took place. Results showed that individuals who never had the surgery, but believed that it occurred, reported feeling better and saw improvement in their health, just as those did who actually did have the surgery take place.
Too often we spend too much time thinking about and stressing over troubles which we face. But worry doesn’t bear any fruit in our lives, worrying is like sitting in a rocking chair: it keeps us busy but gets us nowhere. If there is something you can do to help your situation: then do it.
This isn’t insinuating that you should neglect all of your problems. But you do not have to let them consume you. If there is nothing in the moment that you can do to fix your problem, worrying is usually not going to stop it or fix it. Thinking ourselves into a negative spiral and tormenting ourselves isn’t going to help solve anything.
Worry enters our lives through our thoughts. What you hold in your mind helps shape your reality, your situation doesn’t create your anxiety: it is your thinking about your situation that causes you to experience anxiety (Meyer, 2010). When we lack perspective, it creates the opportunity to sensationalize our problems:  overestimating minor dilemmas to be major problems, and making major problems harder to solve.