COLUMN: Rewiring your mind to a positive focus
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One of the simplest and most effective things you can do to create inner harmony, happiness, and unshakeable hope is to shift your outlook from negative to positive.
Even just spending a few minutes a day focused on the positive, uplifting, and hopeful can rewire your mind from a negative focus to a positive one. This will help you sleep better, reduce physical pain, a greater sense of well-being, and handle change more effectively.
How do I do this? Well, we take Paul’s advice and think about “whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” (Philippians 4:4-8)
Yet our minds zoom to the negative faster than to the positive. So, we need to take the saying above, or another saying that you can repeat when negativity and stress begins.
This is a “turnaround phrase”. Here’s how it works, whenever you feel stress rising, negativity bubbling, or frustration peaking pause for a moment and say the turnaround phrase.
Step one – Ground yourself in the present moment. Take a breath and be aware of what is happening within and around you. Awareness is key!
Step two – Have a turnaround phrase prepared. Mine is from 1 Timothy 1:7, “For God has not given me a spirit of fear but of power, love, and a sound mind.”
God has given us the ability to rewire our attitude to gratitude and our negative feelings and self-talk to hope and love, and to “be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” (Romans 12:2)
Just pause the chaos, the negative feelings, the berating self-talk just for a moment to breathe, repeat a positive phrase of hope, and then smile!
A smile will help you relax, feel less stress and help you feel more confident. When we smile our bodies release endorphins that improve the way we are feeling and help us to naturally relax.
A smile is viewed across cultures as a sign of friendliness, connection, and understanding. Smiling, like yawning, is contagious. It is a universal sign of happiness and others will respond positively to you.
So, turn that frown upside down and smile (even if it feels corny) because it takes less work to smile than it does to frown.
And as Zig Ziglar states, “If you can’t smile when you get up in the morning go to bed with a coat hanger in your mouth!” OK don’t do this! But I hope this made you smile!
This weekend is Thanksgiving so it is a perfect opportunity to gather with family and share positive, uplifting, and joy filled memories and stories of thankfulness and hope. Giving thanks is a wonderful way to rewire the mind from auto pilot thinking of discontentment and anger to hope, love, and joy.
As Paul encourages us, “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” (Romans 12:2)
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