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Retrain your mind
The mind is a powerful force. Positive thoughts can fuel your hopes, turn your dreams into reality and harness your desire to feel love. Negative thoughts do just the opposite. They can be destructive and self-defeating and totally undermine your progress.
It’s all too easy to wallow in negativity when you’re battling a mental illness. You probably wonder every day why you’re being constantly tested. When you’re handling life’s challenges through the prism of mental health issues, it’s only natural to ask, “Why have all these problems come my way?” Indeed, not achieving one’s goals, being rejected by a lover, or losing someone close, is a big enough deal for anyone to handle, never mind when you’re attempting to juggle all these trials with unwanted symptoms. Believe me, you’re primed for anger, confusion, not to mention the never-ending barrage of self-defeating thoughts!
Pessimism only interferes with your capacity to control the condition and otherwise function. It can make a simple task, difficult. Many of my clients complain that they’re overwhelmed and incapable of controlling their negative thoughts. With my close hand knowledge, understanding and experience of mental illness, I know their fears. The brain is constantly in overdrive, worrying, planning, thinking and working too hard. It darts all over the place. People vacillate from feeling elated to being depressed. They then sleep very little, which only makes matters worse.
We all have the power to train our hearts and minds to be positive, even those of us with certain, so-called extreme forms of mental illness. I wouldn’t be on this mission, doing what I do, if I didn’t believe it to be possible! To experience the world in a new, brighter light is there for everyone……and we achieve it, how? Believe it or not, we do it through the words we choose to speak, the images we create in our imagination and the thoughts we allow to enter our heads.
We do it by following the footsteps of successful people – the reason why role models are so vitally important, be they from our own lives, or from the world of entertainment and fiction, be they dead or alive, as long as they inspire you, that’s all that matters. Business leaders move forward despite a poor economy, teachers help students excel despite facing budget cuts, athletes believe they’re going to win even if they’re losing in the last few minutes of play. In fact, they have learned to concentrate so hard on the task in hand that they are completely in the zone! Fifty thousand fans could be heckling or booing them, but they stay so focused on whatever it takes to win – that’s what it means to have self-control!
Developing this same discipline is vital for all of us if we’re to be optimistic, as opposed to the human species’ natural default position of pessimism. The latter was necessary eons ago for our survival, but it’s not so helpful an approach here in the 21st century! Training your mind involves committing to change and routinely making choices. Too often when we face the anxieties of life, such as health concerns, overdue bills, family problems or issues at work, we default to the same self-defeating programming that has stalled us so often in the past: “What if something goes wrong?” “What will I do?” “How will I handle it?”
By focusing on the what-ifs of life, our primary thoughts are bound to be negative. We are so beset by worry that are bodies are in constant stress. I’ve had clients say to me, “My mum died at 52, so I will, too,” “My dad had diabetes, so I’m bound to get it,” and “The doctor told me the condition will come back and I won’t survive the next five years.” Say these often enough and they will all indeed become your reality!!
If this is you, you can either accept the self-talk that says you’re too sick, too old, or too unhappy, OR, you can attempt to create a new reality. Perhaps you’ll dare to believe your health is improving, that 60 is the new 40 and that happiness is just around the corner? Small changes in your thinking can mean big results in your behaviour.
Take it from one who knows – these last few months may have been the most texting and taxing for me in recent memory, but when you learn to control your thoughts, you also make handling any adversity a much simpler task.