Wednesday, January 12, 2022
Whatever is bothering you is probably just a thought. Your mind is random. It kicks up thoughts, whenever it wants to, and those thoughts kick up emotions that can ruin your day. But you don’t have to react the same way, each time a thought pops into your head. There are ways of interrupting the negative effects of obsessive thinking.
Neuroplasticity is a branch of brain science which looks at how the brain can modify, change, adapt, and respond to experience. We also know the brain doesn’t “know” the difference between imagined experience and reality. How else do you explain getting panicky, just by thinking of a negative experience? Negative emotion is usually the body’s response to nothing more than a dream!
The key is to be intentional, to actually use your mind as a tool, not to be used by your mind. Take time to envision what you really want in your life. Accompany those visions with the emotions that you really want to have. When examining your past, reframe your reaction to everything that has happened to you. No matter how “bad” it seems, there is always a way of extracting a benefit, if you are open to this way of thinking. Things are never as final or as permanent as your mind would have you to believe. The brain’s way of compartmentalizing experience is downright deceiving. Life is not as rigid as it seems, it’s fluid, flexible, and chaotic. But you can reorganize your mind, you can create new, mental pathways towards your desired dreams and emotions. You can also reframe the past, so that you’re looking at how your experiences were potentially beneficial for you in some way. Start taking advantage of your cognitive abilities to intentionally envision, and to intentionally reframe past experiences, and stop letting your thoughts disrupt your well-being.