5. Practice Positive Emotions
“Day by day in every way, I’m getting better and better” is a famous affirmation from Emile Coue. He recommended it be said 20 times a day, preferably first and last thing at night. There have been varying claims about it’s effectiveness, however it has been demonstrated numerous times that embracing positive emotions has a positive impact on mental health so why wouldn’t it on physical health as well.
I have heard of people with strong visualisation skills focussing on a tumour and imagining it getting fractionally smaller each day, to find that after several months it has got smaller.
The mind and body to me are extraordinary. Just because something can’t be explained or proved yet doesn’t mean to say it isn’t possible. We know that some drug treatments only work for some people, so why doesn’t it work on everyone. Obviously we can have different physiologies that may explain it, but I personally believe the mental state can also have a large influence.
So apart from positive affirmations, what else can you do to encourage positive emotions. Find something that makes you laugh. There is a reason why there is a saying that Laughter is the best medicine. With Internet access it is easier than ever to find something funny to at least make you smile.
Making note of things that make you happy also means that you can go back and remember the experience of happiness and how that made you feel.
For me listening to great music, seriously loud makes me feel good. Make sure that you rate the music you like so that if you’re feeling down you can easily find your top rated music. There is a lot of studies showing that listening to music increases productivity, especially when it is familiar music. Much better to listen to music you enjoy than to watch negative events on the news or Internet.
Choose what to feed your mind with as much as you choose to feed your body. You may need to radically change your mental diet as much as your food.
Where possible be active. Activity stimulates positive chemical reactions in the brain.
Ideally surround yourself with positive people. One way to do this is being positive yourself in your relationship with others. Focus on the good in others and try and not have negative conversations about people who may or may not be there. Be an encourager not a detractor.
These things are sometimes not easy to do especially when feeling ill. So, try setting yourself a target of positive time a day. This is your positive time.
Bad things may happen that make you feel negative. If this happens then try and set a limit on the amount of time you are going to be upset for. Be it an hour, a day or a week. Often when something bad happens there is nothing that can be done about it. It can’t be changed, the only thing that can be changed is how you process or react to it.