Hello there, everyone and welcome to my 111 th blog.
It seems that my blogging has taken a bit of a back seat when compared to the number I was publishing a few months back. There are a number of reasons for this, a busy practice, a good few holidays, and perhaps losing a wee bit of my Mojo over the last while. Suffice it to say, I am comfortable with all of this, and will continue on my merry way of writing as and when the mood takes me.
Today is one of those days. On contemplation, I do consider myself a glass half full sort of chick, mostly, but not always. The negative, sometimes quite dark thoughts, remain steadfast in the back of my mind, threatening to surface on a whim and at any chance they may have. Given the fairly torrid, and I do not use that word loosely, time we have had over the last six months, I feel quite grateful for the fact that the glass has indeed managed to remain half full some of the time, and, I might add, not always with bubbles. The liquid has been water, a great deal of the time, and for this I am also pretty proud.
I digress. Let’s leave the liquids for the moment and concentrate our attention on the blog at hand. I do believe that I can become more positive.
Positive thinking is a big subject, and one which gets spoken of, and bandied about, with great frequency. Positive thinking does not mean that one ignores the horrid stuff. It just means that one approaches this stuff in a more productive way. As I have said several times before, one can’t change what life hands to you, but one can control how you manage it.
It seems that positive thinking begins with self-talk. That endless stream of unspoken thoughts that constantly run through my head. Some of these thoughts are logical and rational, However, others are not. They arise from misconceptions that I create due to lack of information. They may also come from expectations due to preconceived ideas of what may happen. On all of these, I am guilty as charged. The end result is that based on my thoughts, I am either an optimist or a pessimist. I believe I am an optimist, as mentioned above, but can let those pessimistic thoughts creep in rather too quickly, some of the time.
I felt that I needed to identify my negative thinking patterns, so I did my usual and started reading. I learnt quite a lot about how negativity can ease its way so quickly into my head.
- Filtering
I definitely do this. I finish a productive and fabulous day working and come home. Instead of basking in the glory of the day, I think of what I have to do tomorrow, worry about this, and filter out the positive aspects of my day.
- Personalizing
When something goes pear, for example a relative makes me feel bad or i am feeling tired, I immediately take it completely to heart, and I start beating myself up about not treating a patient optimally or not managing my time efficiently.
- Catastrophizing
I start imagining that things are going to go wrong and that I will have a bad day, anticipating the worst before it happens. I have a wild imagination at times, which is not particularly good when I fall into my negative burrow.
- Passing the buck
When something happens, I often blame others or the situation. I have come to the realization that I need to be cognisant of the fact that I am not at my best when I have family issues, or I have been sick, and then I can say and think quite nasty things about others.
- Exacerbating
I make a mountain out of a molehill far too often for my liking. A small problem escalates into an almighty one, at the speed of light, and it becomes magnified into an almighty issue, when it so does not need to.
- Perfectionism
I am very hard on myself and self-flagellate constantly, and, sadly, consistently. I am not OCD, but it is of paramount importance that I treat my patients and do other stuff as perfectly as I am able, often to the detriment of my health and wellness.
- Polarizing
I often do not allow myself to be immersed in the grey areas. It has to be black or white, and this can be rather wearying.
I definitely need to modify these behaviours and after some reading, it would seem that I may well be able to do this. It may take time and loads of practice, after all, I will be creating a new habit or two, but I definitely think that it will be well worth it.
- Recognizing areas of change
I worry, a lot. I waste a great deal of time pondering, assessing, and extrapolating, often incorrectly. I stress about the boys, Rich, my mum, Pops, my brother. When I start worrying, perhaps I can change my train of thought to thinking about work or plans for the day. When I am busy, this is very manageable, but when I have too much time on my hands, I may struggle with this.
- Self-examination
At times during the day, I should pause (that word again) check myself, assess my thinking, and if the thoughts are negative, I can try to stop them by taking a few deep breaths or practicing gratitude, praying, or just being. This is not going to be the easiest with my over thinking and hyperactive mind, but its worth bashing away at.
- Laughing
When times get a tad tough, and I am feeling negative or grumpy, I can find something that will make me laugh or smile. This is easy for me, and something I do often. I just love laughing, as most of you will know. At times I could perhaps calm the farm, and not be so ebullient and loud about it, but hey, its better than crying!
- Maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
Exercising or moving every day, aiming for optimal sleeps, and managing my stress will help me to keep a positive mindset. I am pretty good with this, for the most part. Since I was sick, I definitely have more moderate. Can you believe that I am using the word moderate? Perhaps I am growing up, Heaven forbid!
- Surrounding myself with positivity
I do this, mostly, and the majority of my friends are supportive, upbeat, and positive people. Sometimes my patients are not, but I seem to be able to park this quite well. Unfortunately, a member of my family not always so. This is very wearying at times, and a cross I have to bear. I do need to work on striving to keep my positivity in spite of this.
- Practicing positive self-talk
A great rule of thumb, I believe, is to not say anything to myself that I would not say to anyone else. Affirmations and mantras are particularly useful when a negative thought enters my mind.I must admit that I don’t do this much, and it is definitely something that would be very beneficial to me. I don’t need to say silly things to myself, like you are awesome and wonderful. That is not me and a bit naff What I could say is,” you can do it”, or “take a chance”, or “give it another try” or “it’s a learning opportunity”, I can do this.
The health benefits of positive thinking are manifold.
- I may feel better physically.
- I may feel less stressed.
- I may not succumb to an illness (been there, done that.)
- I may have better heart health, and this may reduce my risk of having a cardiovascular event.
- I may be able to cope better during times of stress and hardships.
- I may be more resilient to pain.
- I may live longer.
So, watch this space, guys, and if you happen to see a girl with an inane grin on her face, skipping merrily along whilst talking to herself, don’t be alarmed. This may be the very person that I become.
Only kidding. However, I will definitely give this a bash, aiming for my glass to remain half full.
With thanks to the Mayo Clinic for some great ideas,
Wishing you all a wonderful and positive week.