Call the Thought Police

Here is a great article that shows how changing the way you
think about things changes the way you deal with them...

Help Is On The Way: Call In The Thought Police

We're all grownups here, right? How hard can it be to be a
functional adult? Then why do we struggle so? Depression and
anxiety disorders are epidemic in our society. Stress-related
health problems threaten the quality and span of our lives.
Alcoholism and drug addiction touch many of our lives and to me
reflect our attempts to find release or escape from pressure and
our failure to thrive.

Are we even built to withstand the strain of our increasingly
mechanized world? We adapt but at what cost? People move from
job to job, from state to state, weakening the fabric of
community and family ties. We are increasingly forced to rely on
our own internal resources and have a limited repertoire of
mental and emotional strategies to draw from. Our "emotional
intelligence" may not be up to processing and resolving the
myriad of challenges we face, especially when it comes to our
relationships.

What if relief was as easy as changing our thoughts?
Neuroscience is proving what Norman Vincent Peale posited in The
Power of Positive Thinking. We become physically addicted to
emotional states. Therein lies the power of negative thinking.
We reinforce neuro-pathways by repetition of thoughts and
associations so that we automatically switch on self-destructive
tapes. We feel resentment, anger, hurt, hopelessness and fear,
often unnecessarily. Many painful emotions are related to
injuries incurred in childhood and are re-experienced through
the hardwired perception of the immature mind we inhabited as a
child. By retraining our conscious mind, we can choose to put a
different spin on our perception of events, emotions and the
behavior of others.

The Buddhists believe that it takes 100,000 repetitions for any
new skill or idea to take hold. Undo established negatives by
eliminating every "should, "have to", "always" and "never" from
our vocabulary. Listen for other rigid, fixed ideas that
preclude seeing events in a dynamic, liberating way. By
challenging these carryovers from the past we can rewrite our
history from the perspective of the empowered adult. We then
create the space to realize that we have all the resources to
overcome life's obstacles. In time, and with many repetitions,
we change our thoughts and our lives.

About The Author: Candace Harris, LCSW Denver, CO 80210
303.668.4327 - Office, 303.504.4286 – Fax
http://www.therapylinx.com