Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Why Worry?

From Martha Beck’s Article 20 Questions That Could Change Your Life www.oprah.com:

Why worry?
These two words, considered sincerely, can radically reconfigure the landscape of your mind. Worry rarely leads to positive action; it's just painful, useless fear about hypothetical events, which scuttles happiness rather than ensuring it. Some psychologists say that by focusing on gratitude, we can shut down the part of the brain that worries. It really works!

When making decisions of course we need logic and reason. However we want to make sure the genuis centers of our brain – the frontal lobes, are active when making decisions and not the more primitive hind brain which is more designed to deal with stress situations. Interestingly the best way to ‘fire up’ the frontal lobes is by having sincere heart based feelings of joy and gratitude. This shuts down the activity of the stress centers and powers up the frontal lobes.

This portion of Martha Beck's article really struck a cord with me. I went straight to Google Scholar to find proof that this was actually true. I could spend the next 30 days searching the available results but then asked myself “Why?”. I already know it works.

Off and on for years I have  kept a gratitude journal next to my bed. When my mind is spinning and keeping me awake I go back to the journal. I make note of at least 5 things that I am grateful for that occurred during my day. Like magic my focus changes to positive thoughts and I am no longer lying awake trying to change the world. There is my proof. Give it a try and let us know if it works for you.


No comments:

Post a Comment