Thinking of flowers especially wild flowers uplifts me and brings me joy.

One of my favorite Bible verses is Philippians 4:8 “Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.”

If ever there was a need to dwell on these things is now.

Lately, I couldn’t understand why, when life is really pretty good, I was feeling “considerably rumpled in spirit”. It dawned on me that my listening to the news was having a negative effect on my thoughts. There is such despair and hopelessness regarding wars, climate, and hatred towards one another. I thought about all the negative thoughts entering my mind by the bombardment of one story after the next.

According to HealthyBrains.org- part of the Cleveland Clinic-our brains produce 70,000 thoughts per day. (Although I do wonder about that number and the definition of “thoughts”? Some days I wonder if I have any thoughts swirling in my grey matter and others, I cannot keep up with all them.) There are some numbers on the internet suggesting that approximately between 50- 80% of our thoughts are negative. Wonder why that is? Are we just hard wired to think negatively or is it due to our experience? A nature versus nurture of thoughts?

Regardless of the percentage of negative thoughts, the research also is clear that negativity is not good for our overall health. Besides the mental health aspects of depression, anxiety, and stress, there is also the physical aspects of negativity: high blood pressure, digestion problems, reduced immunity, headaches, fatigue, and dramatic changes in metabolism.

According to Johns Hopkins medicine, positive people are thirteen percent less likely than their negative counterparts to have a heart attack or coronary event. People who are positive, even with a history of family cardiac issues and the most risk factors, are one-third less likely to have a heart attack or coronary event within five to twenty-five years than those who are negative.

I believe the writer Paul knew the benefits of positivity when he encouraged people to think of these good things. Dwelling on the good, beautiful, praise worthy, and honorable are all traits of God. When we think of those things, we are tuning into the Creator of the universe and therefore filling ourselves with beneficial thoughts. If for anything, we are getting out of our own heads and our own spiral thinking.

In the Old Testament, the psalmist also encourages thinking of these good things: praise to God every day. It is good to praise the Lord and make music to your name, O Most High, proclaiming your love in the morning and your faithfulness at night, to the music of the ten-stringed lyre and the melody of the harp. (Psalm 92: 1-3.) What a good piece of sound advice to have a positive thought the first and the last thought of the day.

Granted, a lot of the pessimism that we hear may not be so much our individual “inner critic” but rather the state of the world around us. In most of those situations we have no control or say over the events. Yet when we keep hearing about it, we can start feeling bleak and helpless about things that we do have control over- our thoughts.

I liked some of the “life hacks” from the Forbes article.* Here are a few:

When you feel negative, handwrite answers to these questions: “What am I thinking?” “What am I feeling?” Don’t censor your responses. Doing this will help you quickly notice your emotions and any negative self-talk. Then, write down evidence to support and refute your perspective. This will help you to see how you’re framing the situation and challenge you to reframe it. I would also add to this- write down “What do I know?” This is where we can dwell on the truth of the situation.
Carry a picture that brings you joy. Those in the military who have been deployed carry a family picture with them in all that they do—it’s waterproof. Similarly, carry a joyous picture of your human family or perhaps you and your pet. Waterproof it and pull it out when you need a surge of optimism. It works during wars and conflicts, and it will work during the conflicts in your life and mind.
Exercise control over your thoughts. Sometimes, we have thoughts we cannot control. However, much of the time, we can create either a positive or negative inner dialogue. For example, instead of thinking “I’m going to fail,” I think, “I’m going to try this, and if I don’t succeed, I’ll learn something from it.

What about you? What do you think about? What type of thoughts do you general have? Positive? Negative? How does that type of thinking make you feel? How can you turn your negative to positive?

The beauty of God is that He gave us free will and the use of our brains and minds. However, sometimes in our “I know better” mentality, we fill up our minds with things that are not good for us- junk food for the brain so to speak and somethings, that junk can be downright deadly.

We need to dwell on the beauty and wonder of life. To fill our minds with things that uplift rather than depress.

References:

*https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2022/06/22/15-hacks-for-pessimists-to-switch-to-a-more-positive-point-of-view/?sh=2f3b406ad066
https://www.psychiatry.org/news-room/apa-blogs/rumination-a-cycle-of-negative-thinking
https://health.clevelandclinic.org/turn-around-negative-thinking/
https://marquemedical.com/effects-of-negativity/
https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/wellness-and-prevention/the-power-of-positive-thinking
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/09/18/americans-are-more-pessimistic-than-optimistic-about-many-aspects-of-the-countrys-future/