Fibromyalgia & Chronic Pain LIFE Spring 2015, Issue 11 | Page 21

Fe e d Yo u r R e s i l i e n c e

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hen we generate a negative
thought, stress chemicals
activate in our brain. When we
express a negative thought out
loud, stress chemicals increase
even more. Barbara Fredrickson,
a noted psychologist, has demonstrated that it takes three to five
positive thoughts to counteract
the effects of a single negative one.

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onsistently thinking positively
enhances our well-being. In their
book, Words Can Change Your Brain,
Andrew Newberg, M.D., and Mark
Robert Waldman describe a landmark study involving a large group of
adults. Participants were asked at the
end of each day to write down three
things that went well for them with
a brief explanation of why. Newberg
and Waldman discovered that over
the next three months there was a
marked increase in happiness for the
participants, and feelings of depression continued to decrease even after
the writing project ceased.

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here is a voice in our mind that
can help us move toward more
positive thinking: our inner observer. Calling our inner observer
into service is kind of like hiring
a private investigator to investigate and monitor with detachment
what’s going on within us. With the
help of our observer, we can become
aware of the nature of our thoughts,
especially the ones that seem to be
operating beyond our control.

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e instruct our observer to
particularly let us know
when we get into critical or
anxious thoughts such as, “I am
exhausted,” or “I am inadequate,”
or “I will never get better.” Then
we can do something about it.

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e aren’t doing this to be critical
of ourselves or of our negative
thoughts (that’s just another negative

thought), or to reach
the unrealistic place
where a negative
thought never enters
our minds. Our intent
is to monitor our
thoughts and offset
the negative ones
with things that turn
us to the positive side.

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1

Foster your spirit

2

Think new thoughts

Meditate, pray, walk in the park
Take a mini-course, attend a lecture, read a book

3 Feed your creativity
Write a poem (anyone can), paint, garden, sew, sing, doodle
4

Touch more

5

Be of service

Give hugs, cuddle more, pet the dog
Phone a troubled friend, make a donation, volunteer

hen our minds
run with negativity, for instance, we can break in
by asking ourselves, “What can I do
in this moment to feel better?” Taking simple actions that pull us out
of the negative loop, such as paying
attention to our breath, drinking
a refreshing glass of cool water, or
focusing on a person we are grateful
for, can put us in positive territory.
Sometimes just a simple mantra or
positive word said to ourselves, such
as “peace,” “love,” or “home” can help.

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of a beautiful drum. When his best
friend saw the drum and wanted to
play with it, the boy felt torn. He told
his friend no because he didn’t want
to share, and his friend ran away.

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e sat on a rock and thought
about his dilemma. He hated
the fact that he had hurt his
friend, but he thought the drum
was too special to share. He went
to his wise grandfather for advice.

here are many other things we
can do: build activities in our day
that help us connect with our spiritual nature, surround ourselves with
more positive open-hearted people
and fill our lives with more laughter.
Not only will we begin to release
ourselves from negative thoughts
cycles, but we will strengthen our
inner core where resiliency resides.

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We each have our own two wolves
and enhance our energy resilience by
focusing on feeding the positive one.

ometimes a small positive
ceremony can be used to bring
light to each day. Jill, a good
friend of mine, recently described
to me how she and her husband,
who was in the last stages of cancer, would write down and discuss
what they were grateful for each
day. She said that for those few
minutes they were able to transcend the pain and sadness and
share moments of gratefulness.

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here is an old Cherokee legend
about a boy who received the gift

S pring 201 5

is grandfather said to the little
boy, “I often feel as if I have
two wolves inside of me. One wolf
is greedy and mean and the other
is kind and peaceful. You, my boy,
have the same two wolves.”
“Which one will win?” asked the
boy. The elder smiled and said,
“The one you feed.”

Author Lucia
Amsden lives in
New Mexico.
http://www.
amazon.com/
Breaking-EggsFinding-Meaning-Chronic/
dp/1432796100

Fibromyalgia & Chronic Pain

Life  21