The more I learn about the way our minds work, the more I understand the power we have when we spin what we think. We are NOT trapped in our initial reaction to things. Or ... we don't have to be.....
A fair amount of research has been done in the last decade or so, looking at how the stories we spin ourselves matter to our health and well-being (and to our ability to successfully complete many sorts of tasks).
For example -- housekeeping (in a hotel, say) is hard physical work. If housekeepers think of that work as harmful and bad, they tend to be overweight and have bad cholesterol and blood-pressure numbers.
If you tell those workers how many calories their activities burn, and leave them with info (a poster in the break room?) detailing how much exercise they are getting as they work, they get healthier. With no apparent change other than how they think of their work.
!!!!!!
Another example -- our bodies gear up to do hard things by getting more oxygen to the parts that need it. If we perceive that raised heart-rate as "I'm freaking out about the test I will take in 10 minutes" we will have (on average) a poorer test result than if we think "I've got this! My body is sending extra blood to my brain, and we're going to do the best job we can do!"
It seems that fighting our body's response ("I'm so stressed -- why can't I relax?") makes everything worse. If we can tell ourselves "This is hard. My body and I are ready to handle it!" we work as a team (mind and body), and the result for our body is not just "not harmful" but actually is healthy!
STRONGLY recommend this book. Packed with intriguing thoughts.
Your library probably has it.
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