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This helped my depression....

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Posted 12/30/2009 9:37 AM (GMT 0)

Thank you Denise (Deejavu) and phillypina for the suggestions on positive thinking and its power!

I was reading some self-help books on depression, having gone through a particularly bad spell. I noticed we all (depressed or not) run "tracks" in our head. They are usually short. For example "I am sad", "I am mad/angry", etc. I thought about it and sure enough I had one playing in my head. I decided to try and change it by being more alert to its presence and then substituting a different one. I always used the same one. "I am happy". I said it aloud when practical (I sure didn't need people thinking I was nuts AND depressed!....lol) and especially repeated it to myself before I went to sleep and upon awakening. Within days I noticed a change in my mood. I am no longer on anti-depressants. I am NOT saying everyone could or should stop taking their meds. I am saying this can't hurt and might help.

Five+ years later I still use this. Anyone with a long term illness has to fight negative thinking from time to time. This is just something that helped me so thought I'd pass it on. smilewinkgrin

My warm regards to everyone,

MG

Posted 12/30/2009 12:38 PM (GMT 0)
Hi MG,

You are quite welcome.. I am a strong believer that we all have choices, we can choose to think negative thoughts or positive ones.

I actually first learned this in 1974 after I almost died from getting run over by a car as I was crossing a street, I was 17 years old at the time and it's a miracle that I survived. Everyone around me was so upset that I was actually cheering them up! I looked like someone from a horror movie with all the stitches and bandages on my head and body but it never crossed my mind to feel sorry for myself. Instead I tried to have fun with my situation!

My jaw was wired up for about 6 weeks so I had to drink my food through a straw and I loved melting Breyer's Vanilla Almond, staining out the almonds and drinking my ice cream! When the day came when the doctor removed the wires, I wanted a Whopper from Burger King really bad so my Mom stopped and she told me to wait inside the car, but oh no, I went inside Burger King and gave them the biggest smile I could (my jaw was still very stiff) and I liked shocking everyone! Hey, I was alive! My Mom became so angry at me for doing that, LOL!

When I had to wear a cast from my wrist to my shoulder I was told NOT to drive but I did it anyway! Yeah, I was a real rebel with a cause! I think I got my crazy sense of humor from my Dad as he found humor in every situation and I always admired that about my Dad.

Denise
Posted 12/30/2009 12:42 PM (GMT 0)
Good for you!!!! I absolutely agree with you, and anyone can create positive affirmations for anything they are going through whether it's health, weight loss, anxiety, etc...

Here are a few for health:
* Every Cell in my body vibrates with energy and health
* Loving myself heals my life. I nourish my mind, body and soul
* My body heals quickly and easily


If anyone needs help there are a ton of sites that give you examples, here's just one of the top ones that came up when I googled...

http://www.vitalaffirmations.com/affirmations.htm
Posted 12/30/2009 12:47 PM (GMT 0)
Jenn, thanks so much for that website, one could always use more positive affirmations!

I believe that what we think and feel transpires to our body in every which way!!
Posted 12/31/2009 5:00 AM (GMT 0)
CajunGrl, I totally feel for you and what you are saying. While in the grips of a serious, chronic disease, and ESP a disease that CAUSES depression, positive thinking is impossible. Negative thinking is a huge part of this disease, and I do believe it is caused in the brain.

Still, what I caught in your post was 'SPEAKING positive is very hard to do.' Yeah, it can be difficult to imposssible to try to bring yourself up, and/or believe what you need to belive. But still, you CAN SAY it. Even if you don't believe it. Just SAY it, and do it over and over, several times per day. Esp if you can do it in front of a mirrior. Affirmations.

NO, I cannot vouch for this success because I haven't put forth the energy required. (it DID help me once in the past, tho) But I believe it. So, altho it is very difficult for those w/ chronic illness/disease to believe what they are saying (affirmations), I do believe that your body listens to what we tell it -- right or wrong, positive or negative, etc.

CajunGrl, this in NO WAY is intended to say that you SHOULD be able to do this, or that, if you could, you would succeed. Practically NO ONE has been able to positively affect their afflictions. But some have.

Still, THIS seems to be universally applicable: If you repeat outloud and/or inside yourself ,very negative thoughts and beliefs, you can just about rest assured that you will continue to suffer w/ them.

I'm sorry , I have to go now. I just wanna know if it made sence to anyone?
Posted 12/31/2009 1:31 PM (GMT 0)
Yes, that makes much sense +Lyme as even though we can say positive words and deep in our hearts we don't truly believe what we are saying, somehow our body makeup (cells, etc.) is affected by positive words.

Here's another one of my stories (darn, how many do I have?) LOL!

In the 1980's I went for my routine eye exam and was shocked to learn that I was blind in my left eye. I never thought to walk around closing one eye so I had no idea I went blind in that eye. No one knew what caused that blindness and I went to the very best doctors for over a year and first they kept telling me I had syphillis (darn, I knew I most certainly did not!). Now I believe that I really had lyme back then but I didn't have any other symptoms and didn't know anything about lyme disease. I can see everything out of my right eye so it doesn't bother me at all.

Anyway, when I was working for a large company my boss who was one of the most interesting people I had ever met told me that I should tell myself this:

"I CAN see out of my left eye" not "I WANT to see out of my left eye" even though I did not believe it. She (my boss) explained to me that our cells die every second in the body and that over a million cells are made every minute in one's body. This is how one heals and grow. The cells naturally renew themselves after a certain period of time and are expelled out of the body.

And even though my conscious mind didn't believe what I was telling it, my subconscious did as I found out.. So I tried this affirmation every day, sometimes 3 times a day and guess what?

Eventually I started seeing peripherally out of my left eye to my delight whereas prior to that all I saw was total gray. It took several months and once I noticed I could start seeing I made an app't with the same eye doctors who performed all these intense tests on me and asked them to repeat the old tests. They looked at me and said "why do you want to do this? You are blind and there is no possible way you can see anything out of that eye!"

But I insisted and reminded them that I was paying for these tests so they did them. Well, they were shocked beyond belief that I could see partially out of my left eye.

Thus the point of this story is even though I didn't believe what I was saying to myself, my subconscious did listen and to this day I can still read a "partial" eye chart with my left eye (my retina has scarring tissue on it so I can't see straight but with all the medical research being done today on scarred retina's, I have faith that one day I will be able to see totally out of my left eye).

Denise
Posted 12/31/2009 1:59 PM (GMT 0)
I don't have Bartonella, but I have had Lyme rage and on those days, no it doesn't dawn on me to do an affirmation, however I feel by putting the information out there for others it may help them. It can't work for everyone all the time.

Chantal, I hope you start to feel better soon or at least get some relief.
Posted 1/1/2010 2:17 AM (GMT 0)
Denise I just love your up beat attitude. You give me so much hope. And I think thats why your better today.
God Bless you alway's and keep you safe and healthy.
Posted 1/1/2010 8:45 PM (GMT 0)
There's a semi-new book out called "Brightsided" - How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America.
Unlike scholarship that aims to understand or ameliorate social problems, positive psychology focuses only on the individual's attitude toward those problems, meaning it's a short skip to the point of view that happiness or unhappiness is entirely a function of how a person feels about her circumstances. But what if your circumstances are awful? How on Earth is one to parse the Satisfaction with Life Scale developed by positive psychologists?

Pumped up by paid motivators and divinely inspired CEOs, American business entered the midyears of the decade at a manic peak of delusional expectations, extending to the higher levels of leadership. Gripped by "runaway positive thinking," the markets rose and rose until reality receded into the far distance. Little wonder that it hit so hard when we all fell.

Americans are a "positive" people. This is our reputation as well as our self-image. We smile a lot and are often baffled when people from other cultures do not return the favor. In the well-worn stereotype, we are upbeat, cheerful, optimistic, and shallow, while foreigners are likely to be subtle, world-weary, and possibly decadent. American expatriate writers like Henry James and James Baldwin wrestled with and occasionally reinforced this stereotype, which I once encountered in the 1980s in the form of a remark by Soviet emigre poet Joseph Brodsky to the effect that the problem with Americans is that they have "never known suffering."

If I was well enough (or my husband in tune enough), I'd already own this book. I'll let you all know how it reads out.
Posted 1/2/2010 5:21 PM (GMT 0)
An attitude of gratitude, seeing your glass half full rather than half empty. I think this is what you mean. It does not mean your sight will be restored if you just believe hard enough. It means you will see just as much out of your other eye and be darn appreciative that it still works. It is rejoicing over being just half blind rather than totally blind. Besides that, our brain believes what we tell it. If we tell ourselves we have nothing to live for, our lives are miserable and we are a failure, we will act that way and feel that way.
So I am very glad you brought this up. You don't need to have lyme or bart to feel negative. Even if I oppose the thought what harm does it do to say something positive out loud? It is a good day. My family is together for the holidays. I am having a friend come over and we will have a good time together. I will forget my mental ravings about getting cured and just be ok with where I am long enough to enjoy the peace.
Posted 1/2/2010 5:52 PM (GMT 0)
Even before Lyme I always thought (obviously still do) that the glass was half-full. It's not that black and white though.... for me???? I want a FULL GLASS!
Posted 1/2/2010 11:13 PM (GMT 0)
Well, as I wrote before: by using positive affirmations I did restore most of my sight in my bad eye. I will continue to say positive words so I can and will see through my scarred retina, the only part left of my bad eye that I can't see 100% through.

I never did any research on why this works (I took my bosses word for it as she explained to me why) so earlier I was curious (when am I not curious?), became the mad researcher again and started finding out why it did work and this is what I found.

Below is an video which lasts more than 30 minutes by Dr. Bruce Lipton who produced evidence of changing one's DNA by one's thoughts. It's really interesting and very involved. And that site led to to another site which led me to even more sites (no pun intended!).

If you scroll down and have more than 30 minutes to watch Dr. Lipton it's really fascinating! What I didn't know before was about the proteins as well as other things Dr. Lipton talks about:

http://www.eruptingmind.com/positive-thoughts-health/

More interesting sites:

http://www.articlesbase.com/spirituality-articles/your-thoughts-can-change-your-dna-258420.html

http://www.dnaperfection.com/

I'm sure if you google positive thinking and DNA you can find lots more information!



Denise
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