Posted 12/5/2014 5:11 PM (GMT 0)
My son is pursuing his Masters Degree in Positive Psychology and he has a different approach he feels we should take towards our anxiety. Most of us define ourselves by our anxiety but that is totally wrong....anxiety is not what defines us, anxiety "happens" to us. Rather than saying "I have anxiety and panic" we should say "anxiety and panic happen to me"....you should keep it outside yourself. It keeps you from feeling you have no control over it and doesn't overtake your entire being and personality. He also says we should not say "I suffer with anxiety", rather "when anxiety happens to me, I don't feel like myself although I know I am still me." He is a great believer in the power of positive thinking, which is always difficult when we are going through this, but he did an experiment with me that helped to opened my eyes. i was decorating the tree (which I mentioned in a previous post today had frustrated me enormously because I couldn't get the lights on right) and he came in and said "You know I really do love Christmas and I'm glad you decided to get a real tree again...it's starting to look beautiful and you're doing a great job." It instantly made me feel better and I went ahead and finished the tree and it DOES look great. Afterwards he asked me to take a test on his laptop for a course he's taking on Positive Psychology, and all my choices (too many to describe here) I supposedly answered in a positive way. He said, "the power of positive suggestion brings about positive thoughts in the other person." We have to start saying these positive type things to ourselves more often....it may not sink in at first when we're feeling so consumed by our anxiety, but doing it enough might help us climb out from under and begin to feel more hopeful. Something to consider.