Positive thinking for pain relief
2008 Author: Jan Sadler
Negative, anxious thoughts have a negative effect upon your body and feelings and, conversely, positive, upbeat thoughts have a beneficial effect.
What are you telling yourself?
The benefits of positive thinking and having a positive attitude towards life are well known. A positive attitude influences the way we feel; we feel confident, enthusiastic, in control of our lives and our body is encouraged to function naturally and normally.
It is well proven that our thoughts directly affect the functioning of our bodies. Our thoughts translate immediately into physical or emotional reality. No sooner has a thought entered your mind than a change occurs in your body or emotions; it is as instant as switching on a light. Negative, anxious thoughts have a negative effect upon your body and feelings and, conversely, positive, upbeat thoughts have a beneficial effect.
we can actually have some influence on our bodies and emotions
This is good news for those of us with pain and back problems. It means we can actually have some influence on our bodies and emotions. We can make a positive contribution to our health and the reduction of our pain and so regain control of our lives.
You can prove for yourself, in quite a dramatic way, just how positive and
negative thoughts affect your body and emotions. Try the following simple, but revealing, experiment and see for yourself.
Thoughts test
- For the experiment you will need a piece of paper, writing paper will be fine. Use your dominant hand – that is, the hand you write with. Hold the piece of paper firmly between your thumb and your third finger. Now, hold the other end of the paper with the index finger and the thumb of your other hand. Test the strength of your grip by trying to pull the piece of paper out from between your thumb and third finger. You will find this very difficult to do.
- Next, for the sake of this experiment, you should now deliberately introduce some negative thoughts. With the paper held as before, between your thumb and third finger, tell yourself you are a weak and powerless person, a
victim of pain.
Now try again to pull out the paper with the thumb and forefinger of your other hand. You will find the paper slips out quite easily. Your muscles will have immediately become weaker because of your negative thoughts. Now, shake your hand in order to rid yourself of the negative thoughts and any tensions in your hands.
- Finally, grip the paper again in the same way and this time treat yourself to lots of positive thoughts. Praise yourself and tell yourself how wonderful you are, that you are strong and invincible and in charge of your life. Now try to pull out the paper. You will find that this time your muscles are full of strength and the paper cannot be easily removed.
The positive thoughts gave instant strength to your body. You proved for yourself that your thoughts, your emotions, and your body ...
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