The power of the MIND And Positive Psychology

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Have you ever walked into a room and wondered, “Now, what was it that I came in here for?” or put those car keys down and then forgotten where you’ve put them.  Have you ever been out driving in your car, arrived at your destination and wondered how you got there?

We all do it every day, run on auto pilot, do things and forget what we’ve done.  This can be attributed to the power of your subconscious mind and what I’ve learned is that your subconscious mind is so powerful, that it can make you do things you know you shouldn’t do, like smoke when your head is telling you not to, or eat that chocolate when you are trying to lose weight.  SO, what is this subconscious mind?

Your mind can be broken down into three distinct regions, the conscious, subconscious and unconscious mind.

The Conscious Mind

The conscious mind, as the name suggests is where all of our conscious thought takes place.  All of our western education system is geared and directed towards the conscious mind, English, Maths, Science, etc are all geared towards this portion of your brain, yet funnily enough, scientists have confirmed that this only accounts for approximately 10% of our total brain capacity.  It’s our left brain, it’s where we think.

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The Subconscious Mind

The subconscious mind is where all of the things we do on auto-pilot are stored.  For example, do you remember when you first learned to drive?  There are approximately 57 different steps that take place from the moment you sit in the driver’s seat of a car until you simply pull away from the curb.  How stressful was that process to learn?  It was tough wasn’t it? Yet we all had to learn it.

Initially it was in our conscious mind that did the driving program and through trial and error or repetition we slowly learned those 57 processes and committed it to the subconscious mind so that nowadays, I bet you can drive your car away from the curb, while talking on a mobile phone, eating a sandwich and yelling at the kids in the back seat, all, while doing up your own seat belt.

The point I’m trying to make here, is that you’ve moved the act of driving from the conscious mind to the sub-conscious mind so that you no longer have to think about it. This is also the area of your brain where you feel.

In moving the driving process from the conscious to subconsciousness, you’ve created a computer program (as an analogy) so that when you want to drive a car, you run this program and it occurs automatically.  It happens in your sub-conscious mind without you having to think about it.

Now this region of your mind accounts for a whopping 55-70% of your total brain capacity, yet how much education goes on in our lives to actually train this area of the mind?  Very little I suggest and this is the direction that I’m heading shortly.

THE TRUE POWER OF POSITIVE SELF TALK

The Unconscious Mind

The third region, known as your unconscious mind is where things take place, while you are asleep or unconscious.  For example, you don’t need to be awake to breathe.  Nor do you need to be awake while you digest.  These things not only occur automatically, they can occur while you are unconscious.  SO WHAT YOU ASK?

Now why have I even bothered to talk about this at all?  Simple, your mind is the MOST powerful computer on this earth and until you learn to use it properly, (the entire mind, not just the conscious) you will NEVER reach your potential in this life.

I have read many books that talk about the power of the mind and I am convinced that the most successful people in the world throughout history understood this very aspect of human nature.

Question, where did such great monuments such as the Eiffel Tower come from?  Answer, they first appeared as an idea in someone’s mind.  The power of the mind created the Eiffel Tower.  Yes it’s a long leap from idea to actual structure, but my point is it had to start somewhere.  Gustave Eiffel had the thought, the vision and foresight to dream a dream, to think a thought, to imagine and then see it through.

I see it all the time when I’m training my clients in the gym.  So many times I hear them say, “I can’t do it, it’s too heavy, and I’ll never lift that weight”.  Just the thought is enough to lose the battle.  To prove my point, I wish I was given a dollar for every time I’d seen clients be positive and say “I can do this” and they invariably succeed.  I’d be rich and you wouldn’t be receiving the benefit of this wisdom that I’m now committing to paper.

If you say you can’t do something, you’ll automatically fail at it just to prove yourself correct.  Imagine what would happen if you said you could do something?  Imagine how much more successful you would be simply by changing your mindset?

I recall recently getting into a discussion about this at dinner with friends. (In hindsight, not a wise move) She was a very negative minded person who always saw the negative in everything.  In the end, we agreed to disagree.

You’ve all heard the saying “the cup is either half empty or half full”, depending on your point of view.  And I’ve often said to my clients that the mind is a very powerful tool.  So all you need to do is think positive, but how do you do this?

Positive Psychology

There is absolutely no doubt that optimistic and happy people think about the world differently. They don’t live in a different world but they certainly view the world in a different way. They focus significantly more on opportunities, rather than negatives or what could go wrong. Optimistic people focus more on their own strengths and qualities than those of others.

Wildly OptimisticPositive ThinkingLearned Optimism

 

They believe things will work out for the best and accordingly, they take action to ensure it does. This way of thinking lays the foundation for optimum performance in sport, business and in life.

Optimism is an integral part of performance. So how do you think optimistically if you’re not one of the “lucky few” who was born a natural optimist?

Easy, you learn!

Optimistic thinking is a skill and just like any other skill you first need to learn what to do and then you simply need to practice. Further, the more you practice your skills in optimistic thinking the better you get and the more effective your skills become. Ultimately, the more optimistic you are the greater the likelihood of improving your performance!

There are 4 steps to optimistic thinking:

1.   Think about how you think,
2.   Identify unhelpful ANT’s,
3.   Challenge your ANT’s,
4.   Replace ANT’s with POT’s.

1.  Think about how you think

Hold on, this might sound a bit out there but in essence it is about increasing your awareness of thinking (cognition). The best way to do this is to start keeping a thought diary. This involves writing down your thoughts (and feelings) in different situations throughout the day and carefully noting the relationship between certain types of thoughts and certain types of feelings. At this stage, don’t worry about changing anything, just try to become more aware of how you think in different situations (especially when under stress).

2.  Identify unhelpful ANT’s! (Automatic Negative Thoughts)

This is just another name for the “bad habits” we all have in our thinking. We all make occasional mistakes and sometimes these mistakes are in our thinking. Some common examples include being too “black and white”, “catastrophising” or making mountains out of molehills, overgeneralising or personalising (taking responsibility for something beyond your control). Although normal at times,  constant ANTs will lead to reduced output and performance, not to mention higher than necessary levels of distress.

3.  Challenge your ANTs

Just because you think something is, does not mean it’s true. Thoughts are not necessarily facts until such time as you allow your thoughts to impact on your behaviour, until what you thought eventually comes true and then becomes A FACT. If your ANTs are causing unnecessary distress you can learn to (in fact you’ll need to learn to) challenge or change them. This is simply a process that involves questioning your thoughts by asking questions like: Is this true? Is it helpful? Is it really that bad?

4.  Replace your ANTs with POTs (Positive Optimistic Thoughts)

We’re not talking about Bill and Ben the Flowerpot Men, rather the final step in the optimistic thinking process. Once you’ve identified and challenged your negative thoughts, it is time to start planting positive (but still realistic) thoughts. To do this, add to the preceding strategies by actively focusing on all the good things in your life; by actively looking for more good things in your life; by looking at difficult situations as opportunities to learn; and by believing good things will happen in the future.

When you’ve mastered these steps you’ll undoubtedly experience more positive thoughts and less energy draining thoughts so make sure you do all you can to challenge your ANTs and replace them with POTs. Remember though each of these steps is a separate skill and like all skills, mastery requires practice, time and perseverance.

Becoming an optimistic thinker might not happen over night but it will (if you work at it) happen! So, I hope you find this interesting.  Start putting these into practice and you will soon notice the change.