TV and Affirmations

 How much television you watch on a daily basis? First of all, watching TV is a 'passive picturing' activity. Your brain is just processing what other brains created. Second, I've been hard put to count very many 'affirming' comments on the average program. What you 'put in' your brain tends to 'put out.'  One reported daily average in the United States is 4 hours of TV viewing per day; 3 hours a day in Australia. Mostly I watch some TV when the Olympics are playing. I love to watch brains do their thing in real time. Four hours a day? Never! Recently I ran across the results of a six-year study of 8,800 Australian men and women (over age 25 with no history of heart disease) that was reported in the journal Circulation. Those who watched more than 4 hours of TV a day had an 80% increased risk of death from cardiovascular disease over the 6-year time period as compared with people who watched 2 hours or less each day. The bottom line conclusion of the study? Too much TV is bad for your health. You may want to check out an article by Mark Stibich, PhD, on the topic.

http://longevity.about.com/od/liveto100/a/television-life-expectancy.htm

Children Believe . . .

Studies have shown that children believe what they are told. If they didn’t, likely the customs of Santa Clause, the Easter Bunny, and others would gradually die away. Children also believe what they hear people say about them and directly to them. I certainly did! I not only believed it but also acted on it for way too long! In reality, however well-meant (or not), each brain only has its own opinion and can only share that opinion—unless it purports to share something it got from another brain. Because I became so clear about this, I now often preface a remark with, “My brain’s opinion is . . .” or “I am happy to share my brain’s opinion with you. . .” I encourage every brain to go through a similar type of exercise to avoid blindly following someone else’s script that may have little if anything to do with their own brain.

Childhood Programming

As I was working on my latest manuscript “I Chose Hope—and that Made the Difference,” it became clear that my journey toward discovery—to viewing my life in color rather than in black and white—really began when I decided to go back in memory and recall and identify to the best of my ability what I’d heard and had been told during childhood: what I’d heard people say about me and what individuals had directly said to me (verbally or nonverbally) about who I was or was not, what I was or was not capable of doing, what I could or could not pursue in terms of options, and whether I would likely be successful or unsuccessful. Metaphorically, “start reading the script that was handed to me at birth (if not before). What I uncovered was a bit disconcerting because it became clear that for whatever reason, I had “believed” what I had heard and had been told. I had internalized their words to represent genuine and absolute truth—rather than perceiving that what they thought was only their brain’s opinion based on their own learning and life experience. 

Choose Close Friends Carefully

In life it is critically important to select your friends carefully for any number of reasons. Studies have shown that you become the average of the four or five people with whom you spent the most time. Studies have also shown that within a period of two or three years, you have an increased risk for picking up the behavioral patterns of those same individuals. This is especially true in relations to smoking, eating, obesity, exercising, and happiness, etc.. Take obesity, for example. Researchers have discovered that people whose close friends were obese were fifty-seven percent more likely to become obese, as well—and obesity is associated with more than 50 diseases including dementia. This doesn’t mean that you “will” mimic their behaviors but that it is more likely that this will happen—you have an increased risk.” Part of this susceptibility may be due to mirror neurons in your pre-frontal cortex ‘firing’ as you watch other do a behavior. Part is likely due to the conversations you have with those friends and what you hear them say to themselves and to others.

Aphorisms, 13

• This too shall pass; it might pass like a kidney stone but it will pass
• Life takes you to unexpected places—love brings you home
• To those who know they are loved, a kind word is a morsel; to those who are love-starved, a kind word is a banquet
• Love is all around you but you may miss it unless you open your heart and look for it
• Help your brain enjoy the rewards of driving its own vehicle: your brain
• It’s far easier to be rude to words on a screen than rude to a face—either way you can’t take them back
• Play ‘till the end—miracles still happen

Crafting Affirmations

“But I do not know what words to use!” is a comment I sometimes hear. As far as I know, there is no encyclopedia of “perfect affirmations.” By staying aware of what you tell yourself and listening to the style used by others when giving directions, it becomes easier and easier to recognize effective versus ineffective styles. I ask myself, “Do the words create a one-step picture or do they create a two-step picture that requires the brain to change the first picture into something else?” I was discussing Dr. Wegner’s work with a group of college freshman and said, “Don’t think about the white bear.” One of those college brains said, “Okay that tells me what not to do. What do you want me to do?” Another brain said, “Think about a brown bear.” The first brain asked, “Is that what you want me to think about? A brown bear?” It was such a clear example of unclear instructions.

Brain Susceptibility

Your brain is susceptible to what others say about you and may even record that (along with what you say to and about yourself) in the same place in the brain—so it is important to protect your brain (insofar as it is possible to do so) from negative input. Children are less able to do that. Consequently it is critical to evaluate what you were told about yourself and what you heard others say about yourself—or you may be risk for believing them. What they said was only their brain’s opinion but if you believed them if could derail your success or even influence you not to do something that your brain could be very good at doing.