Breathe in. Breathe out. Let your next breath fill you up from your toes to your head. How does it feel to be aware of the cycle of your breathing?
Our thought process revolves around the things we focus on at any given moment. Our thoughts come and go. They can be conscious or subconscious, running on automatic pilot. In the times of the current pandemic, it is easy to give in to fearful thoughts and keep perpetuating them round the clock. It is easy to get trapped in our own fear and unwillingly contribute to the degeneration of our physical and emotional health. Over many years of guiding and helping people with their health and emotional problems, spirituality, family issues, relationships etc., I have learned that our lives and our bodies can be healed from the inside out.
In 2015, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to scientists Tomas Lindahl, Paul Modrich and Aziz Sancar for their breakthrough work on the molecular mechanisms of DNA repair processes, which could lead to a cure for cancer. Earlier, in an article by Dr. Bret Stetka published in Scientific American, studies on the effects of thoughts and emotions on our health that were conducted over decades by various scientists led to the conclusion that our minds can control our physiological functions and affect our DNA.
Our DNA can repair itself. Our body can heal itself. We can take control over our thinking and let our thoughts become our allies. It isn’t as difficult as it seems. Negative thinking is a habit, and habits can be changed. Positive thinking, as any other thinking, is simply a result of our practice.
First, we need to become conscious of how and when to think positively, then it becomes our habit, and later our habit becomes our lifestyle.
As we choose something, and keep repeating our intention, it will gradually happen. At a certain point, new neural pathways will be created in our brain. Here is how it works:
• Our brain is built from neurons, among other things, and these neurons communicate with one another. Each of our thoughts invokes an emotion, which causes the production of a chemical substance, to which neurons react.
• When we think new positive thoughts, we begin to produce different chemical substances, and new neural pathways in our brains are created. Just as we start creating a new shortcut through a field or a lawn, using a new and more comfortable path, the more we use this new path, the deeper and more visible it becomes. In the same way, the neural pathways created in our brain become a part of our life.
For such a process to be effective, we need approximately six weeks. That is exactly the time needed for new neural pathways to be created and the old ones to disappear.
It is very important to remember that when we are experiencing a hard, painful or dramatic situation, we shouldn’t try to convince ourselves that everything is peachy and perfect. Our subconscious will laugh at it, and reject such thinking. But we can always say what is true in a way that will be helpful in our situation.
The statement “I choose” is a very powerful affirmation in itself. We can slowly start changing our habitual thinking by affirming, for example, “I choose to feel better and happier inside. Each day, I will find a moment to concentrate on the beauty I can find around. I choose to make my day to be peaceful and joyous. I choose to see world as a friendly place. I choose health over worries and illness.”
And then, after a few days, you can continue with similar statements, such as “Life can get better. There is always hope for a better tomorrow. I am letting myself to be stronger, happier and healthier, day after day. I know I can get through it. I can be strong. I can find beauty in each day. I choose to fill myself with Love and peace. All is good. I can relax and enjoy this moment.”
