Positive thinking – Suzy Cornflakes

Most of us identify with one or more human rights issues. These troubling conditions and events exchange focus on social media with fair regularity: human trafficking, refugees, children in cages, poverty, prejudice. Some cause political attention momentarily, but progress remains unsatisfactory.

Increased social isolation in the last year has had mixed effects, raising awareness but also causing greater polarization and unrest. When we fight for social justice, ironically, effects entirely opposite of our intent are bound to occur. Education helps, yet our educational system is in a desperate state due to closed schools and imposed isolation. Distance education means for some a relegation to an ineffective personal learning method, and for others an inability to escape unhealthy or abusive home situations. I could go on and on about very depressing and upsetting issues. Will we ever achieve peace and equity?

I was raised in a post Viet Nam era in which we looked forward to a great future. We seemed smart enough to avoid wars, avoid unhealthy habits that we learned about in school, like smoking and drug use, and we were taught to treat each other as equals. Have we moved backwards?

I have touched on “the human condition,” and perhaps this is reality, that we will always have social battles to “fight” for. Unfortunately, actual fighting or violence may break out when human beings cannot reason and compromise.

Positive thoughts repeated and reinforced, as well as rumination of negative ones both give rise to actions. What we think about shapes our actions and our lives. A positive thought life could be likened to a healthy diet. “Healthy in, healthy out.” A poor diet will wreak havoc on the body and physical health. In a similar way, negative visual images and consistent influx of upsetting headlines, tragedies, and human injustices wreak havoc on the mind, intensifying or causing mental health issues. Perhaps our first social responsibility lies in our daily thought life.

Positive thinking is more than a “Polyanna” philosophy; trying to completely ignore the wrongs in the world would be irresponsible.

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
Edmund Burke

We should not stop doing what is in our power, ability and circumstance to improve conditions, but we cannot do everything — nor can we address every issue. So why do we allow our minds to be exposed to an overload of them?

If the first responsibility we have is to our physical and mental health, and then that of our friends and family, what can we do to counteract the barrage of negativity? I touched on this in previous posts, how and why we need to stay positive. How we need to set personal limits on social media or on negative relationships. We become unhealthy and ineffective to the world around us if we remain depressed, hopeless, angry or hateful.

What have we learned from those of the past who persevered in incredibly difficult times? People like Abraham Lincoln, Milton Hershey, Viktor Frankel and George Washington Carver point toward a mindset of positivity, hope, and faith. These people had rich prayer lives.

Folks are usually about as happy as they make their minds up to be.
Abraham Lincoln

I find it fascinating that science supports prayer. Research in quantum entanglement suggests strongly that effects of subatomic particles defy time and space. We are scratching the surface at what may indeed one day prove the power of prayer. Some of my friends like to say that they are “sending good vibes” or “positive energy.” Go for it.

When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.
Viktor Frankl

Whatever issue you are most passionate about, how do you view others who are opposed or ignorant of your stance? I think this is a key question. We certainly saw the hateful mudslinging in this last American political election. If you feel hatred, if you have used a negative or ugly word about another, no matter how much you post on social media, no matter what you do, you will be ultimately ineffective. So why continue? Your own health suffers, your mental health suffers, your friends and family suffer whether you realize it or not.

Consider a diet of positivity.

A resurgence in Covid-19 cases has convinced our governor to mandate face masks in public places. We will find out all of the details over the next few days. Many people are feeling stress over the prolonged restrictions. I don’t have to go into detail about the peripheral fallout and negative effects of the virus on our society and economy. There are tragic aspects and yet I must believe that we are also learning so many things that will prove beneficial. Medical practices are honing telehealth procedures–something we have been saying we needed to do for years. And academia is finally being convinced of the value of distance education, creating lesson plans, curricula and programs to keep students on track, and to keep their schools viable.

I wonder if we will ever go back to what was normal just a few months ago. Will my five-year-old granddaughter sporting a colorful mask in a photo text ever know what life was like before…kids playing happily in the neighborhood, in and out of houses freely, visiting museums or going out to movies without masks? Well, a day at a time, I tell myself. They will grow up with their normal, as each of us did.

In the meantime, I think happy thoughts and relive memories of my own childhood. I wouldn’t say that it was without challenge or suffering, but all-in-all, I know that I was fortunate.

As a little girl I dreamed of horses. I was not quite as horse-crazy as Velvet Brown in National Velvet–but I was close. I had magazine clippings of Secretariat and Northern Dancer and all of the greats taped to the carnation pink walls of my bedroom. My Malibu Barbies rode “Dancer,” their brown plastic horse. Truly, my dreams were so vivid, climbing often onto the back of a silver horse and picking up speed to a gallop. I awoke one morning after dreaming that my Dad had told me in the middle of the night that he won a pony at the church raffle. It couldn’t be true, could it? I walked into the kitchen that morning and Dad was up, smiling–it certainly was true! We drove later in the afternoon to see the pony with my friend Amy and her Mom, who would board the pony for me. I would work on her farm in order to pay for that board.

Alas, the poor creature was very ill. Amy’s Mom, an assertive horsewoman convinced the owner to make good for this little twelve-year-old redhead. He substituted a finer, healthy pony, a two-year-old Welsh-Thoroughbred filly. I thought she was beautiful. She was a shiny Blue Roan which is essentially a black horse peppered with lots of silver-white hairs. She had a bright white star in the center of her forehead. I named her Seamist at first then changed it to Mystic Trinity, as I’d recently received the Children’s Living Bible and was learning about God. I called her Misty for short, and over the next year with Amy’s help I trained her, eventually showing, eventing and Pony-Clubbing.

I have wonderful memories of trekking to Pony Club, of playing chase in the field with friends on horseback, of jumping practice and trail rides, and most of all of the love that only a sweet pony can give.

When I outgrew Misty in high school I sold her to another little girl who showed her successfully. Years later, after many ribbons she was retired, and Misty aged into a silver-grey mare, her star no longer visible in her overall brightness.

I look back over decades of owning and riding horses since then, and though I cannot ride anymore because of my degenerative back condition, I am so thankful for the many memories that bring a smile to my face. I don’t have to dream about horses like a little girl, as I remember with clarity each one.

Amidst the strife of the present day, a verse I learned long ago in that little chunky Bible rings true:

…Fix your thoughts on what is true and good and right. Think about things that are pure and lovely, and dwell on the fine, good things in others. Think about all you can praise God for and be glad about. Keep putting into practice all you learned…and the God of peace will be with you.
Phillipians 4: 8,9

Caroline Leaf in Switch On Your Brain discusses the research and scientific support of the healing effects on brain neurochemistry when we think positively. Social media is rife with arguments and name-calling depending on one’s view of how the Covid-19 crisis and other social problems are handled. I have my own informed opinions, and will be socially active as well as I can. In order to avoid feeling down, I will take short breaks and close my eyes. I’ll think positive thoughts. I’ll see Misty once again, and climb onto her back for a ride through the sunny green countryside.

Tag: Positive thinking

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