Positive course
60,000 thoughts per day. About 90-95 per cent of these thoughts are not conscious. The subconscious mind is the autopilot of our brain and it is often the biggest contributor to our overall mood.
Memories of trauma are typically stored in our subconscious. If we have a lot of negative worry and self-talk going on this can become selfsabotaging. It helps to notice what our inner voice is telling us.
It was a liberating light bulb moment when I realised I did not have to believe everything I thought. We can gradually train ourselves to nudge our thoughts into a more positive direction.
In recent months I attended a fascinating workshop presented by Bruce Lipton, an American stem cell biologist best known as a pioneer in the field of epigenetics, which explores things that affect the action of our genes, or gene expression.
We now know that it is not just what genes we have, but whether they are switched on or off that counts. Epigenetic research has shown people can have more impact on modifying their health outcomes than was previously believed.
This is a very good news story to focus on if we are challenged with physical health problems. By tapping into our sub-conscious we can strengthen our mind as if it were a muscle. Methods to reprogram our sub-conscious can include mindfulness, selfhypnosis or positive visualisations. Adopting a more positive mindset has been shown to benefit the immune system and can often result in better health outcomes. At the very least, people will feel better along the way if they approach their illness or injury more optimistically.
At the same conference bestselling author Gregg Braden described that every time we experience an emotionally significant event, such as a trauma, it was stored as a neuropeptide in the brain and the heart. The body
stores these neuropeptides until we have the tools to be able to process them.
Negative emotions such as fear, anxiety and resentment cause the stress hormones adrenaline and cortisol to be released. These can activate the fight or flight reflex that prepares our body to protect itself from danger. Chronic anxiety and fear will keep the body locked in a defensive mode.
If we do not process our emotions they will likely present as a health issue in the body’s most vulnerable area. It is common for people with untreated post-traumatic stress disorder to develop chronic health conditions for this reason.
Taking more control of our thoughts is an active way to work on our rehabilitation. I tried to focus on the things I could control, such as what I thought about and choosing how I reacted. I trained myself to distract away from negative thinking spirals and tried to find moments of joy however small, such as catching a sunset or lighting a candle.
Taking an active approach to exercise, eating and sleeping was in my control. Good health is never a given, but it makes a difference to have a toolkit of strategies that might help. Choosing to feel gratitude and adopting a more positive attitude helps to build on the Buddhist theme “turn all adversity into a path of your liberation”. Sue Mackey is practice manager at Chris Mackey and Associates psychology services and author of the book Positive Oncology: An Optimistic Approach to the Big C.