Overcoming ‘you can’t’
Tips to Grow Younger
‘ICAN’T!!”
Do you know what hinders many people from getting more out of life? It’s a little phrase with a big impact: I can’t. They think I can’t find time to exercise or I can’t date at my age or I can’t remember anything anymore and convince themselves it’s true. Or someone says. “You can’t,” and they believe it.
Paul Scheele gives a good example of the power of I can’t. In his book “Natural Brilliance,” Scheele tells about the time he was studying hypnosis. His teacher said, “Once you’ve put someone into a trance, suggest that they can’t do some simple act, like they can’t lift their foot because their shoe is glued to the floor. Then repeat these words several times. No matter how hard you try, you can’t.”
Well, during his first stage performance Scheele was amazed to see a 6-foot-tall man he had put into a trance stand before him unable to pick up his foot because he really believed his shoe was glued to the floor. The phrase “I can’t” is a very powerful negative force.
Often what we say begins with what we believe, and some of our beliefs can be very debilitating. Beliefs become rooted in our minds through the negative impact of incessant mind chatter. According to the National Science Foundation, the number of thoughts we have each day ranges from 12,000 to 50,000, though many themes are repeated relentlessly. Often these repetitive thoughts are negative, full of what we don’t like about ourselves or about what we’re afraid might happen in the future.
This negative mind chatter keeps us from enjoying life. It stops us from living up to our full potential as powerful, magnificent, joyful beings. And the dis-ease in our minds often becomes the disease in our bodies.
The mind chatter I’m referring to goes something like this for older folks: Oh, my bones are getting old; my eyes don’t see very good anymore. Guess my hearing will go next. And on top of all that, my memory is going to hell in a handbasket.
We’ve all been bombarded with ideas and images of what it looks and feels like to grow old and they contribute to our negative mind chatter. However, new scientific discoveries are revealing what many wise teachers and healers have taught for centuries: our thoughts and beliefs create our reality. Quantum physicists have found, to their complete surprise, that matter is affected by thought, a discovery that rocked the boat for the scientific community. Scientists have since peered into the life of our trillions of cells and found that they are actually responding to the environment of our thoughts and beliefs. What we say to ourselves about who we are and how we age does matter! As Henry Ford once said, “If you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.”
The good news is: you can change your negative mind chatter into positive self-talk and bring about the good feeling of rejuvenating your life and living happy. It all begins with watching – observing – what’s going on in your mind.