The “O” in Creation Health stands for Outlook.
Are you often fighting negative thoughts?
Have you ever felt helpless to change the situation you’re in?
Do you wish you were more positive with other people?
Would you like to know surefire steps to creating a positive outlook?
__________________________________________________
This evenings blog represents the seventh of the eight principles of the introduction to C.R.E.A.T.I.O.N. Health Discovery. Information in this blog is from the book C.R.E.A.T.I.O.N. Health Discovery. As you read these posts, if you wish to read the entire book by Drs. Des Cummings, Jr. and Monica Reed, please visit this link: Creation Health Discovery.
_________________________________________________
Outlook is a gift you give yourself, the colors with which you paint the world. God designed each of us to be different, special, unique and wonderful. But having a negative outlook is not in his plan. A negative outlook switches off the lights of hope. It changes love to hate and peace to stress.
A positive outlook does just the opposite. It turns on the lights, ignites love and allows our heart to focus on possibilities not problems. He made us to be positive and his example sets the standards.
Scientific Support for Outlook
Attitude is more than simply a state of mind. It can influence how the brain manages the healing process. Dr. Richard Davidson at the University Wisconsin has discovered that people who have a positive attitude have more electrical and metabolic activity on the left side of the brain’s pre-frontal lobe. This is the side of the brain that when activated is associated with greater numbers of natural killer cells that help us fight viruses and perhaps even cancer.
Following the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center, Jonathan Steinberg, Chief of Cardiology at New York’s St. Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital Center, lead a study on New York City’s heart patients. He found that they suffered twice the usual rate of life threatening heart arrhythmias in the months following the attacks. “Prolonged stress has physiological consequences”, Steinberg observes.
From Helplessness to Optimism
While we can’t change other people and some circumstances, we can take control of our lives and take small steps towards transforming our outlook and in turn, our health and wellness.
Victor Frankl’s book Man’s Search for Meaning was written after spending two years as a prisoner of war. During that time, he concluded, “I have very little liberty from a physical standpoint.” “But”, he said, “I have all the freedom in the world to intellectually frame the experiences that come into my life, to choose one’s attitude in any given circumstance, to choose one’s own way”.
We do have a choice. We don’t have to become victims. Outlook is not the consequences of what others do to us. We are in control of our outlook. So we can opt to see the good. We can choose to see the beautiful, to appreciate what surrounds us. Our choices alter the way we view life, either improving or distorting our perspective.
In the Jungle, the Quiet Jungle
Believe it or not, these groundbreaking mind-body discoveries have their roots in the creation story. From the very beginning, God saw to instill in Adam a positive outlook on the world around him. He didn’t see dangers or enemies. He guided him to regard nature as a source of nurture.
In the garden of Eden, the first human being received a wonderful threefold message:
Play with all your heart.
Live with all your life.
Love with all your being.
It was a positive outlook, a perspective to expect good things. Each of us can change our environment.
Think Positive.
A 15-year study done by Kaiser Permanente, the largest managed healthcare organization in the United States, concluded that depressed people utilize healthcare services five times more than the normal population. Thus, teaching people hopefulness is a way of helping them to overcome depression and, in fact, improve their health.
Dr. Rebecca Moroose, medical director for a cancer institute, puts it this way: “People who have hope, people who have a goal, people who have a destiny that they want to see fulfilled, often live longer than those who curl up and die when they have a serious diagnosis.
Forgive Your Hecklers
In many cases choosing hope has a lot to do with letting the past be the past.
Forgiveness is another essential component of a positive outlook. You have to be willing to forgive others, to let go of the wrongs done to you. If you don’t, you will mostly be hurting yourself.
Holding on to anger is both unproductive and self-destructive. Studies have shown that holding onto hostility and the resulting stress it produces, can weaken the immune system and increase the risk for heart attack. On the other hand, possessing a spirit of forgiveness can actually reduce the same risk. You see, if we hold on to grudges in our hearts sicken, our souls shrivel, and eventually our bodies will physically suffer as well.
Seeing Through Gods Eyes
Too often when bad things happen to us and were in pain we want to blame someone or make someone else hurt. Instead of projecting our problems on to other people we need to deal with them. We must stop the blame game and start taking responsibility for our own emotions and behavior.
In the famous Sermon on the Mount, (Matthew 5-7) Jesus commented about people with a compulsion to criticize others. “First remove the plank from your own eye and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye”. In other words, work on your own issues.
There are three components to a healthy perspective:
First, look for the good,
Second, learn to forgive.
And finally, take responsibility.
Success Steps
Here are four practical steps to insure your outlook success.
Self-Talk–How you talk to yourself plays a major part in whether your outlook is positive or negative.
Shift Attention–Simply think about something else. Recall happy memories from years gone by, your favorite vacation spots, that person that was always your biggest cheerleader.
Put Problems On Hold–When negative thoughts chase each other through your mind, make yourself an appointment to mull them over later, when your rested and clearheaded.
Write a Letter–When you’re feeling frustrated, write down your negative thoughts as a letter. When you write down your negative thoughts they tend to lose their hold on you.
__________________________________________________________________________
Things turn out best for those that make the best of the way things turn out. John Wooden
A cheerful heart is good medicine. Proverbs 17:22
_________________________________________________________________________
Steve Johnson is a Certified C.R.E.A.T.I.O.N. Health Seminar Leader. For more information about when the full seminar is being presented or to have it presented to your group or organization, please visit the Heaven by Health Wellness Academy at www.heavenbyhealth.com
