“I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened.”  Mark Twain

Which do you tend to remember…compliments or criticisms?  Why?

Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about what happens to you.  (1 Pet. 5:7; NLT)

If you remember, earlier this week, I spoke of ANTs, an acronym for automatic negative thoughts.  Research shows that as many as 80% of our 60,000 thoughts a day are ANTs.  Further, ANTs tend to stress us out, in effect poisoning the various systems of our bodies.  I also pointed out that we have been divinely equipped to be able to take those thoughts captive as they come to us and either nurture them along to maturity or cast them out before they can take root.

Marci Shimoff, in her book Happy for No Reason, offers a piece of wisdom that most of us never consider.  “Your thoughts aren’t always true.”  She goes on, “You don’t believe everything you hear, do you?  Of course not.  You don’t believe everything your read either.  An in this age of special effects and Photoshop, you certainly can’t believe everything you see.  So…don’t believe everything you think!”

Now, on the surface that may sound pretty obvious, but it’s actually quite profound.  You see, when an ANT crawls into your brain, if you choose to nurture it, it can really drag you down…mentally, physically, and spiritually.  What if that thought was not true?  What a terrible waste of energy to go through all that anguish.  Have you ever noticed that most of the things you worry about never happen?  Calvin Coolidge once said, “If you see ten troubles coming down the road, you can be sure that nine will run into the ditch before they reach you.”

Most people tend to have a “negativity bias.”  That simply means that given the choice between nurturing a negative thought versus a positive thought, we’ll chose the negative thought over and over again.  Receive ten compliments and one criticism and which one will you dwell on?  If truth be known, most would dwell on the criticism.

Well, the good news (if you choose to believe it) is that you can change your thinking habits.  Remember the DG I did last February (2/6/08) entitled “Plastic Brains?”  In that article, I pointed out that you can “wire” new pathways in your brain, no matter what your age, if you just repeat that path enough.  Therefore, you can choose to break the old habit of “negativity bias” and replace it with a new, purposeful bias toward the positive.  For instance, you can choose to ignore the single criticism (after gleaning anything constructive from it), and purposely bask in the ten compliments.  Every time the criticism pops up, just gently replace it with thoughts of the compliments.  A little hard at first, but it does get easier the more you do it.

So, since we know that we can’t believe everything we think, when you find yourself wrestling with an ANT, simply ask the question, “Can I be absolutely certain that it’s true?  If there is not enough evidence to convict in a courtroom, then simply construct what Marci calls a “turnaround statement,” i.e., a statement that is the exact opposite of the ANT, and choose to nurture the more cheery alternative.  After all, it may be closer to the truth.  Again, like any new skill, this one will require some practice.  But you can do it, and the results are certainly more than worth the effort.

Until Friday, think happy thoughts!  Try making your circumstances the victim of your thinking rather than the other way around.  It works every time.

Prayer Power
Lord, thank You for being the Source that never fails.  When we can truly accept that as truth, a goodly number of our ANTs just disappear.  Hallelujah!!!

Link of the Day
The Annual ANTs Convention

Blessings on you as you purpose to challenge every ANT you see.