Kristen has a very good mind trick for creating positive thinking. Did you know that our mind thinks about 90,000 thoughts per day? Unfortunately, sometimes we can find ourselves thinking the same negative thoughts over and over again. And since thinking the same kind of thought repeatedly makes it easier for our minds to travel that same path, we can end up hard wiring ourselves into a cage of our own negative thinking.
Let me help you unlock yourself by sharing with you my “I like that” technique for conditioning the mind to think positively. The theory behind this exercise comes from the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon, also known as the frequency illusion concept, which is a psychological effect where a person begins to notice a string of situations in which a newly discovered concept keeps popping up. Because the mind highlights the recent occurrences, it makes it so that the mind becomes aware of more of the same.
How You Do It:
1. Begin by actively searching out or noticing things that you like.
2. Whenever your eye catches anything that agrees with you, say to yourself “I like that.” Liking something causes your mind to actively seek out, pick and choose more of the same things that bring you happiness. That happiness then causes your brain to release natural feel-good chemicals that then elevate your mood.
3. Do this technique often.
I’ve found that this simple little technique has done wonders in my own life. I catch myself automatically thinking “I like that, ooh…I like that,” all the time. That’s because my mind has been programmed to seek out what brings me joy and happiness. Use this technique in your own life and see how a small exercise can have a big impact on the way you feel.
Kristen Luman, Cht.