Healthier Living With Positive Thinking In 2016

Oh holidays, how joyous you are. Driving to and fro. Coordinating schedules with friends, family, and somehow squeezing in your own personal life somewhere in there. It can get a little overwhelming to keep your sanity or as I call it sometimes, your positive thinking in flow. 

Make your happiness your New Year’s resolution this 2016. I’m dead serious. Make the conscious effort to make your joy an everyday reality. It’s an exercise, mediation, whatever you want to call it. Make it your 2016 practice. With so much focus on what we put inside our bodies, let’s talk about our mind, and how it plays such an important part in our health.

Have you ever caught yourself in the car replaying a conversation? How someone treated you? Talked to you? Did you keep yourself focused on those negative feelings instead of realizing how lucky you are to be driving, while looking at a beautiful purple sky.

“Change your thinking,” I heard myself say. I let myself realize I was playing negative stories on loop. It’s the worst. It keeps you in a bad mood. You get nothing productive done, and then you end up snapping at everyone else around you. When all you have to do is practice letting go of those negative thoughts only you can hear.

Ending the negative loop also gives your body other benefits. When the Mayo Clinic extolls the virtues of positive thinking you gotta take notice.

• Increase your life span
• Lower your rates of depression
• Lower your levels of distress
• Have greater resistance to the common cold
• Have better psychological and physical well-being
• Reduce your risk of death from cardiovascular disease
• Have better coping skills during hardships and times of stress

The way you’re mindful at the grocery store for your health, is the same way you gotta increase your positive thinking. You put veggies in your cart, do the same with your mind. Think of it as positive mental veggies. Your body will love you.

So how do you start? How do you practice positive thinking when you’re fighting traffic on the 405? Barbara Markway Ph.D,. of Psychology Today, has some great ideas for better headspace thoughts in 2016.

Ask yourself necessary questions about your thoughts such as:

• Is this thought true?
• Is this thought important?
• Is this thought helpful?

Instead of saying “I'm a loser,” say, “I'm having the thought that I'm a loser.” Instead of saying, “I'm going to blow this test,” say “I'm having the thought that I'm going to blow this test.” The difference may seem subtle, but it can help you gain the perspective that you are not your thoughts.

Thank your mind. 

If you're having anxious thoughts such as, “I hope this plane doesn't crash…I hope the pilot knows what he’s doing…” say, “Thank you, mind. Thank you for trying to keep me safe. But there's nothing that you really need to do right now. I’ve got it covered.” I’m big on notes to myself, so sometimes I write my mind a letter of appreciation for its efforts, but also let it know it can take a break.

Let them float away.

This one involves imagery. You put each negative thought on a leaf and imagine it floating down a stream. When you have another thought, as you will, you put it on another leaf and watch it float by.

Sing your thoughts. 

Try singing your thoughts to the alphabet song or to Row, Row, Row Your Boat. Your thoughts will certainty sound absurd this way, which is the whole point. Say them in a funny voice. Try saying your thoughts in a funny voice. Maybe do an imitation of a cartoon character. 

Name your stories. 

Many times our thoughts are repetitive and involve the same stories. My story frequently is, “I don't really know what I'm doing.” When thoughts come up along that storyline, I can say, “Oh, here’s my I’m Incompetent story, and just let it go.

Do it anyway.

Perhaps the most important tip is to remember that you can have a thought and perform any kind of behavior at the same time. If it’s something you care about, it’s worth it to let the thoughts simply be. You don’t have to do anything about them.

I know this post broke a little bit of the norm. We take such good care of our physical bodies with exercise and diet, but those aren’t the only things that matter. Positive thinking for 2016 will make our lives better, and the lives of everyone else around you. Let good things happen to you. 

Was it easier to be fitter in the 80's?

Looking at old family, you see happy smiles, trips to visit the Easter bunny, but have you noticed how amazingly fit everyone looks? People were eating butter, lots of red meat, and they weren’t really hitting the gym. Is just our imaginations? No, scientist have recently confirmed people today, who eat and exercise the same amount as people 20 years ago, are actually bigger.

A study published recently in the journal Obesity Research & Clinical Practice found that it’s harder for adults today to maintain the same weight as those 20 to 30 years ago did, even at the same levels of food intake and exercise.

The authors examined the dietary data of 36,400 Americans between 1971 and 2008 and the physical activity data of 14,419 people between 1988 and 2006. They grouped the data sets together by the amount of food and activity, age, and BMI.

They found a very surprising correlation: A given person, in 2006, eating the same amount of calories, taking in the same quantities of macronutrients like protein and fat, and exercising the same amount as a person of the same age did in 1988 would have a BMI that was about 2.3 points higher. In other words, people today are about 10 percent heavier than people were in the 1980s, even if they follow the exact same diet and exercise plans.

This note blew me away. You could be eating and exercising in the exact same way, but your 1988 self would be smaller than your 2015 self. So what gives? You’re eating the same amount of calories, burning the same amount of calories, but your size would be different. It doesn’t make sense. 

Research finds it’s a combination of increased exposure to hormone-altering chemicals, the rise in prescription meds like antidepressants that can lead to weight gain, and changing gut bacteria from our meat- and sugar-heavy diets. Plus, stress, eating later, and exposure to light at night, which can mess with your sleep rhythms. 

Think of the number of nights you have laid in bed, with the tablet on your lap watching Netflix. Bet you’re also scrolling through your smartphone while you’re watching your favorite tv show. This new technology behavior sadly isn’t good for us, and our bodies are letting us know.

When it comes to medication, hey, if you need it you need it. Where we can make a difference is what we’re eating, finding a way to unwind, not eating late night, and putting away technology before we’re ready to call it a night. Treat your 2015 body likes it 1988 again.

Add more organic food staples into your life. Those everyday items are the ones with hidden with additives. If you’re drinking cow milk, you don’t know what kind of chemicals may have been injected into it or what kind of feed it’s grazing off. It’s scary when you think about it. It explains how you can be eating the same things in 1988 and 2015, but your body will look different.

Scientist also said adding a little zen to your life is necessary. The driving here, driving there, the constant hustle. You have to stop. Give your body a chance to let go of all the tension life gives you day to day. Try some of these tips to bring some more ‘om’ into your life. Don’t carry around those knots you get from sitting on the freeway during rush hour.

After all that sitting on the freeway the last thing you want to do is cook as soon as you walk in the door. It’s why we’re having all these late night meals, which doctors are telling us need to stop. Maybe dinner isn’t the huge meal we think we should be. Who says you need a huge plate of food to end your day? 

There is no such thing as the perfect size, but we can work towards leading a healthy life. Scientists are telling us we need to take away some of the modern conveniences since they’re actually harming us instead of helping our bodies. We keep hearing natural, raw, organic, and it really could be a better way of life.