Trusting the good ...

It's a new year!  How about a Bold and Courageous Aspiration for 2015?Your vow to Trust the Good!  AND magic it happens, right?  Probably not!  Unless you are a magician.  Because it turns out that trusting the good" is NOT easy.  AND it is because your brain is hardwired to pay more attention to negative experiences than positive ones.  So, what to do?Rick Hanson, and Kristin Neff have done pioneering work on self compassion and self care, tell us that negativity is like velcro and sticks to our brains.  Positive experiences, "the good" are like teflon, they don't stick.  Research offers ratios like 3 to 1 and 5 to 1.  It takes 3/5 good thoughts to have an equal weight to one bad thought for each of us.  Hanson's response to this is to "install"  the good thoughts.  My favorite exercise of his is called "taking in the good".  I was stunned the first time I did it, at how quickly my brain wanted to dash off and not take in the good.  I was recalling a particularly peaceful, halcyon day at Amrita Island on Cape Cod ... but part of my brain was not at all interested in "installing" or deepening this experience.  That part of me thinks the idea of "trusting the good" might be the dumbest or most dangerous thing it has ever heard of, so thus my struggle through the exercise and why I am writing this post.  I believe this is the most important work we can do right now and that we must teach our children this too.  AND it will take practice.  But thank goodness it is a 15 second exercise... once you get your mind to settle down and stay focused on exploring and absorbing the good.  I will be writing more about this during the year. So why should you add this to your already full schedules?  

1. It makes you hopeful and happy, therefore the learning and creativity centers in your brain turn on.  It is fun.  
2. Nothing new or alive will find you if you are worried or busy "being prepared for a future you don't know will ever happen!"  Worry and negativity block out happiness, creativity and learning.  Lots of brain research on this too.
3. It is a self-fulfilling prophecy.  Notice the good and you will feel the good.  Notice the bad and you feel bad.  Remember you can't come up with good strategy or new idea from a place that is fear based. 

I could go on and on.  It is good for your health etc. but really the most persuasive argument is your own experience.  So, at the start of 2015, will you join me in  committing  to take in the good?   I am doing this exercise once a day, five days a week.  For specific instructions on how to do this.  Check out Rick Hanson's website.  Watch Take in the good, to learn from a master.