The famous words of Eric Idle in Monty Python’s Life of Brian could not be truer and I will most definitely be one of the many other people saying my last farewell to this world with “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life” playing in the background.
But do you realise that there is evidence in the world of neuroscience which demonstrates that making an effort to see the positive in a situation does actually form new connections in your brain and, with practice, these connections are strengthened so that you can become that happy positive person you always wanted to be.
It’s like this….
Imagine that every day you have to cross a field and every day you go in through the gate and automatically take the same path across that you do every day and have done for many years. You don’t have to think about which path to take, the grass is worn away and it’s a well defined path, it’s not the easiest of paths, but you automatically take it anyway because it’s the only path you know.
Now, imagine that one day you enter that field, just as you do every day; but this time you stop and think and you decide that you are not going to take the old difficult path, you can see that there is an easier way, so you start to make a new path.
To start with, because you have subconsciously taken the old path for many years, you sometimes start down the old path, but you become consciously aware of it and you stop and cross back to the new path you are starting to tread. The more often you think to yourself ‘today I’m going to take the easy path’ and remember to take your new happy path, the more practice you are getting at following a positive, happy easy path.
Then after a short while of practicing following the new path, you realist notice that the grass has grown over the old path that you don’t use it any more and the grass is now worn away on the new path and, without thinking about it, you automatically take this new happy path in your life.
This is exactly what is happening with your brain, by practicing thinking positively, you are remoulding your brain with those happy, easy, positive connections and strengthening them so you just become ‘happy’.
Try it! It is not the events in our lives which cause us to be unhappy or miserable, but the way we think about situations and we can all choose how we think. The old saying “every cloud has a silver lining” comes from somewhere – we can find the positive in every situation if we try.
If you need a little smile now click the link below to the ending scene from Monty Python’s Life of Brian.