Did you know that it is virtually impossible to feel depressed when you look up?" There is a wonderful truth in this simple statement. The English language has plenty of clues that support this.
Think about what the following means; "Feeling down", "Feeling low", "Depression", "Keep your chin up", "Things are looking up", "Things are taking off", "On a high". I am sure you can think of other examples.
We have a strong link between our emotions and our physiology. When you are feeling down or low, your posture changes, among other things you tend to look down a lot. When you look downwards you often are talking to yourself in your head. It is not out of the ordinary to have inner dialogue. Of the 80 000 thoughts a day you have each day, 60 000 will be the same as yesterday. Having internal dialogue helps us make sense of our world. Imagine, however; how you would feel if most of your thoughts are negative? Imagine the impact if your self-talk is predominantly demoralising?
The easiest way of changing your emotional state is changing your posture.
Why not try this out! Look down for a few moments and notice how you feel and become aware of how much you can see. Then look up for a few moments, notice your feeling and what you can see now. Notice a difference? When we have a habit of looking down our world becomes smaller, we retreat into ourselves and we can't see the big picture. Milton Erickson, who was a famous Hypnotherapist, used to get his depressed patients to count chimney pots. This cleverly gave his patients a good excuse to look up and start broadening their horizons. See what happens when you decide to consciously look up for a few hours. Obviously you need to take care of where you are walking when you try this.
Simple things such as looking up can make big differences. See for yourself and you never know your future may just become a bit brighter.
