This week, NASA announced that their planet-hunting Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) captured a black hole tear apart a star in a cataclysmic phenomenon called a tidal disruption event.
As I watched in awe, I thought about all of the “black holes” in our lives that we allow to snuff out and consume our light. Black holes like regrets, grudges, “rules”, old stories that we still believe, lack of confidence, fear, clinging to the past, assumptions and judgments about ourselves and others.
It we don’t let these things go, they don’t let us go and grow. We remain comfortably captive to them. While we may be justified in our feelings, we can choose to rise above them and live fully, letting our bright light shine.
Holocaust survivor and psychiatrist Viktor E. Frankl’s quote sums it up the best, “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms - to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.” If anyone had the absolute right to be angry, bitter and broken, it certainly was Dr. Frankl. Our daily burdens pale in comparison.
New research was just released this week on the health benefits of optimism. “Thought patterns and mindsets are the most intimate parts of our experience,” said Dr. Alan Rozanski, lead author of a meta-analysis on optimism that was published Friday in the journal JAMA Network Open. "We have known for a few decades now that there's a relationship between psychological factors and heart disease.”
Optimism not only changes your perspective, it also helps your heart, literally. Think about all of those “black holes” and dare to consume them with your light.
6 Ways to Train Your Brain to Be More Optimistic
1. Try on a positive lens – the glass is not only half full, it’s overflowing!;
2. Be aware of who you surround yourself with – it’s easy to fall into the “misery loves company” trap;
3. Turn off the news – especially pertinent now with the political season in full swing (although it’s always in full swing);
4. Write in a journal a few minutes a day – gratitude can do wonders for your perspective. I just downloaded an awesome new app – 5 Minute Journal which is a simple and “doable” way to put your intentions into daily action;
5. Acknowledge what you can and can’t control – the Serenity Prayer sums that one up the best;
6. Acknowledge the negative – there are difficulties in life to be sure and shouldn’t be denied, but we can choose how we respond;
7. BONUS – lighten up and laugh more.
You have a choice to not allow the “black holes” that surround you to consume you. Choose carefully for it determines the quality of your life. Now go consume some black holes with your light.
“Everyone has his own specific vocation or mission in life; everyone must carry out a concrete assignment that demands fulfillment. Therein he cannot be replaced, nor can his life be repeated, thus, everyone's task is unique as his specific opportunity to implement it.” – Viktor E. Frankl