About Carl Sheusi
I’ve been developing the Light Inside Technique (LIT) since 2016, when it became clear to me that I needed a common-sense approach to reducing stress and increasing positivity. Insights have come from both doing the practice on my own and from using the various aspects of the technique in dialogue with others. I’m eager to share LIT with as many people as I can. Together we can create more peace and positivity.
Changing Our Thinking
“If you don’t like something, change it; if you can’t change it, change the way you think about it.” – Mary Engelbreit
What a brilliant statement by Mary Engelbreit. If there’s something we can improve about a bad situation, then of course do it. If we can’t change it, then we have to take a new perspective by changing our thoughts about it. Further, we can’t change the past, and at least to a certain extent we can’t change people and circumstances. What we can change is the way we think about them. Every circumstance, event and thought (about past, present or future) can be used as an opportunity for creating a new, positive mental habit of seeing the good in things. This is possible by virtue of neuroplasticity.
“The importance of neuroplasticity can’t be overstated: It means that it is possible to change dysfunctional patterns of thinking and behaving and to develop new mindsets, new memories, new skills, and new abilities.” – From Psychology Today
Modern science informs us that we can change our brain funtioning and mental habits. Practicing LIT with many people, and myself, has shown me that we can indeed expose deep stress in the individual mind and introduce new, positive ways of thinking about stressful events from the past, in the present, and whenever we have worries and concerns about the future. Creating positive mental habits is a choice we can make for ourselves and seeing the good in things can eventually become more automatic. Many have made this same claim about the ability to change our thinking toward greater positivity, including self-help author James Allen back in 1903:
A man cannot directly choose his circumstances, but he can choose his thoughts…” – James Allen, As a Man Thinketh
It’s important to note that changing our mental habits (our thoughts) around certain stressful experiences from our lives can take time, especially for the new positive thoughts to become automatic. We should be respectful of this and be patient with ourselves. To support and reinforce our personal movement toward growth and positive change, we can spend time with others who are practicing positivity.
- Anonymous