Know Yourself

An article titled, “I Think I Can” in the February 25, 2018 edition of Time highlighted the power of thinking. Research published in Health Psychology studied 84 female hotel room attendants. These female employees told the researchers that they believed they completed little or no daily exercise during the workday. 42 or half of these female workers were told that they were meeting or exceeding national recommendations for 30 minutes of daily exercise. Within a month, these 42 females began believing they were now exercising because of their work. In fact, they lost weight, body fat and developed lower blood pressure, even though their daily work routines remained the same. A second study employing statistics from the National Health Interview Survey, and the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey examined data on 61,141 participants. Questions pertaining to whether or not they felt they were getting more, less, or about the same amount of exercise as most people their age was the important variable. Further, many of these individuals wore accelerometers tracking their physical activity. Then the researchers correlated the above information to data from the National Death Index that measured death rates. They found a strong association between people dying early and their beliefs that they were relatively inactive, regardless of the accelerometer measurements. In fact, the reality was that they were getting as much exercise as others their age. However, the risk of early death was 71% higher based on their belief regarding the amount of exercise. In other words, the perception that other people their age were more active had negative health effects consequences. Likely, these irrational thoughts increased their level of stress hormones. Once again, the power of thinking is significant. It doesn’t matter if one’s beliefs are correct, truthful or factual. It’s the perception of the beholder. However, thoughts, about some topics, tend to increase stress levels, depending upon the meaning we give to these ideas. For example, levels of stress can be exacerbated when dealing with loss, work, divorce, marriage, health etc. Further, irrational beliefs such as seeking approval; having to be loved; needing to be perfect; blaming others; complaining about fairness; and dealing with prejudice and frustration further increase levels of stress. It’s our thinking that gets us into trouble. Defense mechanisms such as repression, rationalization, projection, isolation of affect, intellectualization, etc. attempt to reduce anxiety or discomfort, but distort reality, evoke behavior choices and have disastrous long-term effects. Thus, fictional beliefs, assumptions, distorted generalizations, fairytales, non- rational thinking, prejudice, or other nonsensical self-talk, or delusions not only evoke behavior, but lead to unhappiness, depression, and ill health. This parataxic thinking is a function of consensual validation, anxiety, and a distorted self-perception. On the other hand, believing “I can” when it comes to realistic, logical, rational syntactic thinking coupled with appropriate behavioral choices increases expectancies that result in positive goal setting and achieving. The ancient Greek aphorism “know thyself” fits perfectly but extremely difficult to attain since choice or behavior is influenced by perception which is influenced by need, or drive of the individual. PS A Florida mom of a 12-year-old bullied girl who took her own life apparently said “I never thought she would kill herself.”