What is an attitude? It is a state of mind, a prevailing
thought and it influences every aspect of our life. As a melancholy from birth,
my attitude reflected a pessimistic bent.
I had a hard time seeing a glass half full, because my fearful
and insecure personality saw everything as a potential problem. I was never
satisfied and rarely hopeful. Depression constantly nipped at my heels.
The stresses of life intimately influence our attitude,
which effects our thoughts, words and deeds. According to doctors, stress
causes illness and infection to invade our physical, mental and emotional state
of being.
Scientific research found a direct correlation between
stress and our cortisol levels, which is supposed to help us to deal with stress.
The adrenal glands produce cortisol, so we are able to flee or fight.
After we deal with the stress of a situation, the
cortisol and adrenalin are supposed to subside and our body returns to normal.
However, with chronic stress these chemical are constantly on high alert and
affect our heart, digestion, sleep and energy level, and cause us to suffer
from weight gain and adrenal fatigue.
In turn, adrenal fatigue contributes to major issues such
as autoimmune disease and its accompanying illnesses. Pessimism exacerbates
these issues and affects our mental and emotional status as well.
The exception to this rule is when a healthy sense of
pessimism encourages us to seek wise counsel, make prudent plans and
discourages us from taking unnecessary risks.
However, optimism usually works more in our favor. If we discipline
our inner dialogue with our self to stay positive and trust God to help us, we
will live more optimistically. Godly optimism empowers us to make a difference
in our life and also in our world.
Prayer:
Father God, remind us that negative
self-talk in our mind will defeat us every time. Satan whispers lies in our
"ear" and we end up embracing them. Help us to stop judging or
criticizing our self and others, and to be encouraging - especially to our self.
As a pessimist, life feels overwhelming
to me, but I thank You for helping me to reword my self-talk and to think more
positively. You changed my thought processes and are helping me to change my
world by allowing Your Word to cleanse my soul and to restore to me the joy of
my salvation (Psalm 51:10).
Thought for the Day:
God's Spirit will choose one aspect of
our life at a time, and change our way of thinking about that issue, which helps
us to change our focus about other issues as well.
