This past week we discussed several perspectives of psychological thought in the introductory psychology classes, and a couple of students wanted to know my favorite. “I like them all,” I replied to their inquiries. I truly do, for they all offer insight into the mysteries of human thought and behavior. However, this afternoon I must admit that I’m leaning towards the cognitive school of thought, the one that concentrates on memory, perception, dreams, daydreams, problem solving, and thoughts.
One reason I like this perspective is that we always have our minds with us. Granted, sometimes we don’t think as clearly as we need to. Sometimes our emotions, state of fatigue, or just plain fuzzy thinking can really do a number on us. Still, I agree with Shakespeare who said, “There’s nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.” If we can control our thoughts, we can better control our worlds.
I’ve been reading Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert, and I think one reason I’m enjoying it so much is because of funny and insightful way that she describes the psychological and spiritual nature of her opinions and experiences. While in India (her travels take her to Italy, India, and Indonesia), she realizes how ultra important it is for a person to choose and control her own thoughts. In fact, she states that if a person who can’t control her thoughts is “in deep trouble forever.”
When Gilbert began saying, “I will not harbor unhealthy thoughts anymore,” her mind latched onto the word “harbor,” and she began thinking about how it could be both a noun and a verb. While we think of a harbor as a safe place, a haven, and a refuge, sometimes we might let ships into our harbors (minds) that are negative and hurtful. Ships, like thoughts, can bring disease, death, despair, plague, doubt, and so forth. Who needs that? Her intention is to stop the entry of any negative thoughts into the harbor of her mind. In addition, she plans to eliminate any thoughts she might be currently harboring that have the potential for harm.
I’m bringing up Shakespeare and Gilbert simply because they’ve written about the cognitive perspective as applied to their lives. Do you agree with their beliefs about the power of thoughts in affecting our behavior and sense of well-being (or its opposite)? Have you ever deliberately changed your thoughts and thereby changed your world…or at least the way it looked to you?
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5 comments:
Without a single doubt, I believe that your thoughts control your life. And while it may seem like an elementary concept-controlling your thoughts is one of the most difficult practices you'll ever try. I face it every single day, every choice I make..."Am I going to let fear or faith control this particular choice?" How you look at the cup (half-empty or half-full) makes all the difference in every choice you make, which makes every difference in the life you lead. Consider the story I've heard from Ms. Bowers about the twins who ate anything as long as it had cinnamon on it-I bet those 2 households were different in every aspect because of the way the parents perceived everything.
I truely believe in train of thought. What ever you think will all ways be displayed, rather it is physical or verbal.
Thanks so much for responding to the post. Thoughts are "ultra-powerful" in shaping our moods, self-concepts, sense of self-efficacy, and so forth.
Lisa, I'm glad you remembered the story about the little monozygotic twins, both of whom preferred a little cinnamon on their food. As you mentioned, one set of parents viewed this behavior as indicative of a strong will and stubbornness while the other parents saw it as typical of their sweet, cooperative, easy-to-please little girl. It doesn't take too much imagination to know that if the parents THOUGHT these things, then these thoughts about their children were going to be shown to them. To take this a step further, the little girls could have bought into their parents "thinking" and began acting out a "self-fulfilling prophecy" (topic for another blog).
I have been reading some of the blogs on your website.
When it comes to peoples thoughts, do you think that
people can really change the way they think or do you think that it
could have something to do with our actions and wether or not we
act on those thoughts? Its hard for me to understand that people
can actually change there thoughts because thoughts just pop-up in
your mind, so how can you change that?
A couple of "thoughts" that popped into my mind have to do with desire and knowledge. You have to want to change your current mode of thinking and you have to have the knowledge about how to do so.
As mentioned on the course website, there are several models, and one that I'm thinking about right now consists of three easy steps:
1) thought catching
2) thought stopping
3) thought substituting
Perhaps someone who's reading this will come up with an example. If not, I'll add one later.
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