“The Pollyana Effect”
My mother started me in my quest to be more positive at an early age. “The Power of Positive Thinking” and similar books were part of our home library. But does thinking more positively make you happier? Or maybe happier people just tend to be more positive? Is happiness the same as optimism? How do we know if we are indeed happy if we don’t know what it is?
Growing up, I was labeled “Pollyanna” by my little sister. I didn’t realize at 12 that I was that positive. I remember feeling pretty lonely, bored, and unhappy. But her perception was that I was unrealistically happy. Which, of course, I hated at that time. However, I believe that it was that ability, even when bored and lonely, to find something positive that has made me so resilient in life. To some degree, I was better at choosing the more positive thoughts.
Louise Hay is an author and speaker who has spent her life demonstrating the power of positive thought. She agrees that we can and do choose our thoughts. It is her contention that she cured her cancer with positive thoughts. But is this idea helpful to others? How does the average person become more positive and happier in their lives? Is it possible to change your happiness set point?
I believe it is. Throughout my life, I have used self-hypnosis, hypnotherapy, and NLP to increase my ability to be positive, resilient, and, yes, happier. By using hypnosis to develop better focus and the ability to increase my positive self-talk subconsciously, I have increased the amount of time spent in a state of happiness, and you can too.
