In my show and seminar, The Magic of Cultivating Positive Emotions, I open with a few words about the mentalism I’m about to perform for the audience. Unbeknownst to them, however, is that sprinkled into that two minute opener are a few words that I reveal later were spoken for one reason — to misdirect their thoughts.
I won’t reveal here how that plays out during the show, but it does come as a shock to the audience when they realize how easily their thoughts were misdirected by a few, seemingly innocent words.
Misdirection — it’s one of four strategies I teach in my show and seminar to illustrate how we can change our thought patterns from the negative to the positive by misdirecting them. It takes practice and intentionality, but it does work.
Our minds are much more than what some materialist scientists have called a “meat computer.” In other words, they view our minds as merely a description of what our brains do. Other scientists, for instance, Dr. Caroline Leaf, author of the ground-breaking book Switch on Your Brain, demonstrates ample evidence that the brain and the mind are two separate but interacting entities. As she describes it in her book, “Our mind is designed to control the body, of which the brain is a part.”
What the mind thinks about and processes literally rewires our brain, either to the negative or the positive. We’re designed by our Creator to operate most optimally in a state of positivity. But we also have a bias known as the “negativity bias” — that tendency to drift negative and, subsequently, rewire our brains more negatively. And we don’t operate very efficiently in a state of negativity. So, it’s important that we misdirect our negative thoughts when they inevitably come to more positive thoughts.
Watch for and acknowledge the positives in your life. Focus on them. Celebrate them. When the negative thoughts come – and they surely will — misdirect your thoughts toward the positives that surround you. When you do there’s a literal, physical rewiring within your brain. And the more you do it, the more positively rewired your brain will be.
Rod Robison is an Arizona based mentalist, magician, author, and speaker. More about Rod Robison’s magic and mentalism shows, inspirational seminars, and sales training at www.ArizonaMentalist.com
