Use the "Think It To Feel It" Method to Change Your View On A Difficult Situation

If you have ever tried to change the way you’re viewing a difficult situation by borrowing a moment of joy from previous experiences, then chances are you’ve used the "Think it to Feel it" method. 

This approach works by imagining a positive past situation where you have experienced a certain emotion and then applying it to the present. Of course, you can also use visualizations, in which you imagine your future self experiencing the desired positive emotion, or even someone you know or love experiencing it.

For instance, if one of your present goals is to become more aware and feel more able to cope with situations that don’t precisely go as planned. Depending on the day, it can be hard to conjure up experiences from past situations where you maintained the level of calmness you wish to achieve. 

Otherwise, you probably wouldn’t need to use the "Think it to Feel it" method in the first place!

So instead of relying on memories, try to think about how you would like to feel, or perhaps other people in your life whom I’d like to be like.

Nearly all of us have one friend or acquaintance in our lives who we look up to -that one friend that always seems calm and relaxed in the most chaotic of moments. Use it. Hear their voice saying, "everything’s going to work out", or "take a big breath and go again".

Finding inner strength means observing our positive behaviors or those of others and
embodying them for ourselves 

This can also be empowering, meaning that even though you don’t yet have that quality, you know what it looks like and who around me can teach you about it. 

Your calm friend or family member can represent a conscious choice you are making to call on that feeling of relaxation. 

The same applies in other circumstances too.

In other words, if you are looking for love, focus on what made you feel good when you were in love, be it the confidence you felt, the happiness, or any other feeling.

In fact, actively reflecting on our good experiences and memories lights up areas of the brain in the same way that experiencing those feelings at the moment does!

Make no mistake: we aren’t comparing ourselves, but instead finding joy in difficult situations

It’s a mix of acceptance and positivity that allows us to take good emotions from the past and replace present difficulties. 

It’s an important distinction because we are often overthinking people’s abundance, happiness, or success. 

Similarly, we think that just because other people have succeeded, this makes us a failure. We don’t see the full picture, and our emotions are simply a mirror of our experiences.

Instead, call out those feelings you desire and watch how those desires can begin to manifest