All in the mind? How powerful is positive thinking?

When you go to a garden,
do you look at thorns or flowers?
Spend more time with roses and jasmine.
Rumi

Cognitive behaviour therapy would have us believe that many of our emotional and behavioural difficulties are the result of faulty thinking - How we think affects how we feel and how we act and so it continues in a feedback loop which often produces unhelpful and self-perpetuating patterns of thinking, feeling and acting. According to this theory we can choose how we think and so take control of our emotions and actions.

CBT encourages an action oriented experimental approach to dealing with distress and stress. It is a psycho-educational mode which encourages active and collaborative learning.

Recent developments link Mindfulness approaches with CBT suggesting an attitude of loving kindness towards one's wayward contrary thoughts. Mindfulness research suggests that the act of observing or bearing witness to painful thoughts and attending to them in a non-judgemental way can be enought to engender change.

Neuroscience and infant development research show how the presence or absence of attention and affection can impede or encourage the growth of brain neurons. We thrive when we are cared for, babies who are neglected will 'fail to thrive' even if their purely physiological needs are met - studies have shown that infant primates will chose affection before food as a neccessity for survival. The feeling of being loved and attended to is healing in ways we are only beginning to understand. These are two of the core conditions of person centred therapy - empathy and non-judgmental listening

. If we can adopt an attitude of kindness, openness and curiosity towards our emotions then we can begin to relate to them. The relationship is the healing - with others and with ourselves.

So can changing the mental messages and switching 'channels' make a positive difference?