Watching the nightly news can be depressing. It can leave you thinking the world’s a sad and sorry place. Even amongst acquaintances, bad news from someone may drag your spirits down. It can be tough to remain emotionally on an even keel and stay positive.
No one enjoys the “sinking feeling” that often accompanies upsetting news. Some people can deal with it as if it’s nothing more than a blip on their emotional radar. For others, feeling down can seem like a way of life. While not acting indifferent to suffering, most of us want to resist the creeping tide of fear or despair, and to respond to life’s difficulties with strength and composure. This is where buoyancy can help keep our head and heart above the water line.
Described as a state of mind, buoyancy is an inner capacity that carries you back to the surface when bad news threatens to pull you under. Coupled with resilience of spirit, it helps you recover your equilibrium, and prevents a downward spiral into depression. Buoyancy is a powerful, uplifting mind-quality. It resides in a person’s thinking. It’s a mental mechanism that lifts one’s mood and allows a person to resurface from the depths of unhappiness. Cultivating this mind-tool, can increase your ability to stay on top when things get you down. Here’s some ideas for doing this.
● Visualize being buoyant.
Newspaper editor, Arthur Brisbane, once famously said, “Use a picture. It’s worth a thousand words”. So if you’re mentally dragged down by news of misfortune, the following thought-image may trigger your mental buoyancy and help you cope.
It’s Summer. The sand is warm between your toes. Out in the bay a lone yellow buoy floats resolutely on the surface. You watch as the turbulent incoming surf washes over the top of it. Momentarily the marker buoy disappears beneath the force of the incoming wave. As the breaker sweeps by continuing its journey onto the beach, the buoy suddenly bobs to the surface again and resumes floating. You notice in your mind’s eye that although the force of each incoming wave threatens to sink the marker by pulling it down under the water, the buoy floats up effortlessly. The air inside it has made it completely buoyant. It never sinks to the bottom.
● Increase buoyancy levels.
An unknown author once quipped, “Good news about someone never gets past the door, but bad news will travel a thousand leagues away.” Evidence of this can be seen in everyday conversations, as well as in the media. Rather than drowning people in news of ill health, hopelessness and despair, why not look for, and pass on, good news that is encouraging, inspiring and thought-lifting.
Tip: Circulate good news more often. Think of it like putting on a mental “life-jacket”. Constructive, encouraging ideas about how to remain happy and healthy can free a person from the quicksand of depressing thoughts.
● Activate hopefulness.
To bounce back quickly from discouraging information, grab hold of your mental life-line – hopefulness. According to experts at The Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, “You can’t change what’s happened in the past, but you can always look toward the future. Accepting and even anticipating change makes it easier to adapt and view new challenges with less anxiety. …Don’t ignore your problems or try to wish them away. Instead, figure out what needs to be done, make a plan and take action… know that your situation can improve if you actively work at it.”
The benefits of hopefulness, are highlighted in the personal experience of an ancient writer. Downcast in his thinking, he started sinking into despair. He needed a mental “flotation device”. So, he activated hopefulness in what he called a life-saving, thought-sustaining, Life-force. This resulted in his thinking being lifted up. Like the unsinkable ocean buoy, he regained his natural composure and buoyancy of spirit.
Peace of mind doesn’t have to sink out of sight. Drawing on resilient-type thinking, embracing the concept of buoyancy and being hopeful, can keep you afloat when bad news gets you down. It’s already helped individuals to remain emotionally on top and to maintain a healthy mental state.
This article also appeared on Motherpedia – an online community for Mums by Mums
I’m a professional Christian Science Practitioner and Teacher. Through my prayer-based practice, I help people find happiness, health and healing.
What a wonderful start for the week just what was required and the link to other translations is a keeper so helpful, enlightening uplifting,
Thank you Beverly.
Thank you Pauline for your positive comment. I’m delighted that you found this post a “keeper, so helpful, enlightening, uplifting”. Buoyancy is such a needed quality of mind when the news of the day is so disheartening. Let’s have more good news. It’s what keeps us all afloat.
I entirely agree to the idea of keeping on top of events and to focus on solutions rather than problems. I spoke to a guy once who had been a POW in Germany. One of his fellow prisoners had a real chip on his shoulder about his situation and it showed, like a black cloud over his head. A guard said to him, “If you don’t stop thinking those damaging thoughts they will destroy you”. We have a choice to make in what we let into our thinking. Why choose to be miserable when a better choice is to start to enjoy life and put aside those things which would detract from our health? I once saw a T-shirt with ‘Choose life’ on it. This is a direct quote from Moses and is still valid today. ‘I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live.’ It works for me.
Thank you Peter for your excellent, “good news” comment. I’m glad that you are choosing life and living it to the full. No need to let the black clouds of bad news get us down. Mental buoyancy, hopefulness and resilience show the way to achieve a happy, healthy life.
Thank you, Beverley, for explaining so eloquently the way not just how to keep a head above the storm but to be happy and enjoy life NOW!
Thank you Michael for letting me know that you enjoyed this post. It’s good to know that everyone can stay buoyant and as you say, “be happy and enjoy life NOW.” No one has to let their thoughts sink below the waterline. They can stay up on top.
Great ideas! Thanks for putting it so clearly.
Good to have your comment Deborah. Thanks for leaving it. I’m glad that you found the idea of maintaining mental buoyancy clearly explained. It’s such a comfort to know that inner buoyancy can help people deal with bad news when such news tries to pull their thinking down.
Thank you Beverly. Another inspiring simple but potent statement of the Truth.
Thank you Neil for leaving your comment. Glad you found the piece inspiring. It’s encouraging to know that keeping thought uplifted and buoyant, does aid mental and physical wellbeing. It certainly is the truth that the ability to stay on top of discouragement, for example, lies within our thinking. It’s possible to remain hopeful in every circumstance.
Great reminder to watch what we allow into our thinking to influence us, thanks Beverley. “Trash or treasure”? We should make sure it is only “treasure” that we allow into our thought or to pass our lips.
We talk about something lifting our spirits don’t we? This is a reminder to look for the essential good inherent in each of us and lift our concepts of ourselves and others. Thanks for the “unknown author” link to biblehub.com – that’s a good one.
Thank you Kerri for leaving your comment. Good news is certainly needed to “lift our spirits” as you say. That is where hopefulness can help. Like the “ancient writer” I referred to, it’s possible for our thinking to be lifted up. And with mental buoyancy in our thinking, we will retain our natural composure and buoyancy of spirit.
Exactly what I needed to hear this morning Beverly. Thank you, it changed my day.
Thank you Yvonne for your comment. Really pleased that the idea of mental buoyancy gave you a head start for the day. No need to be cast down by disheartening news or events. Activating resilience and hopefulness lifts your thinking and keeps you happy and healthy.