By Joseph Cozzo
It is easy to find yourself experiencing a rollercoaster of feeling good and bad these days. For too many, this emotional state has become the new normal, and a never-ending cycle of going to bed and waking up feeling dulled and depressed.
With the constant bombardment of bad news, negative images, and incendiary rhetoric, our brains are finding it easier to go to dark places, resulting in greater anxiety and fear. Many people feel alone in facing the inner and outer struggles that consume their days, intensifying these feelings even more, becoming a vicious cycle that becomes difficult to disrupt over time.
A helpful antidote to dispel all of this negative thinking is to ration out news into smaller, more manageable chunks. We must also become more critical and questioning thinkers as we try to absorb the never-ending cycle of information with which we are bombarded. Most importantly, we must be constantly mindful in focusing our thoughts to imagine strength and hope, rather than doom and gloom.
So, this month, during mental health awareness month, take a step back, and be intentionally grateful that you’re alive and blessed with so many things that others throughout our world pray and wish they had. Train your mind to seek the light, rather than the dark in our world and in your life.
Joseph Cozzo is President and CEO of Buffalo Hearing and Speech Center. Make it a point to follow Joe on Facebook to check out more of the wisdom he shares in his Take-It or Leave-It Free Advice Drive Through Clinic. Learn about Buffalo Hearing and Speech Center at www.askbhsc.org.
