While going through the motions of a typical Thursday night, cheerful thoughts and emotions emerging as the weekend approached, I came across an intriguing Ted Talk on subjective mindsets, Change your Mindset, Change the Game by Dr. Alia Crum from Stanford University. To summarize, Dr. Crum discusses the significance of how our mindsets influence our objective reality, the physical lenses we use to view life. Crum cites several experiments demonstrating the impact of our mindsets on our behavior; for instance, she mentions an experiment on a group of hotel workers that we divided into two groups: one group learning all the physical activity involved in their work and the other as the non-control group. What Crum discovered was, although both groups, on average, had the same amount of physical activity, the group with a more understanding of the physical activity within their work experienced greater health. Dr. Crum’s Ted Talk reminded me of an ongoing subtle experiment I’ve been conducting.
Attending college with a new environment and new people gave me the idea of improving my communication with others. In High School, I was interminably nervous, and I was unmotivated to change my communication with others. I thought to myself, I would wait until I began college. Sure enough, when I started college I soon changed into a more extroverted person, which has had unimaginable effects on other areas of my life. My academic performance has improved tremendously, my verbal communication strengthened, and my overall physical health improved. What fostered such events? My new perspective on life. Prior to college, I had a dim view of life. Everything was terrible and people, in general, were inconsiderate and lazy. As time went on I slowly changed my perspective. As my mindset became more positive, my life improved. Dr. Crum’s scientific opinion nonetheless has empirical evidence, me.
Dr. Crum’s analysis on the mindset is a leap in psychological science, but it is inadequate. Indeed, my attitude towards life evolved for the better by the change in my mindset, but my Christian faith is also intertwined in this new profound change in my perspective. The Christian faith explicitly reveals an afterlife, a life after death. As a believer in the resurrected Christ, I have a type of joy I didn’t have before I accepted Christ because I know now that when this life perishes there’s a new life with Christ in Heaven that will never perish. This is profound in its magnitude since a Christian worldview is the polar opposite of the hopeless worldview of atheism, where this life is it. The profound change in a person’s mindset when they repent of their sins and accept Christ is astonishing. Happiness begins to overflow from the Holy Spirit to the believer’s mindset which is indescribable to the person of pure naturalism. If only Crum tested the mindsets of a group of Christians versus a group of non-believers her analysis would be complete.
Watching Dr. Crum’s Ted Talk reminded me that happiness will not come from better circumstances, only a new mindset will change your perspective on life. It’s time to let go of those things hindering you from joy and hope. Whatever circumstances are holding you back from your greatest potential in happiness, remember our God is unstoppable and all powerful. God can change your life, and that alone should encourage you to be happy.
