Reprogram

Viruses are submicroscopic agents that only replicate within the living cells of an organism. They exist in virtually every ecosystem on Earth and are the most numerous type of biological entity. Viruses infect plants and animals, and even microorganisms like bacteria.

Some viruses spread through contact, while other viruses are airborne. Once a virus enters a host organism, it begins a complex, multi-stage process aimed at replicating itself and spreading. This often results in illness or disease in the host organism.

In humans, the body’s immune system is the first line of defense in combating a viral infection. When a virus enters the human body, the immune system responds in several ways. It produces antibodies to target and destroy the virus, and it also activates immune cells to seek out and kill infected cells.

But sometimes, the virus spreads more rapidly than the body can respond to combat the infection, or a virus appears that’s new to a species. If the host organism’s immune system has not yet encountered a specific antigen or a particular pathogen, it is considered “immunologically naïve.”

In humans, this means the body hasn’t developed a specific immune response to that antigen, like Memory T-cells or B-cells, which are crucial for rapid and effective defense against a novel virus.

This is how pandemics get started.

Between 541-549 AD, the bubonic plague (known as the Plague of Justinian) claimed the lives of 30-50 million people. The second outbreak of the bubonic plague (known as the Black Death) killed almost half of Europe, claiming the lives of 75-200 million between 1334-1353 AD.

For nearly 80 years (1520 – 1600 AD), the New World Smallpox pandemic claimed the lives of 25-55 million people, decimating much of the indigenous people of Central and North America in the process. Between 1918-1920, the Spanish Flu claimed the lives of between 50-100 million people. Most recently, the COVID-19 viral pandemic claimed the lives of an estimated 5-17 million people worldwide.

To combat these pandemics, science turns to vaccines.

Traditional vaccines work by stimulating the body's immune system to recognize and fight off a specific disease-causing organism (like a virus or bacteria) without causing the actual disease. They achieve this by exposing the body to a weakened, inactive, or part of the disease agent, which triggers the immune system to produce antibodies and memory cells, providing future protection.

Edward Jenner created the world's first successful vaccine. He found out that people infected with cowpox were immune to smallpox. In May 1796, English physician Edward Jenner expanded on this discovery and inoculated 8-year-old James Phipps with matter collected from a cowpox sore on the hand of a milkmaid.

Today, vaccine technology has helped mankind eradicate or reduce to spread of viruses such as polio, measles, mumps, and rubella. With the introduction of mRNA vaccines, scientists can now instruct human cells, using a small piece of genetic code, to produce a harmless part of a virus, prompting the body to create antibodies against it.

Vaccines essentially reprogram the body to create an antidote to viruses.

But what happens when the mind gets infected?

No, I’m not talking about a viral disease.

I’m talking about infected thinking.

We tend to remember negative experiences more vividly (and for longer periods of time) than positive experiences. By some estimates, we may spend as much as 45-50% of our day revisiting bad things that have already happened or dreading the future, experiencing the negative emotions these thoughts evoke.

Why is this the case?

Our brain’s neurological response to emotional events is based on several factors, including negativity bias, emotional salience of negative emotions, unresolved trauma, focus and attention, and the primal survival advantages of remembering potential threats.

Negative bias is hardwired into the human brain, causing us to pay more attention to negative experiences and remember them more vividly. Negative information is viewed by the brain as important for our survival, so it stays in our conscious awareness longer.

Strong emotions evoked by negative experiences, such as fear, anger, or sadness, enhance how memories are encoded, consolidated, and recalled. The stronger the emotion, the more likely the memory will be recalled and replayed in our thinking.

This is part of our primal survival programming. Remembering negative experiences, especially those involving danger or harm, can be beneficial to our survival. By learning from past threats, we can avoid similar threats in the future. Also, if we have unresolved trauma, there is often a subconscious need to process the emotional pain or loss experienced by the event, so those thoughts continually loop in our brains.

Lastly, negative thoughts often capture our attention more than positive ones. What we focus on expands, so the more we focus on the negative, the stronger those memories become. This can create a vicious cycle where negative thoughts are continuously amplified.

These thoughts are like ticks.

Ticks are parasitic creatures that feed on the blood of humans and animals, often spreading germs and disease in the process. They are found on every continent, even in harsh environments like Antarctica and the Sahara Desert. Their saliva and feces contain pathogens that can lead to fever, headache, fatigue, and muscle aches.

In the United States, the black-legged tick (also known as the deer tick) can transmit Lyme Disease, a bacterial infection causing flu-like symptoms that can lead to serious long-term complications affecting the joints, heart, and nervous system.

Interestingly, a deer tick needs to be attached to its host for 36-48 hours or longer to effectively transmit the bacteria that cause Lyme Disease. If the tick is removed within 24 hours, the risk of infection is greatly reduced, according to the FDA.

So, the sooner the tick is removed, the less damage it can cause.

The same is true for our thoughts.

A tick requires a host to grow and develop. The longer it stays attached to the host, the more blood it ingests, and the more pathogens it can transmit to the host through its saliva and feces. Feeding the tick matures it, making it more virulent to its host.

It’s a parasitic relationship that benefits one party to the detriment of another.

Negative thinking, like a tick, releases toxicity into the mind that also affects the body. This toxicity can include scarcity, lack, anxiety, depression, doubt, and disease. The longer these toxins remain in our thinking, the more they negatively affect our beliefs and corresponding actions.

Negative thinking limits what we believe we are capable of saying, doing, and becoming.

As you think, you become. It’s a truth that goes both ways.

Think negative, limiting thoughts, you become a negative, limited person.

This is infected thinking.

Think positive, limitless thoughts, you become a positive, limitless person.

But if as many as half the thoughts we entertain daily are negative, how do we flip the script?

Reprogramming is the antidote to infected thinking.

Remember, the only thing we can truly control is our thinking.

What we continually entertain and get comfortable thinking takes control and dominates our lives. Don’t forget that thoughts are images; they are visual pictures. The more we focus on specific thoughts, the more vibrant they become and the more readily they are brought back to our conscious attention.

Don’t believe this is true?

Ask Albert Einstein. Ask Thomas Edison. Ask Walt Disney. They were all told they would never amount to anything. They all faced the same choice we face every single day.

Are we going to allow other people’s opinions of us to dictate who we are and who we become, or are we going to choose to see ourselves as we could be? Do we choose to dwell on the negative or focus on the positive? Are we going to accept another person’s limited view of our potential, or are we going to hold the limitless image we have of ourselves?

All too often, we allow other people’s opinions to attach themselves to our thinking and, like a virus or a tick, continually inject pathogens of negativity into our lives.

So, how do we inoculate ourselves from the pathogens of negativity?

How do we reprogram our infected thinking?

First, we identify and challenge negative thoughts. We learn to recognize our negative thoughts and beliefs, and we question their validity. Are they based on facts, assumptions, or other people’s beliefs or opinions? Challenging our thinking provides us with the opportunity to seek an antidote or a vaccine to counter its negative impact.

This is the equivalent of a doctor diagnosing the cause of an infection, or removing a tick so it can’t continue to pump negative toxins into our thoughts.

Secondly, we create positive statements that counteract negative thinking. It’s a process of replacing negative thoughts that aren’t serving us well with other, positive thoughts that do. As we focus our attention on what we can do, rather than what we can’t, we begin the process of reprogramming how we see ourselves, the world around us, and the limitless opportunities each day presents.

By doing so, we inoculate ourselves against negative thinking. We take every thought captive, building up our positive thinking immune system, so it seeks out and destroys the negative, limited thinking that continues to hold us back from our full potential.

This is how we start to reprogram our thinking.

We don’t feel a virus when it enters the body, nor do we feel a tick when it first bites. But we do feel the impact of this invasion in the days that follow if we’re not properly inoculated or fail to recognize a parasite has attached itself to our bodies.

Ticks not removed within 24 hours are more likely to spread illness and disease. Negative thoughts not removed in the same timeline are more likely to spread toxins through our thinking – scarcity, lack, anxiety, depression, doubt, and disease.

A failure to inoculate ourselves, through daily personal growth, leaves us vulnerable to the negative thinking that is constantly being spoken to us, about us, and constantly revisited in our thinking. By daily focusing on becoming a better version of who we are and what we do, we continually strengthen our brain’s protective immune system so negative thoughts are targeted, isolated, and removed from our thinking.

Vaccines essentially reprogram the body to create an antidote to viruses.

Reprogramming is the antidote to infected thinking.