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Words out of my mouth. With the isolation thing, I have found some like-minded individuals who I can chill with from time to time to fall into worthwhile conversation and debate. Tending to be INTJs, (not like that matters), the fresh insight and alternative perspectives that they provide make me value another's company and appreciate some relationships. Still, my amount of solitude is ridiculous. I love it, but can make me feel inadequate and ashamed when around others. A quote (from the movie Hot Rod... I know) I like to remind myself of: It's only embarrassing if you care what people think.

In terms of thinking spirals, the incessant flow of my thoughts was actually what led to my exploration of the world of intoxication. This could numb my head for a while, but believe it or not I quickly grew to miss my constant internal monologue. It's part of who you are as a person, and hey if anything it keeps things interesting.

The depressive and anxious states can be closely correlated with the constant analyzing (duh) due to the exhausting nature of such thinking, but the two are much higher correlated when negative thinking patterns have etched a strong synaptic path in your brain. Back in June I finally realized just how wholly and severely this subconscious negative spin had on my mental, emotional, perspective, and social states. Remember when you were a kid, and you'd swim in a circle in the hot tub to make a whirlpool, then suddenly try to swim in the opposite direction? That is literally (yes literally) how I visualized my thinking spiral in my mind, deciding to try to push against the current and shift my thought patterns into the opposite direction. I began reading up on not only how to shift my thinking into a clockwise direction, (get it, like counter-clockwise is negativity because you keep going back and cluttering your mind with thoughts of the past), but also why to make such a shift. Show me the statistically significant evidence and I'm in.

It's been almost four months to the day now; I've had multiple people comment on how positive, optimistic, and upbeat I am, which I find utterly hilarious. I haven't had any sharp dips in emotion, I am better able to focus my time and energy on the task at hand, and I feel almost as if I have a clearer lens on my perspective of life. It isn't even a conscious thing, which was exactly the goal. In fact, this is the first time I've thought about this in a number of months. My reflex response now moves in the clockwise (wise ha) direction of thinking. Looks like I've finally reversed the swirl of water in my whirlpool!

I'll link the sources that helped my mental shift if you want. This is really long I'm going to stop now. As much as I feel I can never properly express myself, this feels good to write it out. Thanks for that.

Edit: Hope I don't sound like I've got it all figured out. Just sharing a small victory that has had slight yet significant benefit on my life.

Edit: SOME THINGS I'VE FOUND HELPFUL: (I can't give full credit to any one thing... ultimately I just held it in the back of my mind as a goal, subconsciously acting on it)

• Mind Over Mood (workbook) by Greenberger & Padesky
  
  
• Meditations to Change Your Brain by Hanson & Mendius I highly recommend this audiobook. It allows for guided meditation... convenient and helpful. The only breakdown of the chapters that I've found is here
  
  
• On that note, Mindfulness Meditation aka Compassion Training (found in some chapters... want to say Ch 5 or 6? of the audiobook linked directly above)(the gist of it)[http://youtu.be/AKKg3CDczpA?t=23m33s]
  
  ^^ These have been most helpful to me.
  
  
• The entire lecture by Richard Davidson as also linked above is a great watch if you have some time
  
  
• The Emotional Life of Your Brain by Richard Davidson
  
  
• Words Can Change Your Brain by Newberg & Waldman
  
  
• The connections between mind-body-mood which I learned about via a CBT clinical psychology course... This is helpful for understanding just how much influence your thinking has. this is the gist
  
  
• the whole field of Positive Psychology check this out or this
  
  
• Verbal Tics That Define Us and How They Spread to Others
  
  
• The Power of Suggestion
  
  
• Can't talk about pushing for self growth without this... The Dark Side of Self-Improvement
  
  
• Ignore the title of this - I personally like this article for how neatly it organizes our levels of thought. A recent post and thus a recent read, this article has made me more aware of when I'm experiencing "primal" negative patterns, allowing me to cast such indulgent and immature thoughts aside much more easily. A longer read but WOW is it worth it.
  
  
• okay I actually just came across this website but it's actually really relevant + free + seems cool based on my 3 mins of exploring it
  
  
  
  From there, I think it was a mix of past knowledge and (some of) the sources I mentioned above, as well as random other readings and conversations. I want to continue linking things but I must go study. Here's a science of happiness research article dump (stolen from Happify): http://my.happify.com/research/ . Or just go to http://my.happify.com/science for scaled down summaries of some of these (have to make a free account first I believe... worth it).
  
  
  
  Y'all looking at this list I made I'm frustrated because I can't pinpoint one specific source that pushed me from contemplation into action. Hopefully these resources in addition to your own experiences will be enough for at least one of you to make a significant and lasting change.