What I Learned Collecting Heart Shaped Rocks

What we focus on, we amplify.

This is the story of why hearts turn up everywhere in my life.

I had a friend who collected heart shaped rocks. I admired her collection, so I wanted to find some too. I thought it would be difficult and at first it was hard to find rocks that looked like hearts. But gradually I began to see them everywhere. I found them on the beach, I found them on the side of the road, and I found them hiking in the mountains.

People knew of my desire and found them for me. I now have heart-shaped rocks from Normandy, France, Jerusalem, beaches in Hawaii, Spain and Florida, the mountains in McCall, Idaho and numerous other places. I have given many away and I still have baskets full of heart-shaped rocks.

I started noticing heart shapes in other places too.

When I opened a container of sour cream, I saw a heart shape.

Tree knots trees looked like hearts.

heart-shaped clouds in the skies,

even an apple looked like a heart after cut.

What does this have to do with mental health?

Whatever you focus on, you find and amplify.

Once I began to look for these rocks, I found them and then I found a lot of them. If you focus on the negative, you will find problems. If focus on solutions, you will find opportunities. Researchers have long seen the mood/thought connection as a big facor in determining your moods.

A negative mindset can be pre-determined by genetics, circumstance, and social group. Eeyore from A.A. Milne’s “Winnie the Pooh” is a classic example of someone who sees negativity.

“I’m telling you. People come and go in this Forest, and they say, ‘it’s only Eeyore, so it doesn’t count.'”

When you are in a bad mood, your brain will go through a thought pattern like this:

You feel overlooked,
You will fail to notice those who care about you
You think bad things only happen to you
Soon you will have a list of reasons for your bad mood.

This is because you are so pre-occupied with your own inward negative thoughts. If you are an Eeyore or know someone who is, you can re-train your brain. It is hard work, but you can learn to evaluate your automatic thoughts and look for alternatives ways to see the situation. You can’t believe everything you think! Find a person who you admire who has a positive outlook, ask yourself, “What would they do in my situation?”

Here are some thoughts to help shift your thinking:

What is the worst that can happen? If that happened, could I survive? I may not prefer the outcome, but I could survive.
I have survived difficult things in the past.
I can make things better
I love life; I enjoy people and experiences.
The best is yet to be.

Whew, that feels better, doesn’t it?

Did you notice how the pine trees on the hill form a heart? (See you can do this.)

Here is a tree root in the shape of a heart.

If you are overwhelmed by a problem, try examining your thoughts, challenge your perspective and look for alternative outlook. Just like searching for heart shaped rocks, what you focus on begins to amplify.