“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” (Shakespeare)
Psychologists define positive thinking as a measure that underlies feelings of life satisfaction, self-esteem, and optimism.
It’s a critical component of happiness, which is experienced in every aspect of life, and it creates the framework through which we interpret everything that happens to us.
With our thinking, we shape the “good or bad” events in our lives, with profound impacts on everything that happens to us. Read on to find out how to have a positive mindset.
Benefits Of A Positive Mindset
Scientists are just beginning to explore the many mental and physical benefits of having a positive mindset. Here’s what the research shows so far:
✔ Reduces Stress
Psychologists have proven that stress is not inherent in any event, but it results from our way of thinking about the event.
The amount of meaning we give to situations determines the intensity of the stress we experience.
Positive thinkers experience stressful situations as less threatening and therefore cope with them more effectively.
✔ Improves Success At Work
Studies show that positive thinking determines as much as 25% of a person’s job satisfaction. It helps to create a positive cycle in the workplace:
Employees who have a positive outlook with a positive attitude have reduced absenteeism and burnout.
✔ Reduces Depression
They receive better evaluations from supervisors and coworkers, perform better at cognitive tasks. Their jobs have more autonomy, meaning, and variety.
Positive thinkers report greater vitality and stronger mental health. They have lower levels of depression, partly because they have a greater belief in their ability to control situations and improve their lives.
✔ Improves Heart Health
Multiple studies show that positive thinkers have improved cardiovascular health. They are less likely to suffer from cardiovascular diseases, such as angina and heart attacks. And, when they do have cardiovascular issues, positive thinkers have faster, better recovery as they prefer to have a more positive outlook on challenges in life.
✔ Improves Immune Response
Did you know that people who use humor as a coping device have a better immune function?
Positive thinking is associated with improved immunity and fewer common health problems like colds, flu, and allergies.
People who report optimism and more positive emotions have measurably higher levels of salivary immunoglobulin A, our body’s first line of defense against respiratory diseases.
You may feel like all these factors in your life, like your stress levels, heart health, immune system, and even performance at work, maybe beyond your control.
We found that positive thinking alone can create all these incredible benefits in every aspect of your life. Positive thinking may go even further to helping you achieve your goals and improve your destiny.
What Is A Positive Mindset?
Before we go any further, let’s clear up some misconceptions about having a positive mindset.
Positive thinking isn’t simply deluding yourself into having a false sense of optimism about the genuine struggles you face in life.
Among cancer patients, the positive mindset was found to have the greatest impact on physical health consisted of four crucial factors:
✔ Accepting The Reality Of The Situation
A positive mindset isn’t built on ignoring facts; understanding the truth of the difficult situation you are in.
How we process the information in front of us will either make us feel worse or better. That’s why it’s important to take care of ourselves by focusing more on optimistic views, exploring all options and strategies instead of allowing the mind to spiral into a self-defeating trap.
✔ Placing A Positive Light On The Situation
Positive people with a positive attitude actively look for better aspects even in the bad situations they are dealt with. Their approach to life is different, by having a positive mindset.
In light of a challenging situation, they are gravitating toward a more positive perspective from a growth mindset. They choose to strive for the best possible outcome in living, creating a more positive lifestyle to improve quality of life with a healthy lifestyle.
✔ Relieving Tension With Humor
Looking for humor even when things seem bleak is a key aspect of positive thinking.
It helps us cope with stress, negative emotions, and negative thinking while finding some optimism in tough situations.
Humor is a healthy way to cope with stress and build resilience from a negative attitude. It’s been found that humor can help people adopt a more positive mindset and redirect from a negative mindset.
A recent study has found that humor activities lead to increased connectivity in the brain region, which can help us cope with stressful situations and negative emotions.
✔ Taking Active Steps To Address The Situation
People with a positive mindset usually don’t get overwhelmed with helplessness.
Their positive thinking helps them have self-esteem and various viewpoints on dealing with the situation at hand, looking at all of their options, and confidence to take positive action when things are difficult.
An optimistic person with a positive attitude is grounded in reality, views daily life with optimism, and uses that optimism to take strategic steps of action. So, what are some easy, practical ways to create a positive mindset?
Here are some practical steps you can take every day to cultivate a more positive mindset:
✔ Make And Use Lists Of Positive Words
When you gear your brain to use positive words, they become more accessible and more easily activated in your thoughts, developing a growth mindset with a healthier outlook on life.
Over time negative self-talk gives up, and positive self-talk becomes the new way of positive thinking, which turns to positive actions. These thoughts come to mind more quickly and are more easily applied to your life situations. They become a healthy habit with more successful results in life and happier feelings.
✔ Create Positive Thinking Tasks For Yourself
When you have a list of positive words, do exercises that control your brain to think more deeply about those words, their meanings, and the emotional outlet connected to them.
For example, you could memorize your list and then set the alarm to remind you to repeat the list. When that becomes easy, use the notice to repeat the list in reverse order.
Or make flashcards or fill-in-the-blank activities that deepen your connection to those words. Post them over your bathroom mirror, so you can even look at yourself and begin to believe in yourself with your new positive mindset growth.
Try it at least for 1-2 weeks and notice what different emotions you begin to feel each and every time.
When a person tends to dwell on negative or bad experiences, then they are reliving those negative experiences over and over again. This is training the mind to pay attention to them. To retain a healthy mindset, shifting the focus to positive experiences over and over again will help with lifting to a happier emotional state.
“Re-framing” is another way of seeing things from a different perspective. This is healthy and helps you to mentally process challenges more resiliently.
For example, you may be thinking about the person who cut you off in traffic and dwelling on that situation by continually talking about it, which re-creates those feel bad emotions during your day or days to follow.
But what about the hundreds (or thousands!) of people who haven’t cut you off, or some nice ones you let you move into their lane, get no recognition at all?
Place your attention on things that are working and going well.
Negative thoughts and emotions can consume our mind and take up most of our day, preventing us from enjoying the more important things in life. Mindfulness and mindfulness meditation is a great way to stop those negative thoughts and redirect them.
✔ Experience Gratitude
Another way to redirect attention toward positive things is to make and keep a gratitude journal. These journals manage the mind to think of positive aspects of your life and redirect attention away from negative things.
When you start to feel down, negative or critical, write those feelings in your gratitude journal.
These 5 Minute Journals Come In A Few Different Colors
These Law Of Attraction Planners Come In A Variety Of Colors & Themes
Then pick one of the aspects listed in your writing and spend a few minutes thinking about a more positive angle and different, healthier perspective.
This redirects attention toward positive things rather than negative things.
A positive outlook is something that can be developed and strengthened over time.
As we mentioned, the other important component of positive thinking is positive self-talk. Positive self-talk means exactly what it sounds like, which are positive statements about yourself or your situation.
These are positive statements that help you feel better and work to influence the way you think. To create the messages in your journal that you want to say to yourself, feel more happiness and confidence to have more success in your life, whether in your professional life or personal life.
✔ Use Classical Conditioning
Use your list of positive words or some items from your gratitude journal, or make a positive mantra for yourself (even when meditating or visualizing.)
Then use some ordinary everyday event (like a notification on your phone, an ad break in a video, the sound of the neighbor’s barking dog) as a cue to think those positive words or phrases.
Using random triggers in life to give yourself small, positive moments can help condition a positive mindset overall and help you train your brain in a more positive direction, toward feeling great and ontop of the world.
✔ Redirect Negative Self-Talk
If you find yourself thinking negative things about yourself, use your journal to create an alternate list of things that are positive about you.
When that negative thought pops into your head, try to “redirect and answer” it with a more positive one.
Self-talk is usually a repetitive pattern of words you use daily to describe yourself and your life. Write these down in your journal and start to reshape them into something more uplifting, confident, and sure about yourself and your life.
✔ Hold On To Good Emotions
If you are having a good day or a nice moment, stop and focus on it. Pay attention to your breathing, your emotions, and the situation.
Try to memorize it. Build up a “library” of good moments and feelings that you can access in more stressful times. Fill the “library” of you mind, more with books of happier and successful times in your life.
✔ Look For Humor In Negative Experiences
This one can be difficult, but try to find something funny even in negative or unhappy moments. Maybe this situation will make a funny story later, or it could only happen in ridiculous circumstances. Laughter is healthy and can boost your mood, even in negative situations.
✔ Create Positive Relationships
Negative people can be unavoidable in our lives. When these people are family, co-workers, or even friends, it’s easy to get caught up and feel like you’re stuck with them forever. But there is a way out!
Spend more of your time around those who have positive outlooks; they’ll help push away the negativity that clings so easily to all of us.
Please pay attention to how they make you feel after you spend time with them. Creating positive relationships and then spending time with those people helps reinforce your positive thinking, and when you are down, they can help you see the bright side, you may have lost sight of.
Building connections is essential if we want to be happy, it allows us to surround ourselves with those who can help us find balance when life throws something our way.
Hypnosis Audios
Did you know that the mind is one of our most powerful tools? There are a ton of things we can do to change how it works for us. One way, and there are many options out there, is through self-hypnosis audios.
Self-hypnosis audios have been used as an effective therapeutic technique for years; however, only recently have people started using this method in their everyday lives with great success!
It’s easy to use: all you need is a bit of time for yourself (a few minutes) and a little patience (patience helps develop your positive mindset).
Final Take
It’s not an exaggeration to say that the power of your thoughts can make or break you. Suppose you want a more positive mindset and better quality of life?
In that case, there are many ways how to regain control on how your brain works and re-train it for positivity toward a happier lifestyle and healthier perspective for physical health and mental health.
Which technique have you used to maintain a healthy outlook on life? We hope we have added some extra tools and techniques for you and make it fun to strengthen a more positive life 🙂
Disclaimer: Our web pages and blog posts provide general information for general purposes only and not to be used for any medical, legal or alternative health advice for any type of physical, mental health or financial concerns.Always speak to your practitioner before embarking on any new alternative treatments. If you have concerns about any medical matters, you should always consult your healthcare provider without delay.We thank you for taking full responsibility for your own health and wellbeing in life. ☺
