To change your life, you first have to change your way of thinking. It is on this principle that today’s article will be based. If we look at the history of popular personalities who made dramatic changes in their lives, we will notice that they had a moment when they had to change their thinking.
At the heart of all this is a special mindset built around positive thinking. This concept is not as simple as it seems at first glance. Like any habit, there are specific ways to maintain a positive attitude and think positively every day.
What is positive thinking?
Positive thinking is a set of habits and thinking patterns that make you see things in a more positive light. One common example is to see the failures you experience as lessons and opportunities for further growth.
Positive thinking includes many actions and has a great impact on our lives. It can contribute to the following changes:
- How do you communicate with people;
- You will begin to attract more people who want to get to know you better;
- How you inspire and encourage others, both directly and indirectly;
- Your productivity methods and work capabilities;
- Your stress level and how you cope with it.
From this description, you can conclude that positive thinking is very similar to a lifestyle. The more positive you are, the more good things will appear around you, even in situations where you face setbacks or difficulties.
Another way to look at positive thinking is to find opportunities to motivate yourself, thereby breaking the habit of giving in to challenges. For example, how many times have you told yourself “I can’t complete this task” or “I will never achieve my goal”?
By definition, this type of thinking ensures that you will avoid the task and put less effort into achieving that goal. On the other hand, by thinking, “I can accomplish this task” or “Someday I will achieve this goal,” you will be motivated to work toward those goals.
Overcoming difficult situations
I hope you have adopted a few strategies from this article to increase your positive feelings in the workplace. But what to do with those people who constantly sow negativity around us? Here are some tips for you:
- Sometimes the most appropriate response to other people's complaints and negativity is simple empathy. Don't take their complaints to heart and don't sympathize. Sympathy does not solve problems, it connects.
- Keep your distance. We deserve to be happy, and when others try to steal that joy from us, a little distance is considered acceptable. Long distance is not always an option, so what then? Imagine a shield that goes up so that you can see and hear, but are not infected by the toxicity of negativity.
- Gratitude game. Sometimes we just want to tell a person “hey, stop being so negative!” But I promise you that this will not help. Instead, ask, “tell me three good things that happened today?” This approach is called the gratitude game.
Yes, sometimes life gets complicated. Positive feelings must be genuine. This is not a fake smile, a game of happiness in times of tragedy or intense sadness. When life is hard, you will feel bad. Developing positive habits will help you sustain yourself during dark times, but it won't make your pain go away.
When things get bad, be alert and think about what could be worse. Pay attention to extreme words like “always,” “never,” and “worst.” Are you always late with your work? Is this really the worst day of your life? Is it true that your boss never notices your hard work? Ask yourself these kinds of questions before you start setting yourself up for negative emotions.
When we lose someone in our life, we grieve. Give yourself time and space to move through all five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and finally acceptance.
Keep in mind that emotions are only one part of Dr. Seligman's five elements of happiness model: positive emotions, engagement, relationships, meaning and achievement. Although positive emotions may not be possible at some points in our lives, we can still focus on the other four patterns. Focus on what matters to you: rely on strong relationships, recognize and enjoy your successes in other areas of your life, and more.
Conclusion
I have listed all the positive mood strategies at the end of this article. There you will also find an action plan that you can use in your experiments with different approaches. Try to maintain your optimism and charge other people with it. This will have an immediate positive effect on your career. Follow the advice from the article to protect yourself from the negative emotions of people around you.
Action plan for becoming a positive person
You may find it helpful to take a few notes on each of the 21 strategies to help you remember each one.
Reducing the number of negative thoughts in our head
- calculate the worst, best and most likely options;
- reject negative thoughts;
- change your perspective on a negative situation.
Increasing the number of positive thoughts in our head
- gratitude journal;
- create a portfolio of positive moments;
- Find a specific point in your life that you associate positive thinking with.
We create a positive environment
- Change your physical space;
- Take a break from your daily movement;
- Take a social media sabbatical.
Creating Positive Relationships
- Emotional constructive question;
- Give more positive reviews than negative ones.
- Practice random acts of kindness.
Creating positive habits
- Balance of work and play activities;
- Find joy in your work;
- Use your natural strengths.
Attitude towards negative people
- Showing empathy;
- Keep your distance;
- Gratitude game.
Actions in difficult times
- Stick to extreme words;
- Give yourself space to get through the difficult phase;
- Focus on what matters to you.
After reading the article, use this action plan to record your experiments with
different approaches.
| Strategy | Dates when the strategy was applied in the allotted 2 weeks | Your application experience |
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How to deal with negative thoughts
Another key aspect of positive thinking is that positive thinking is not about eliminating all negativity from your life. There are negative events in our lives, you will make mistakes and fail. However, it is important to strike a balance between being aware of reality, accepting your surroundings, and thinking optimistically.
To maintain this balance, try to adhere to the following recommendations:
- Follow the guide to developing positive thinking , which we'll talk about a little further.
- Learn about your thinking style . Do you think logically or emotionally? Are you focused on the short term or the long term? Do positive or negative thoughts predominate in your head? Identifying all of this will help you understand how your mind works before you start changing it.
- Watch out for negative thoughts . View negative thoughts as something interesting rather than something harmful. When a negative thought comes, try writing it down and thinking about it for a few minutes. Why did this idea arise? Why do you look at this thing negatively? How can you turn this thought into something positive?
Seven ways to be positive
So, we found out that developing the habit of thinking optimistically is quite possible - you just need to set such a goal for yourself. Now let’s share ways that will help the brain adapt to a new type of thinking. Perform these exercises in combination and do not forget that regularity is important for best results. Within a couple of months you will notice how your thoughts, mood, and then life have changed.
Purple bracelet
In 2006, the author of the book A World Without Complaints, Will Bowen, suggested that everyone wear a purple bracelet to learn to live without complaining, criticism and gossip. The bracelet had to be changed from one hand to the other at the first negative thought. The goal is to wear the bracelet on one hand for 21 days.
On the Internet you can find hundreds of stories of people about how the bracelet helped them learn to be optimistic. However, psychologists believe that such artificial suppression of negative emotions is very harmful to the psyche: it can lead to depression and psychosomatic illnesses. Therefore, we offer a more gentle option. Use the bracelet to pay attention to your thoughts and think about how they can benefit you. Perhaps right now you really really need to complain about life to a loved one in order to receive a portion of care and attention - this will fill you with energy. There is nothing wrong with negative emotions if you express them without harm to yourself and other people, and work through them without getting hung up. The main thing is that they do not cloud your consciousness and prevent you from seeing the good.
Gratitude journal
Every day before going to bed, write at least ten reasons why you should be grateful for this day. Even if nothing significant happened, remember that you can be grateful for waking up this morning, for a delicious meal and a warm bed, for having loved ones - in general, for many things that we often consider ordinary and self-evident. This practice will help you remember that there is already a lot of good in life - and this is an excellent foundation on which to build the life of your dreams.
Language of the body
Body and mood are closely related. Therefore, if you cannot influence consciousness, try starting with the body. For example, if you artificially pretend to smile for just two minutes, the muscles will send the corresponding signal to the brain, and it will actually “turn on” a good mood. Don't forget about your posture and confident gait - this is another way to set yourself in a positive mood.
Positive on schedule
You need to set three alarms for any convenient time - the main thing is that they remind you of yourself every day. At the appointed time, take a break from your work and think about something good for exactly a minute. It is better if these thoughts are related to the current situation. For example, if you are busy preparing a report, think about how much work you have done. In just a few weeks, the brain itself will learn to notice good moments in the world around us. [1]
Meditation
This practice has nothing to do with going into a trance and other esotericism. Her goal is to learn to be in the present moment without worrying about the past and future. After all, most often our pessimistic thoughts are associated either with worry about the future or with replaying past events. If you focus on the present for a minute, then, most likely, it will turn out that right now everything is fine: you are at home or in the office - which means you have a roof over your head and a job, nothing threatens you, you are safe , and you have the resources to move on with your life.
Find a comfortable place where no one will disturb you. The most comfortable position is to sit up straight so that your feet and spine are supported. Bring all your attention to your sensations: feel the contact of your body with the chair and the floor, pay attention to what sounds surround you, watch your breathing: how your chest or stomach rises and falls, how your nose draws in air. You can mentally say “inhale - exhale.”
In the process, the mind will definitely begin to wander, and some thoughts will arise. Your task is to monitor their appearance, but not to shift attention to them. Return to your breath each time. [3]
You can start practicing even with one or two minutes, in the future it will become easier and easier and you can increase the time. The main thing is to meditate every day, for example, immediately after waking up or before going to bed.
Three positive aspects
When an unpleasant situation happens in life, you need to sit down and write down at least three good things about it. Once you get into the habit of doing this every time, you will learn to focus on the positive rather than the negative, and take away valuable experience from any situation.
