Have you heard the story of the young cartoonist who was fired from his job at Kansas City newspaper? He is none other than the world famous Walt Disney. His editor questioned his creativity and asked him to quit the job. Instead of surrendering to his fear of failure, he turned to the power of positive thinking, and this encouraged him to run behind success. This article highlights the power of positivity in your daily life and gives you some basic positive thinking tips that will help you keep going.
Positive thinking is all about anticipating happiness, success, and health. It trains you to adopt an abundance mindset and cultivates gratitude for your success as well as others. How important do you think is the power of positive thinking?
Well, it has the absolute power to make or break a very individual. Your thoughts affect your actions and your actions, in turn, translates into whether or not you succeed. It influences your relationships with friends, family and the way you view the world at large.
What Happens to Your Brain When You Think Positive?
When you think about something in a positive way, the cortisol level decreases, and the brain produces serotonin, creating a feeling of well-being. When the serotonin levels are normal in an individual, he will feel less anxious, happy, calmer, more emotionally stable, and more focused.
The Benefits of Positive Thinking
- Increases the life span
- Lower depression rates
- Provides greater resistance to common cold
- Improves physical as well as psychological well-being
- Makes your heart healthy
- Better coping skills during times of stress
11 Positive Thinking Tips to Transform your Life
If you want to live a happier and healthier life, it is important to start thinking positively. Follow the simple positive thinking tips outlined below to bring more happiness into your life.
• Focus on the good things
Life is a rollercoaster ride. There will be good days as well as bad days. You may often encounter obstacles in one way or the other. In such a case, just focus on the benefits, no matter how unimportant they seem. For example, consider that you got stuck in a heavy traffic. In such a situation rather than getting irritated, think about the extra time you got to listen to rest of your favourite podcast
• Practice gratitude
Practising gratitude can reduce stress, foster resilience, and improve self-esteem even in the most difficult times. Think of something that will bring some kind of comfort or happiness.
Try to express gratitude at least once a day. This can include the very act of thanking your mother for the support she gives you, thanking a co-worker or teacher for helping with a project, or your pet for the unconditional love they give you.
• Transform negative thoughts into positive
During tough times, instead of thinking, “We are going to have a really hard time adjusting to this new place,” think, “We will face some challenges in this new place, but we will surely come up with solutions that will make us happy.
• Spend time with positive people
Being around positive people improves self-esteem and increases the chance of reaching your goals. Spend quality time with people who help you see the bright side of yourself. Their positive words will affect your line of thinking. Remove the negativity in your life before it consumes you. Always do your best to improve the positivity of others, and let their positivity affect you the same way.
• Start writing a gratitude journal
We have so many things to be grateful in life, so, why not remind ourselves of that on a daily basis?
A gratitude journal is one among the best ways to stay positive with little to no effort. Once a day try to jot down at least three aspects for which you feel thankful for. From writing down about seeing a cute cat on your way to school/work to getting your dream job, you can write anything and everything in your gratitude journal.
At the end of the day, all that matters is that you remember to be grateful and have a positive outlook on your life.
• Turn your failures into lessons
Nobody is perfect. In your life, you will make mistakes and instead of focusing on how you failed or made mistakes, think about what you are going to do next time. Show a positive attitude towards the failures in your life.Why not turn your failure into a lesson? In fact, failures are the stepping stone towards great success.
• Practice positive self talk
A small shift in the way we talk to ourselves can influence the ability to regulate feelings, thoughts, and behaviour under stress. We humans have the habit of being hardest on ourselves. Sometimes we are our own worst critic. But this is not right. Over time, this builds a negative opinion of ourselves deep inside us.
To stop this, we have to be mindful of the voice in our head and respond with positive self-talk. Instead of saying “I really messed that up,” try “I’ll try it again a different way.”
• Pamper yourself
Do you spend quality time to focus on your passion or hobbies? When was the last time you blocked out an hour or two on your calendar just to pamper yourself? When was the last time you planned time accordingly to have fun?
In our busy life, we often forget to spend time for ourselves. At least once a day, give yourself permission to smile and breathe out the negativity in life by doing the things you love.
• Connect with nature
Connecting with nature just for 10-15 minutes a day can drastically improve our overall health. It helps normalize sleep patterns, lower stress hormones, and increases vitamin d in our bodies.
• Focus on the present
In most cases, negativity stems from the memory of a recent event happened in someone’s life or the exaggerated imagination of a future event. Forget the wrong comment someone made about you five minutes ago. Forget what he/she might say after five minutes. Focus only on the present—not today, not this hour, only this exact moment.
• Meditate or practice yoga
Meditation and yoga can be considered as the reset button that helps you find peace and reduces stress. It flushes out negativity from your life.
When you start thinking positive, you don’t allow both the conscious and unconscious mind to entertain any negative doubts or thoughts. The positive thinking tips mentioned above will surely help you make better health and life decisions and focus more on long-term goals. You can change your whole life just by harnessing the power of positive thinking.
