Positive thinking is a mental attitude that focuses only on positive outcomes and emotions. A person with a disciplined positive mind only allows thoughts of happiness, joy, and success into their mind. Developing positive thinking abilities will result in a large array of benefits. Some of the benefits include stress reduction, better sleep, less headaches, and an overall happier and more positive existence.
Developing your positive thinking abilities is not particularly easy, but can be accomplished with practice. The following is a large list of exercises and activities you can do to practice your positive thinking.
1. Only use positive words when talking: If you are constantly telling yourself that you cannot do something, it will be difficult to do so. If you are constantly telling people around you that they cannot accomplish things, they are unlikely to do so (or keep you around). Cultivate positivity by only using positive words instead.
2. Believe you will succeed: You are defeated in any endeavor before you have even begun if you don’t think you can succeed. You should spend time visualizing and anticipating your success to actually make it a reality.
3. Push out feelings that aren’t positive: One of the very best things you can do as you begin to cultivate your positivity is merely recognizing when negative thoughts enter your mind. Once you have become conscious of negative thoughts, you can begin pushing them from your mind. Pushing out negative thoughts makes room for positivity.
4. Analyze what went wrong: Everybody fails. It is completely unreasonable to think that you can go through life without ever failing. However, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to learn from your mistakes. Positive thinking does not mean ignoring the negativity in your life. Instead, try to analyze what got you to the point you’re currently at so you can make changes. You want to constantly be learning and growing from your experiences.
5. Look for opportunities: One of the hallmarks of the positive person is the ability to see opportunity in what most people would view as a negative situation. In fact, negative situations are often the best events for practicing a large array of skills and abilities that you otherwise wouldn’t be able to practice. Do you have a difficult boss? It’s an opportunity to practice patience and getting along with difficult people! Are you having money problems? It’s an opportunity to learn how to live more frugally or start a side business! Look for opportunities where other people only see despair.
6: Decide if it could be worse: Things can almost always be worse. Regardless of how bad things currently are, you can always find something to be grateful for. Try writing down specific things that you are thankful for a couple times a week. Even when it seems like nothing is going right for you, you will probably be surprised by how much you have to be thankful for. Nothing is too small to recognize and write down. To get you started, you can be thankful you have the ability to use a computer to read this article, to have the ability to read, and for the fact that you are currently breathing!
7. Work toward your goals: Everybody feels happier after they have taken concrete steps toward achieving their goals. The first step is to set some goals that you are excited and motivated to accomplish. Once you’ve done that, break them into small and manageable chunks. Take some time everyday, or as often as you can, to work on your goals. Even if its something as small as making a phone call or taking some notes, constant work toward your goals will help develop your positive thinking.
Like any other skill, positive thinking needs to be practiced. Spend some time everyday practicing your positivity and you will see huge gains in your life satisfaction.
