The Power of our Thoughts
PART II
Last week we focused on the concept of ‘Change your thoughts, change your life.’
If you missed last week's post, part 1 of this topic, click here to read.
Welcome to part II!
Today we will discuss the benefits both mental and physical when we think positive!
Positive thinking, or an optimistic attitude, is the practice of focusing on the good in any given situation. That doesn’t mean you ignore reality or make light of problems. Positive thinking just means that you approach unpleasantness in a more positive and productive way.
Thinking positive can have a big impact on physical and mental health. Many studies have looked at the role of positive thinking in mental and physical health and there is no downside to being positive.
Physical benefits may include:
● Longer life span
● Lower chance of having a heart attack
● Better physical health
● Greater resistance to illness such as the common cold
● Lower blood pressure
● Better stress management
● Better pain tolerance
Mental benefits may include:
● More creativity
● Greater problem-solving skill
● Clearer thinking
● Better mood
● Better coping skills
● Less depression
What if you’re naturally more pessimistic, meaning that you tend to expect the worst? No worries. It may help to see positive thinking as a skill you can learn and benefit from, rather than a personality trait you either have or you don’t.
In one experiment, adults who meditated daily on positive thoughts started feeling more upbeat emotions each day. Other studies have shown that positive thinking helps people manage illness and eases depression, regardless of whether they are naturally optimistic or pessimistic.
So how do you go about becoming more positive? First, nix the negative, i.e. change your self talk. Increase your awareness and pay attention to negative thoughts that may be running through your mind. When you notice a negative thought, try to stop it and shift your focus to the positive. Your negative thoughts won’t go away overnight. In fact the human brain is hard-wired to default to the negative, so thinking positive takes practice and repetition. However with practice, you can train yourself to have a more positive outlook.
Remember, you aren’t overlooking the facts. You’re just including those that are good. It might be helpful to think of one positive replacement thought…so every time you catch yourself thinking a negative thought, you replace the thought, examples might be “I am doing the best I can” or “everything is working out for me.”
Once you have a handle on negative thinking, it’s time to play up the positive:
● Surround Yourself With Like-Minded People – when you are around negative people, their negativity will rub off on you. Find positive, uplifting people and learn how they think and modify your habits and mindset to theirs.
● Smile more. In a study, people who smiled (or even fake-smiled) while doing a stressful task felt more positive afterward than those who wore a neutral expression. You’ll benefit more if the smile is genuine, though. So look for humor and spend time doing things that bring you joy.
● Reframe your situation. When something bad happens that’s out of your control, instead of getting upset, try to appreciate the good parts of the situation. For example, instead of stressing about a traffic jam, recall how convenient it is to have a car. Use the time that you’re stuck behind the wheel to listen to music or a podcast.
● Picture your best possible future. Think in detail about a bright vision for your future -- career, relationships, health, hobbies -- and write it down. When you imagine your life going well, research suggests, you’ll be happier in the present.
● Focus on your strengths. Each day for a week, think about one of your personal strengths, like kindness, organization, discipline, or creativity. Write down how you plan to use that strength in new ways that day. Then, act on it. People in a study who did that boosted their happiness and lowered their symptoms of depression at the end of the week. Six months later, those benefits were still going strong.
● Change How You Speak – Just like changing your inner self-talk, change how you speak to others. Instead of saying negative things to others or complaining, talk about positive experiences in your life. As you continue to do this, your mindset will change to an encouraging one and drown out fear and want.
In addition to the above, a session at Tula can also be super helpful in helping to reset the mind and clear out the negative.
One Tula client shared:
With practice, you can add more positive thoughts to your life and enjoy the benefits that come with positive thinking. The more you do something, the more likely it is that you will do it again in the future. Repetition rewires the brain and the more the neurons fire together, the more likely it is that they will fire together in the future. Remember beliefs are simply thoughts that we keep thinking over and over again.