Become a positive thinker!
Become a Positive Thinker
Positive thinking is about approaching life’s challenges with a positive outlook. It involves making the most of the potentially bad situations, trying to see the best in other people and looking at yourself and your abilities in a positive light. It does not mean that you see the world through rose-coloured glasses or that you ignore or gloss over negative aspects of your life.
Is your glass half full or half empty? Your answer is affected by your positive or negative outlook. A positive outlook can aid stress management and even play an important role in your overall health and well-being. It influences how you feel about yourself, how you perceive different situations and how you react to most events in your life.
Positive thinking vs Negative thinking
Healthy, positive thinking has many great benefits: it helps you to stay positive in most situations and enjoy what you already have in life. It also helps you achieve your goals, build your self confidence as well as healthy relationships. Whereas negative thoughts may sap your energy and make you feel anxious, upset and exhausted.
A positive mindset can reduce the risk of disease and may help you cope better with health problems. Negative emotions can cause various ailments or even serious diseases.
Negative thinking can make you feel bad in the present (the here and now). Fearing an event or situation is a common display of a negative thinker; worrying about something that may never happen. A positive thinker feels good in the here and now and worries less.
Life as a positive thinker
Decide to manage your emotions You can’t always control events in your life, but you can with some effort, control what you choose to think and feel about them. Start your day in a good mood, think positively about the up-coming events of the day. Learn to focus on the present, this way you will avoid getting overwhelmed with negative emotions. Identify automatic negative thoughts and stop them as soon as they emerge. Replace negative thoughts with positive ones.
Challenge yourself to see the positive side of things. There are both positive and negative aspects to most situations, and you can choose which one you will focus on. It’s easy to see the negative. However, there is always something you can gain from almost any situation – you just have to look for that.
Try to remember mostly the positive events of the past. This may help you move forward instead of getting stuck in the circle of negative thoughts. Set goals and try to concentrate on achieving your goals and keep yourself busy working on them. See challenging situations as opportunities rather than threats. Looking for ways to solve problems, rather then complaining about them, is a much healthier attitude. Surround yourself with positive people and activities. Avoid negative influences and people who can bring you down.
“There is nothing either good or bad; but thinking makes it so.”
William Shakespeare
When something goes horribly wrong, our emotions hardly feel like a choice. It’s logical to feel upset, angry or guilty about a negative situation, so it only makes sense to react accordingly, right? Not entirely! Research suggests that our happiness is more of a choice than purely influenced by circumstance. As the Shakespeare quote above implies, the nature of our situations may just be determined by how we categorise them. In other words, a negative attitude may appear to be the logical reaction, but that doesn’t mean we have to adopt one. It isn’t hard to be one of those people who looks on the bright side of life, but it might take some practice
Finally, smile! It doesn’t take a lot to do that, but it does help a lot. Smiling regularly will help you stay in a good mood and lift the mood of the people that surround you. You will be recognised as a positive, happy person and you will attract more happy and positive people.
Tips on how to become a positive thinker
Positive and negative thinking are learned habits. As you use the tips to become a positive thinker, you will see that it’s not that difficult and you’ll begin to love being positive
Take care of yourself
It is easier to stay positive while you are eating well, exercising, and getting enough rest.
Remember all the things you’re grateful for
Taking at least one minute each day to stop and enjoy the good things can make a big difference. Stress and obstacles do not seem quite so bad when we are continually remembering the things which are good in life.
Search for the truth rather than make assumptions
If you are worried that a friend or family member’s poor mind-set is because of something you did, or that your workmates are privately gossiping about you behind your back, do not hesitate to ask them. Do not waste your time worrying that you did something wrong until you have evidence that there is anything to be concerned about.
Feed your positivity
The only way to expand any skill set is to build habits that reinforce that behaviour and that goes for positive thinking as well. Activities like meditation and journaling, as well as spending time with your friends and family, all have the ability to increase positive feelings. By engaging the practice of mindfulness, you gain more recognition over what goes through your mind, and as a result, you’re more capable of addressing it.
Positive Feelings = Positive Thoughts
Avoid making use of absolutes
Speaking and thinking in absolutes such as ‘always’ ( You’re ALWAYS late ) and also ‘never’ (You NEVER contact me ) makes the situation appear even worse than it is, and forces your brain to believe that certain individuals are not capable of delivering a desired outcome.
Remove negative thoughts
Your thoughts can’t have any power over you unless you give them that power. If you see that your developing negative thought’s, get rid of them, this is a very important skill to learn, the mind can’t be negative and positive at the same time. Therefore, it’s vital to surround yourself with positivity as much as possible.
Crush the “ANTs”
Automatic negative thoughts or ANTs are actually the bad thoughts which are generally reactionary, such as “Those guys are laughing, they must be laughing at me,” or “The boss wants to see me? What have I done now?” When you observe these types of thoughts, understand that they are simply “ANTs” and just crush them.
Enhance your social activity and surround yourself with positive people
By being social, you reduce solitude. Surround yourself with happy, healthy folks, and you will be affected by their positive energy in a positive way. Toxic situations are easily the biggest influencers on a negative mind. Research suggests that stress is indeed contagious, and the more you surround yourself with it, the more likely you are to let it affect your thoughts. On the flip side, studies show that happiness is also catching. In order to maintain their sunny disposition, positive thinkers only surround themselves with people and things that will help that attitude flourish, and as a result, their lives are a whole lot brighter
Help someone else
Everybody feels great after helping someone else. We can do this in many ways, we might want to volunteer our cash, our time, or our assets. If you put more positive energy into your world, you will receive more positive energy back. Take the time to help others, not only will they benefit from it, but you will feel great.
No more ruminating
Rumination is hyper-focusing on something and this is a negative trait to have. If you are doing this, the best way to prevent it, is to disrupt the pattern and start doing something totally different. Try changing your physical surroundings – go for a walk or get outdoors. You can also call a friend, read a book, or listen to some of your favourite music. Singing is optional but highly recommended.
Last but by no means least…
Hugging
You do not have to be a rocket scientist to understand the advantages of a great hug. Positive bodily contact with friends, family members, and even your pet is an immediate pick-me-up. The average length of a hug 3 seconds. When a hug lasts 20 seconds, there is a therapeutic effect on the body and mind.
Here at Fusion Occupational Health, we understand the importance of healthy employees and that is why we have developed our health and wellbeing application FUSE that enables your employees to access health and wellbeing support at the click of a button.
For more information on how Fusion can help your employees to make healthier lifestyle choices please contact us for a discussion with our wellbeing program manager.
