Where am I going with this...? Well, a friend has started a Facebook group for Wonderful Ladies and there were a couple of comments in regards to positive thinking - a subject that was covered in my course a couple of weeks ago!!
For some people positive thinking is a real challenge. Many people feel their thoughts are out of their control and are often swamped with worry. When we develop optimism and make positive thinking more predominant than negative thinking, every aspect of life changes for the better! Happiness becomes our natural state. We become healthier and are able to enjoy the fun things in life to a much greater extent. Positive thinkers are more successful in all areas of their lives including relationships, careers, finances and they are usually more creative and far more motivated than negative thinkers.
So I thought I'd share with you my homework from the other week... an article on positive thinking - including a couple of tools that you can try straight away to help begin to turn that frown upside down :)
Positive Thinking
Do you ever feel that your mind is stuck in a bad
groove? Like a CD that keeps skipping
and replaying the same negative thoughts over and over – things like “why am I
so unhappy/ fat / stupid / short / tall” etc… these are toxic thoughts and they
are a genuine threat to your overall happiness and wellbeing. The good news is that there are things we can
do to help break this cycle!
As busy people in a modern world, we are on the go all
the time with work, study, social activities etc. and while we are
going about our busy lives, in the background we are accompanied by an endless
stream of mind chatter. You know what I
mean, that inner narrative that just won’t quit some days. If we allow it to, this chatter can become
stuck in that bad groove and send us into a downward spiral of doom and gloom,
leaving us feeling stressed and unhappy.
The further into the spiral we are sucked, the more destructive and
negative our thoughts can become, leading to feelings of loss of confidence in
ourselves (low self-esteem), feelings of anxiousness and even hopelessness.
Learning how to stop these negative cycles before they
spin out of control is vital for leading a happy and fulfilling life. By learning how to use some fairly easy techniques
we can begin to halt these thoughts in their tracks by choosing to focus on the
more positive things in our lives therefore helping us to see the bigger picture.
Putting it simply, positive thinking can
help break the cycle of negativity and give you a more balanced view of your
world.
So what is positive thinking and where can you get some?
Positive thinking is the practice of being more in tune
with ourselves and choosing to develop a more positive mindset. By learning some simple skills and practising
them regularly, we can begin to develop the habit of seeing the world in a more
positive light. We can consciously
choose to be happy!
Positive thinking isn’t a habit you are likely to develop
overnight but there’s certainly no right or wrong way to give it a go! Anything you are doing to try and see the
world more optimistically isn’t doing you any harm. For some it will take a bit longer than
others to develop their skills but by investing in some valuable time just for
yourself each day and having a little patience, you will start to notice some
fantastic benefits really quickly! There
are tools we can use to help train our brains into thinking in a more positive way. By learning skills such as journaling,
meditation and affirmations you will begin thinking more positively and will
find that you feel happier and appreciate the good things in life.
Thinking positively has loads of benefits - it helps to
give your mind a break from that noisy negative chatter, it can help decision
making become easier and you can even find that you deal with stressful situations
better but above all it will help give you a clearer outlook on life. Developing a positive or optimistic outlook
doesn’t mean that we will now ignore our problems, but instead we become better
equipped to tackle tricky situations and have a much more objective perspective
when faced with any issues.
So what are some of these tools?
We’re going to have a look at two of the skills mentioned
earlier – journaling and meditation.
Both are things that you can begin learning to use immediately! Here’s a short guide to how you can get
started developing your positive thinking habits straight away;
Gratitude Journaling
You will need: A notebook and paper
A Gratitude Journal is a place where you acknowledge
things in your life that you are grateful for and using it will help you train
your mind to recognise all the good things you have in your life. This helps bring that bigger picture a little
more into focus.
Take a few minutes to yourself each day to jot down a
list of the things you are grateful for.
Each entry should start with “I am grateful for…….”
It can sometimes feel a bit difficult to get started but
even if you only make 4 or 5 entries for the first few days you are doing
really well. Hang in there and you’ll
discover very quickly that the list will start to come more easily and that you
are feeling grateful for more than you realised!
In the times that you find yourself feeling negative
emotions (such as anger or sadness), try to take a moment and reflect on some
of these things that you are grateful for.
If you have your journal handy, flick through a few of the entries and
reflect on how small that problem really is and how much you have to be
grateful for.
Zen Meditation
You will need: A few minutes
Meditation is the practice of learning how to control our
thinking and helps to quieten down that endless chatter of thought as well as
bringing clarity to our minds.
Meditation can seem intimidating and a lot of people
perceive meditation as a practice that you have to devote hours a day to in
order to get any benefit. In reality there
are many forms of meditation available and you quickly learn that if you have a
spare 5 minutes a day, you have time to meditate.
There are many different types of meditations that you
can try but here are some guidelines on how to practice a basic Zen Meditation. This can be done anywhere, anytime and for as
long as you wish. It is the practice of being
in the moment while calming your body and mind– being present in the now.
Zen Meditation is the art of taking the time to focus on the moment you are in.
You don’t dwell on the past or worry about the future, you are just experiencing the moment you are in.
-To bring the mind into the present moment you can begin by simply listening.
-Listen to and focus on the sounds you can hear near you.
-Then try to listen a little harder for sounds that are further away from you.
- When thoughts outside of this moment enter your head, just release them and refocus on the sounds around you.
Now that you have a couple of tools under your belt you can begin to practice and reap the benefits that positive thinking can bring. Not all techniques are suitable for everyone as people learn in different ways and you may need to experiment with a few different skills before you find the one that’s right for you - but certainly the power of positive thinking will enrich your life if you’re willing to give it a try.
~The Happy Rummager~
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