How you perceive life could be a fundamental ingredient of your personal drive to succeed. Whether you tend to be optimistic or pessimistic could very well partially determine your success; and it may even affect your health.
If you have at some point asked yourself how you can change your life, then please read on.
The Mayo Clinic (www.mayoclinic.com/health/positive-thinking/SR00009) identifies the health benefits of positive thinking which may include:
- Increased life spanLower rates of distress
- Greater protection from the common cold
- Better psychological and physical well-being
- Reduced danger of death from cardiovascular disease
- Better coping abilties during hardships and times of stress
Some studies show that personality traits like optimism and pessimism can affect your health and well-being, even change your life.
It is not clear why people who tend to be optimistic experience these benefits. One theory described in the Mayo Clinic paper is that attaining positive outlook permits you to cope better with stressful situations, which may reduce the harmful effects of stress on your health.
Stress Management Increases Success
Positive thinking and optimism are key parts of efficient stress management.
If you are a pessimist with negative thoughts galloping through your brain, don’t despair. You can develop positive thinking skills.
Here are some valuable tips.
Positive thinking often starts with self-talk. Self-talk is the continuous stream of thoughts that run through your head all of the time. These automatic thoughts can be positive or negative. Some self-talk comes from logic and reason. Other self-talk may evolve from misconceptions or past experiences.
Is your self-talk is positive or negative? Here are some forms of negative self-talk:
- Filtering. You unrealistically magnify the negative aspects of a situation and filter out the positive ones.
- Personalizing. When something bad occurs, you automatically without good reason blame yourself.
- Catastrophizing. You anticipate the worst.
- Polarizing. You see things only as good or bad, black or white. There is no middle ground. You feel that you have to be perfect or that you’re a total failure.
With practice you can turn negative thinking into positive thinking.
7 Proven Ways to Flip the Switch to Positive Thinking
Evaluate yourself. Periodically stop and evaluate what you’re thinking. If you find that your thoughts are negative, find a way to put a positive spin on them.
Use EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) or Tapping. This quick tactic has been illustrated to quickly turn negative self talk to positive self talk.Be open to humor.
Smile or laugh, especially during challenging times. When you can laugh at life, you feel less stressed.
Be around positive people. Make sure those in your life are positive, supportive people. Negative people inhibit your ability to manage stress in healthy ways.
Practice positive self-talk. Recognize your self-talk so you can evaluate your thoughts rationally and respond with affirmations of what is good about you.
Learn about Binaural Beats. Since 1973 researchers have investigated the positive effects of this technology.
Read The Biology of Belief by Dr. Bruce Lipton. If you think positive thinking is overblown hype, this book will open your eyes. The science of positive thinking is described in easy to understand terms. Don’t miss this one.
You will find a great deal of information, videos, resources, and techniques to help you succeed at ToSucceed.org.
Drop by and come away with new enthusiasm and self-confidence. Discover ways to change your life.