Positive Thinking Tips that will blow your MIND (up)
It’s interesting that I hear a lot about “thinking positive” but unfortunately, we barely get taught how to think positive, along what part of the thought process do we start? This is where I’m going to try and teach you!
Something Greater will happen!
This is probably the thing that helps me most. Whenever I land myself in a bad situation or meet someone unfortunate, I think to myself: This is happening now because something great is meant to happen later on, and I need to have a taste of negative experiences to truly appreciate the good. Or, I’ve met this person and it turned out to be a horrific experience, but I know I am meat for more in the future, this is the step I had to take, to get to my GOOD future.
Look at where we are now, if you’re generally in a happy place, remember that you had to go through negative experiences to get there. You may be happy with life now, but imagine if the worst thing that happened to you DIDN’T happen, what would’ve your life been then? Perhaps completely different!
As funny as it sounds, but you may even have to thank the negative experiences and the negative people we’ve encountered for making our lives the way it is now. Of course, if you hate your life now, that’s a different story.
Repeated Self Talk
This may sound silly but it works. Talk to yourself loudly (if nobody is home), by saying things like: “It will be alright”, or “I will solve these problems one by one…” Sometimes, when we’re thinking as if everything is hopeless in the world because we have so many problems, we want to give up and just stop trying. But if our mind is trying to think along the lines of that it CAN and WILL get better, you’ll soon realise that you’ve got an amazing drive to solve your problems.
Can I learn anything Positive through this Negative Experience?
When something bad’s happening, sometimes we’re more concerned about ranting about it to realise that it COULD or MAY actually benefit us. Let me give you an example. You have to deal with a really nasty relative fights you have an hour to spend $2 on a sesame oil (true story), but in return, this kind of attitude helped you think more about human behaviour and allowed you to analyse why this happened. So in a way, you were able to learn something from it.
If you dropped your laptop on the ground randomly one day (another true story), you may learn that dropping the laptop will break it, and that you should be more careful next time!
Remember that a bad experience will eventually help us learn and become stronger, so there’s no need to be too upset about it, because even though it feels bad at this point, it will help you, if you let it!
What about Others?
Thinking more about others and helping others often helps yourself. For example, if you’re dealing with angry people, try and think about why they may be angry rather than they’re out there to make your life miserable but they may be extremely unhappy. Perhaps you could even help them. Sometimes, all people need is a caring, helping hand and a smile, and they may be completely different! Also, try and understand people by putting ourselves in their shoes because often, you will find that others are more relatable if you can understand them.
For example, if your boss has been cranky pants for a week, perhaps he’s got some problems on his own.
Expose yourself to Sunshine
If you’re feeling blue, depressed and gloomy, DO YOUR THINKING IN THE SUN! (As long as it won’t scorch you alive like summer hot temperatures, of course…) Go for a walk and clear your mind. Sometimes, sunlight can be like happy pills. I remember one day, I was feeling all usual and fine, and suddenly I had a burst of sunlight through the windows and that just lightened me up!
Read something inspirational or Positive
This is another trick of mine that works very well. Whenever I feel very negative, perhaps about myself or situation, I like to read positive quotes, messages and stories. I just find that reading it, even though it may not last, will help my mind think positively for that time.
Go and find some positive and motivational quotes, stories and articles that really makes you think and make a large collection of them!
Paint your House and Car
This is a crazy suggestion, but I totally recommend it. GO PAINT YOUR HOUSE MULTICOLOURED!
Rainbows always makes me smile! It’s as if colourful things stimulate my mind and makes it all excited. So, perhaps this is the perfect chance for you to do what you secretly desired, paint your house pink with orange dots!
Replace certain thoughts with Others
(This only goes for things in your life which you must deal with, if it’s a problem you can solve, I advise you to solve it first rather than put it off.)
Whenever people say, “don’t think about something”, that’s a lie! It’s impossible for you to stop thinking about something. For example, last night I was in bed and sometimes I start thinking about sleep and whether I’d fall asleep. Whenever that happens, I end up having more problems sleeping. Whenever I try and force these thoughts out of my head, it just ends up being worse and I find that the more I’m trying to not think about it, the more I do think about them.
The key is trying to replace your thoughts with something else.
For example, instead of thinking about whether I will sleep or not, I can plan for what I am going to cook and write about tomorrow. That’s usually a topic that makes me feel happy, but won’t excite me to the point of not being able to sleep. Very soon, I found myself sound asleep!
So remember that it never works if you’re simply trying to stop thinking about something, often we need distractions or other things to occupy our minds.
I personally find it much easier to force another thought in my mind than get rid of a certain thought or stop thinking about something.
Do you have positive tips which really helps you?