5 Tips on Thinking Positive (And Why It's Important)

5 Tips on Thinking Positive (And Why It’s Important)

Here’s good news: According to recent research, women who have an optimistic approach towards life are less likely to have heart disease, heart attack, cancer, and infections compared to those who have a negative outlook (1).

This finding proves that the benefits of positive thinking improve not only your quality of life but also your life expectancy.

Now you might be thinking, how can one stay positive in such a negative world? Well, that is not as difficult as you think. All you have to do is make a few tweaks to your lifestyle, and ta-da! Welcome to a positive world. 

Why is positive thinking important?

Your mind is an important organ that controls your internal as well as external environment. Your life changes according to the kinds of seeds (thoughts) you sow within your mind. When you sow positive seeds, you see more flowers around you. In contrast, when you sow negative seeds, all you get are toxic weeds.

Positive thinking can be rewarding in many ways. It can help you:

• Develop strong relationships
• Attract positive events in life
• Reduce the risk of common mental issues – anxiety and depression
• Cope well during times of stress
• Improve your physical well-being

Tips on thinking positive

Here are the popular tips that will help you develop a positive attitude and transform your life.

Start your day with something uplifting

Develop a habit of beginning your day with a positive thought, idea, or activity. Doing so will help you stay happy, content, and cheerful throughout the day. Here are a few examples of starting your day the right way:

• Tell yourself that you are happy you got another day to live, and you are going to do your best to make the most of it.  
• Help your neighbor or anyone else when you are on your way to work.
• Give someone a positivity-boosting compliment.
• Plan to do something exciting once your day is done.

Turn negativity into positivity

Ups and downs are part of life that you can never avoid. But what you can avoid is showing the wrong attitude towards a challenging situation, which can even worsen the situation.

Remember that every cloud has a silver lining. You should do your best to find that silver lining no matter what the situation is. For instance, if your friends cancel a movie plan, think about the free time you have to do whatever ‘you’ want to do.  

Choose to be grateful

We often get caught up in routine and our problems that we forget to appreciate the little things around us. If you think you rarely show gratitude, then it is time to change this behavior. Showing gratitude is very effective in increasing self-confidence and reducing stress levels.

Therefore, next time someone washes your dishes, tell them how thankful you are. If your colleague helps you complete a task, tell them completing the task on time wouldn’t be possible without their help.

Surround yourself with positive people

Today, the whole world knows how contagious Covid-19 is and why staying away from someone infected can save your life. But do you know that positivity and negativity are also contagious, just like this virus? They can also spread from one person to the other.

You may have noticed that staying in the company of someone positive, energetic, and cheerful has a positive influence on your mood. The opposite happens when you stay in the company of a negative person. Therefore, surround yourself with people who help you bring out the best of you.

Tackle your areas of negativity

Find the areas of your life in which you are more negative, and then work on them one by one. If you have trouble identifying them yourself, you can ask your friends, relatives, or even colleagues to help you find them. Common examples of negative areas in life are:

• You only see the negative side of a situation and forget about the other side – the positive side.   
• When something bad happens, you think it happened because of you.
• If your day starts with something negative, you habitually think your whole day will be a disaster.
• You think you can either be perfect or a failure. There is nothing in between.

The bottom line

Know that developing a positive attitude is not something you can do overnight. It takes time, just like a seed that takes months or even years to turn into a fruitful tree. Keep practicing the habits mentioned above to give positivity a chance to transform your life.