THE POWER OF THINKING
“Self-talk”. Endless thoughts of unspoken words running
through your head. These thoughts can be positive or negative. Some of these “self-talks”
can come from logic and reason. Other self-talks can come from misconceptions
that you create from lack of information.
Positive thinking often starts with “self-talks”. It doesn’t
mean that you ignore the reality of things going on in your life or the world,
it just means that you have chosen to approach unpleasantness in a more
positive and productive manner. You have chosen that the best is going to
happen and not the worst.
If the thoughts that run through your head are mostly
negative, most likely your outlook on life is pessimistic (glass half empty). If
your thoughts are mostly positive, you are likely optimistic (glass half full).
How do you know that your thoughts are negative? Here are common
forms of negative thinking:
· Filtering: you magnify
the negative aspects of a situation and filter out all the positive ones. For example,
even though you had a good day at work and completed all your assignments and you
were given compliments on your work for doing such a good job. Later on that
day, you focus on doing even more tasks and forget about the compliments you
were given.
· Personalizing: when
anything bad happens, you immediately blame yourself. Let’s say for an example,
you had plans to go out that evening with some friends and it gets cancelled,
and you assume that they cancelled the plans because they didn’t want to be
around you.
· Catastrophizing: you
immediately anticipate the worst. You spill coffee on your shirt and right away
you think the rest of your day is going to be a disaster.
· Polarizing: you see
things as either good or bad. There is no in-between. You feel that you have to
be perfect or you’re a total failure.
You can change the “habit” of negative thinking. The process
is simple but with practice and time it can be done. You can start the process
by identifying areas of change. First identify areas of your life that you think
negative about, it could be work, a relationship, or your lifestyle. Tell yourself
that in these areas you are going to start thinking positive.
Check yourself throughout the day, stop and evaluate what you’re
thinking. Are your thoughts negative? If you find that they are, try to find a
way to turn it around and put a positive spin on it.
Be open to humor. Give yourself permission to smile or laugh
especially during difficult times. Seek humor in everyday happenings. When you
laugh at life, you feel less stress.
Follow a healthy lifestyle. Exercise at least three times a
week to positively affect mood and reduce stress. Follow a healthy diet to fuel
your mind and body. Learn techniques to manage stress.
Mostly and importantly is to surround yourself with positive
people. Make sure those in your life are positive, supportive people you can depend
on to give helpful advice and feedback. Negative people increase stress levels,
remember “misery likes company”, and “birds of a feather, flock together!”
Another step is to practice positive self-talk. Follow one
simple rule: Don’t say anything to yourself that you wouldn’t say to anyone
else. Be gentle and encouraging with yourself. If a negative thought enters
your mind, evaluate it rationally and react with affirmations of what is good
about you.
Putting positive thinking into
practice|
Negative
self-talk
|
Positive
thinking
|
|
I've never done it before.
|
It's an opportunity to learn
something new.
|
|
It's too complicated.
|
I'll tackle it from a different
angle.
|
|
I don't have the resources.
|
Necessity is the mother of
invention.
|
|
I'm too lazy to get this done.
|
I wasn't able to fit it into my
schedule, but I can re-examine some priorities.
|
|
There's no way it will work.
|
I can try to make it work.
|
|
It's too radical a change.
|
Let's take a chance.
|
|
No one bothers to communicate with
me.
|
I'll see if I can open the
channels of communication.
|
|
I'm not going to get any better at
this.
|
I'll give it another try.
|
Some of the benefits of positive thinking are:
- Increased life span
- Lower rates of depression
- Lower levels of distress
- Greater resistance to the common cold
- Better psychological and physical well-being
- Reduced risk of death from cardiovascular disease
- Better coping skills during hardships and times of stress
I pray that this helps someone
in the way that you think, and the way you approach life. I frequently had
headaches and migraines until I used some of these methods of thinking. What I can
change…I do, what I can’t…. I put in the hands of God. May God bless you. – L.G. London
