Make a difference with these positive thinking techniques
Positive thinking techniques can make the difference between a ‘cup half empty’ and a ‘cup half full’ attitude! The following are helpful thought and action techniques you can use every day to bring positivity into your life:
・ Self talk. Listen to yourself. Are you negative? Do you put yourself down, call yourself names, and never give yourself a break? Stop using negative terms to describe yourself, your looks, your smarts or your life. Replace the down-putting words with upbeat, positive ones to remind you that you are worthy of respect and love!
・ Awareness of feelings. Make a conscious decision to stop feeling sad, mad or bad. When you are down, think of something that will make you feel better and do it – no punishing yourself allowed! Dance, sing, bake a casserole and use the mixing spoon as a microphone. It will do wonders for your mood!
・ Positive affirmations. Some say that seeing is believing, and some see that saying is believing! If you find a mantra that addresses your most negative image of yourself, and repeat it enough times, you will believe it and it will come true! If you fear you aren’t brave enough to try something new, just tell yourself you are brave – enough repetition, and you will suddenly find that it’s true!
・ Guided thought direction. Create a library of happy thoughts, and store them in your head for easy access. When your negativity starts to rise and you think about unhappy things or start to feel anxious, check out a thought from your library! It can be a happy memory, a positive mental picture, or one of your mantras to give yourself a boost. This is one of the most effective positive thinking techniques you will ever learn!
・ Positive belief. Again, believe in yourself and your ability to succeed, and you will succeed. Give yourself the benefit of the doubt, and dare a circumstance or challenge to try and get you down, instead of feeling challenged yourself.
・ Live and learn. Even failures have a positive side – if you turn them into learning experiences. All you have to do is look at the situation reasonably, acknowledge your mistake, and plan to do better next time. It’s that simple – just fix what you can, then let yourself off the hook!
・ Credit for a job well done. Don’t always concentrate on the debit side of the equation. You don’t just get black marks for when you screw up – you need shiny gold stars for when you do something just right! Give yourself that mental pat on the back or even a physical reward when you pull off a successful deal, make the perfect omelet, or simply guess the right answer on Jeopardy.
・ Forgiveness. You can’t wallow in guilt – you’ll never be able to move forward. Beating yourself up serves no purpose, so look at your mistakes, forgive yourself and move on. Learn from the past and determine not to repeat it.
・ Realize your good fortune. When things go wrong, we tend to focus on the bad stuff. Try taking a look at how much worse it could have been: the fender bender may have shot your radiator – but at least no-one was hurt! The rain made you cancel the picnic – but now you can bake brownies and eat them hot from the oven!
・ Recognize opportunity. Sometime we panic at the knock on the door, like it’s the big bad wolf. We don’t notice that we are twice as big as any wolf, and we can make a fur coat out of him! Don’t panic – even a seeming catastrophe like the loss of a job could be the doorway to leaning how to take care of yourself; perhaps it is time to start your own company and become the next self made millionaire!
If you use these positive thinking techniques to change your negative thoughts into positive ones, your glass will be not only half full, but overflowing.
Accentuate the positive, and revel in life!