The Power of Positive Thinking

Those who are resilient and positive are better equipped to meet the challenges of life. Here are some strategies to help promote positive thinking.

• Changing our attitude
• Benefits of positive thinking/affirmations:
• Example Affirmations:

“The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”
— Winston Churchill

Our thoughts are a very powerful indication of who we are. Not only do our thoughts represent our feelings about ourselves but also about how we view others and the world. Sometimes we may not be aware of the impact our thoughts, words, actions or way of thinking has on the way we handle the situations in our lives. For instance, two people can experience the same hardship, yet one may bounce back with resilience while the other may give up and/or become depressed.

Those who are resilient and seem to easily meet life’s challenges are often those who think positively. And there are many ways to develop a positive frame of mind.
Changing our attitude

Our present attitudes are formed from old patterns of thinking that have been established over the years with the help of feedback from parents, society and ourselves. Our positive or negative mind-set is maintained by the inner conversations we have with ourselves, both on a conscious and subconscious level.

One way to change a negative mindset is through positive affirmations.

Positive affirmations are positive phrases of acceptance that are effective in enhancing your self-esteem. They require you to come up with a set of sentences that you can repeat to yourself in order to encourage the qualities or situations you desire. For example, you may feel negatively about yourself and think, “I’m useless, I feel alone, no one ever wants to be around me.” Thus you go through life with a negative attitude, attracting negative situations and negative people because that is what you expect. You may wonder, “Why do I have such a miserable life?” The answer is simple: negative thoughts create blocks and fears that may get in your way of reaching your potential or attaining your desires.

Any negative sentence can be turned into a positive one. For example, a positive affirmation worth repeating is, “I do all I can every day to create a loving environment for those around me, including myself.” The key is to reinforce a positive attitude through affirmations until you come to believe what you are saying. The more you believe, the stronger the affirmation becomes.
Benefits of positive thinking/affirmations:

In order to feel great about yourself both physically, emotionally, mentally and spirituality, you must work on how you feel on the inside. All our thoughts, feelings and beliefs are based on how we view ourselves in our minds, both on a conscious and subconscious level. And whether you are aware of it or not, you are in control of how you feel — people or situations cannot make you feel a certain way. It may be a difficult concept to grasp at first but practice saying a positive affirmation every day. You’ll notice a difference in the way you think about yourself.

Here are some tips to create a special affirmation that works well for you:

• Adopt a positive attitude and way of thinking
• Create statements in the present tense.
• Develop positive phrases about the qualities you would like to have or situations in which you’d like to be.
• Reward yourself on an emotional level.

 

Example Affirmations:

Affirmations for Health

• Every cell in my body vibrates with life and energy.
• I nourish my mind, body and soul with loving thoughts.

Affirmations for Love

• I send out love and it is returned to me multiplied.
• I attract only loving relationships in my life.

Affirmations for Abundance

• I know abundance flows freely through me as I pay my bills with love.
• I deserve all kinds of abundance and prosperity in my life.

Using affirmations and maintaining a positive attitude is a personal choice and is an on-going learning process. Learning to transform your mind in a positive way will change the way you view yourself, improve communication with others and will help create the life you truly desire.

A positive mind anticipates happiness, joy, health, and a successful outcome of every situation and action. And whatever the mind expects, it finds.

You’ll find more information on developing a positive attitude in Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life (Vintage, 2006), by Martin E.P. Seligman, a leader in the field of positive psychology and former president of the American Psychological Association.

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