The Importance of Positive Thinking

I likely don’t have to tell you this (but here I go anyway)…Yes, the way you think does have a direct impact on your life.

On basically every area you can think of.
And not just a bit.

The way we choose to react to whatever that happens in our life is
e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g.

Read on – or listen to the episode on the Soulcraft Quantum Experience here:

If you tend to look at the cup as half empty, are prone to negative self-talk, are feeling depressed, find it hard to trust, whether others or in general, well…

I’d say that changing your mindset is a worthwhile goal.

When you choose to view the world from a positive perspective there’s a lot of benefits. You’re likely to experience better stress management, improved health, stronger, healthier relationships and increased career success.

Not only that but the way you think and talk to yourself greatly impacts not just the experiences you attract in your life. It also affects your healing abilities, what and how well you actually manifest your wants and desires in life.

Needless to say, you can better your life drastically through a conscious shift in thinking and general mindset.
Let’s take a quick look at the importance of a positive mindset, along with ways to cultivate positive thinking.

Positive Thinking and Self-Talk

Positive thinking involves looking at life’s setbacks in a more proactive manner. Choosing to see the silver lining, so to speak.
By purposefully focusing on possibilities and solutions instead of everything that’s wrong in a given situation, you’re more likely to generate productive thoughts around the situation.
And yes. This most certainly is a choice.

No one else but you control the way you choose (yep, that’s the keyword, right there!) to respond to any given situation.

Our self-talk comes from the automatic thoughts that run through our heads when presented with a problem or complex situation.
These thoughts are usually skewed in either a positive or negative direction through years of conditioning. They have a powerful influence on the way you feel about yourself, a situation, others, or simply life in general.

Any positive thoughts we want to keep, as they will generate even more to be positive about. The negative are the ones we want to consciously make note of, every time we catch our selves if we want to turn our lives around and transform.

Your brain is a super-computer

Our brain is similar to a spongy super-computer, that files everything we have ever experienced into the deep dungeons of the subconscious. When we learned to walk (which we don’t think about, as it has been put on autopilot), so it happens with some of our (re-)actions and thoughts. This is so out of pure practicality, so our brain doesn’t have to calculate the response every time.

This means, that all thoughts we think a lot, or reactions we have experienced enough times, will be put on autopilot. It is good when we mostly have positive thoughts or reactions. But not so funny when they are negative, as we then tend to react negatively out of memory, rather than actually take the current situation in as it really is.

We basically react to situations we think are the same as what we have previously experienced.
And not to what it (most times) actually is.
Especially if we had the same experience over and over again.

Have you gone down the rabbit hole?

But initially, we don’t know.
We simply react.
And when that reaction has a negative trait, we often create the situation we feared it would be and reacted to – even if it initially wasn’t.
That’s sort of a catch-22 – it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy if you will.

It is also a proven fact that our subconscious is the one running a solo-show whenever we slack. When we forget to guard our thoughts and reactions before releasing them.

Often we don’t even notice what is going on before we react.
Negative thoughts often come from past experiences and are heavily influenced by our personal background. That is,  from outside sources like what our parents told us or experiences from past relationships.
We just run with them, and often end up making stuff up as we think it is. Out of habit.
And not as the situation actually is.

With a negative mindset, we often question everybody’s motives.
We become judgemental.

Based on our subconscious file-system, we think we already know how and why they say as they say and do what they do. All based on previous experiences. Maybe even experiences made with another person, but the one in front of us.
But we don’t know.
And we never give them an honest chance to tell or show us what they really mean, before we judge. We pull out our mental gun and react.
And we have effectively turned the situation into that exact one we feared. Not because of the other – but due to our own negative expectations.

This is why it is so incredibly important to become aware of how we think. And then dive into positive thinking whenever we can.

So ask yourself: “How do I feel about my life”?
Are your experiences mostly positive? Or do you seem to attract mainly negative situations?
Do you believe it is due to outside circumstances? Instead of checking within first, before you think and react?

Interrupt your auto-talk and reactions

You’ll be amazed by how positive thoughts can be generated through proper research, inquiry or purposeful contemplation.
Interrupting your automatic self-talk lets you discover information or consider more realistic views of a problem. That, in turn, can lead to the affirmative beliefs needed to develop practical solutions.

This process is known as conscious re-framing of negative self-talk.
It is extremely relevant to your general outlook on life. But very much also to what reality and which experiences you attract not just now but in the future.

Benefits of a Positive Mindset

Most of us prefer being near others who are positive. So, you may be surprised how your social opportunities suddenly increase with a shift in your thinking. Also, you’ll probably notice how your current relationships likely improve as you start to become aware. When you begin to see whatever issues you meet in a more positive light.

You’ll make your life way easier thinking like this. When working through misunderstandings by approaching them proactively and with a positive mindset.
The same principle kicks into action when it comes to stress.

Let’s be real here.
Worrying and constantly thinking about bad things and crappy experiences has never helped anyone. Basically, it’s the root of all stress.
The more you cultivate it, the worse you feel, sometimes even at expense of your physical health.

Guard your thoughts

The reverse is equally true when you become aware and mindfully turn your thoughts in a different, more positive, direction.
This way, whenever you feel stressed, angry, nervous or other, you’ll effectively eliminate the primary source of stress. This will help you to discover solutions instead.
And which again can lead to improved physical and mental health.

By choosing to be more in control of your stressors, any anxiety will likely lessen and can even have a measurable impact on lowering signs of depression. You’ll feel decreased muscle tension, enhanced concentration, solutions will begin to come to you.
Positive thinking can even affect cardiovascular health and your overall lifespan. And, you’ll most likely also notice how you feel happier more often.

I’ not saying you’ll be blind to whatever not-as-positive parts of the issue, just because you choose to think positively. But you’ll definitely experience a lot of positive side effects that you might not be able to imagine right now.

A few ways to Focus on Positive Thinking

Cultivating a more positive mindset requires conscious, active attention to your thought patterns and practising the habit of re-framing the negative ones.
That is, every time you catch yourself thinking a negative thought, you choose to focus on even the slightest positive outcome you can get from it, instead of on the negative.
Even if it simply means all you can think of is choosing to take it as a learning experience.

• Make a list of the areas in which you’re more prone to have a pessimistic view.
  This will help you to be mindful of your issues.  Note the times you were successful in turning your negative thoughts into positive.
  Doing so increases your motivation and encourage progress.
• Avoid dwelling on missteps. Instead, cut yourself some slack and focus on the ways in which you’re moving forward instead.
• Make an effort to surround yourself with happy people who usually look on the bright side, as this will provide you with models to follow.
• Be very intentional in your practice of re-framing your self-talk and know that it is a process that requires practice over time.

Practise makes perfect

The importance of a positive mindset and its effects on your life really shouldn’t be minimized.
From personal experience, I can certify, that consciously changing the way you think really does impact you in a lot of positive ways. As with so many other things in life, it actually becomes easier every time.
You already know the saying; Practice makes (nearly) perfect.

You’ll begin to feel better, even when facing life’s difficulties. And this will translate into a myriad of wonderful outcomes…
You’ll find that issues you used to freak out about, you don’t even want to give a second thought if it isn’t positive and constructive. And the same for negative people in your life.

You simply don’t want to give them the attention you used to or have them too close, because you are raising your own vibration and they’re no longer a match.
And the funny thing is, the more you choose to notice the good stuff, the better will actually be presented to you.

How about a fun challenge?

Most of us still fall into negative self-talk here and there without actually noticing. Especially when we leave our minds unguarded.
Even if you believe you already have a positive mindset, give it a try anyway the next week or so. And try to make a point of noting it down when you catch yourself in the negative, but notice and reframe it.

You can even make it into a fun challenge.
One, where you keep score and make a point of rewarding yourself every 10’th or 20’th time you catch yourself and reframe. Make a scoreboard and keep points.
No one said it had to be a hard and boring task – on the contrary.
The more fun you make it, the quicker you’ll reprogram your brain into the positive.

Don’t forget to leave me a comment below on how positive thinking has changed stuff around for you. And if you give the above a go, how it works for you, or any challenges you are facing.

To you – and may you continuously view the world with giant, pink, heart-shaped and positive glasses 🙂