Positivity, a good companion?
We are always advising or being adviced to be positive. Positivity is like a mantra in people’s life. But what is it in fact and how much can it afect or benefit us?
Positivity is an emotional and a mental attitude that focuses on the good and expects a positive outcome that one can benefit from. It is a happy and a worry-free state of mind. It looks at the bright side of life.
Positivity is associated with emotions like joy, love, aspiration and many other good feelings. It is also asociated with thoughts like courage, self- esteem, certainty and many others.
And now you will say that in this case you need be go through life blindfolded or that you need to ignore what is happening around you or to you, right?! And my answer would be: none of that.
Do you remember the last time you were in a hurry and you spilled the coffee on yourself and you got angry and then you missed the metro as well and then you got late to work and son on?!… You got so absorbed of the ¨negative¨ situations you had from the morning that all your day went worse and worse, didn´t it?!
Well, it is all about that, to see the half full of the glass. Of course there is nothing positive in spilling a coffee on yourself or in getting late to work, or in being rejected in an interview or in being fired. But if you accept what is happening and let it go, decide to prioritize what is worthy in your life, good things will happen to you. You would be growing your positive mindset and from there everything will improve, starting and with your health.
It is scientifically proven that positivity or negativity have a big impact on your health and well-being. The positive thinking is key in stress management. And effective stress management is associated with many health benefits like:
- Lowering rates of depression
- Lowering level of distress
- Getting greater resistance to the common cold
- Having psycological and physical well-being
- Having better cardiovascular health
- Developing better coping skills during hardships and times of stress
Of course, focusing on the negative is the easiest but as usual, the harder to get, is the best to have. So, when you are at the edge of the negativity, before ceeding in, think if is worth it and canalize your efforts in the right direction.
How can you get a positive thinking?
Well, the recipe is simple but requieres some key ingredients: time, commitment and patience. With this onboard, the steps are:
- Most important, Change your habbits. Identify what you are doing now without any benefit, thoughts, reactions, emotions, and label them.
- Check yourself. Stop few times during the day and identify those moments, situations, behaviours that you were not that proud of and think what would you like to have happen.
- Vizualize. Image how would you like to behave in a certain situation. Bring in all the details you can bring. What would you say? What would be your body language? How would you feel? Make it real.
- Repeat. You know what they say, the repetition ensures the learning. It applies here as well. Repeat this process every day, several times a day until it will become part of you. You will be so conviced of the results that you will apply it automatically.
And to make it even better, follow a healthy lifestyle, surround yourself with positive people, practice positive self talk. Nothing is better than being kind to yourself.
¨I do not fix problems. I fix my thinking, then problems fix themselves¨- Louise I. Hay.
