Positive thinking has been gaining more importance in the fields
of psychology, business, management, meditation, spirituality and medicine.
Positive thinking has helped patients with recovering from serious illness when
they maintain a positive outlook and determination to fight the disease.
A lot of people misunderstand what positive thinking is. They think positive thinking is about being overly optimistic, naive and thinking the world is all rosy and people should be happy all the time. That isn't true.
Most reasonable people can acknowledge that life can be difficult at times. They understand their will be periods of suffering in peoples lives but that we must continue to be vigilant to protect ourselves from harm. People who practice positive thinking can vary greatly in their personal philosophies as to the meaning of life or how much happiness one can expect to find. However, they do share a common determination. That, however much good or evil the world around them seems, at any moment, they are going to do their best to take advantage of opportunities that come their way. And, make the best life for them as possible.
Another element to the philosophy of positive thinking is to not be your own worst enemy. Don't let your own attitude and negative thinking add to your troubles. When you give yourself a hard time while it seems the rest of the world is giving you a hard time you are only taking whatever is wrong and actually making it worse. Those that practice positive thinking often think life is not only what you make of it, but also what you choose to see in it.
Some basic guidelines for practicing positive thinking are....
Concentrate primarily on what is going well in your life rather than what is wrong. You can't sweep your problems under the rug. But do not spend a disproportionate amount of time thinking and worrying about them. Analyze them, deal with them as best as you can, then try to put them out of your mind. Most of us may be in a situation where 80 to 90 percent of our life is essentially going well and only 10 or 20 percent isn't going well. However, we may spend 80 percent of our time worrying about the 20 percent that isn't as we would like it to be. When we do this, the 20 percent becomes 80 percent for all practical purposes, because we are effectively crowding the good things out of our life by not allowing ourselves to enjoy them.
Establish an effective way of dealing with fear. A lot of people can become overwhelmed with fear or dread. The fear might be of a person or event or something in general. General fears could include fear of getting a serious illness, fear of getting into a car accident or attacked or robbed, etc.
Some effective ways of dealing with fear are: First assess how realistic the fear is; in other words, how likely is it to happen.
Separate the "irrational' fears from those that you really need to pay attention to. In a sense no fear is totally "irrational" in that the things we are afraid of do really happen to people somewhere in the world. However, some scenarios are so unlikely that we'd do well to put them out of our minds. If they should happen then we will just have to deal with it when the time comes.
Once you have determined if your fear is reasonable, determine whether or not there is anything you can do about it. Can you change the locks on your door to prevent an intruder? Can you install smoke detectors to warn you of a fire? If you walk to and from work or somewhere can you take a safer route ? Is there something you can do to help improve your health? If there are some positive preventive action you can do, then doing so might make you feel better and somewhat calm your fears. On, the other hand if there is nothing you can do , you must accept it and try not to dwell on it. You must avoid dead end loops worrying about something needlessly without being able to come up with any useful conclusions.
Imagine the worst case scenario and what would you do if it happened? If everything you feared happen, what would you do about it? How would you cope, and how would you survive? If you are afraid that one day a nearby river will flood and drive you out of your home, then imagine it actually happening. Imagine moving in with a relative for a while. Imagine returning to your home later and friends and family helping clean up. Imagine applying for insurance benefits or possible government assistance programs to help get you started again. Imagine having gotten through all of that and being back safe in your home again. The same process can be used for problems with an abusive spouse, and fears of leaving and surviving alone. If you can picture yourself surviving then you know you are prepared for the worst.
Deal in specifics and aim for definite results. Start being more specific about what you want or expect, not just the long term but also on a day to day basis. Set yourself an achievable goal each day, something that will take you one small step closer to what you want. At the end of the day, if you have met your goal, you can feel some satisfaction in having done so. If not try it again the next day. You can only feel successful in life if you are able to identify specific and reasonable areas in which you hope to succeed.
Try not to lose site of the big picture when things do not go your way. A good example is if you are in a "fender-bender" in a parking lot or some other minor traffic accident with relatively little damage and no injuries. Such an experience can leave you feeling frustrated, whether it is your fault or someone else's. It means your day is going to be disrupted. You are going to have to stop and tend to this matter. You are not going to get to where you were going when you wanted to. The rest of your schedule will have to be rearranged. If the other person was at fault you might find it hard to not be angry with them.
The challenge, during times like these is to step back a little bit and look at the big picture. You are still alive. Neither you nor any of your friends and family were hurt. You hopefully have insurance and can get your car fixed. You still have a car and a life. All of the good things in your life when you woke up that morning are still there. Compared to a sudden death of a loved one, a catastrophic accident, a disabling injure, or other serious trauma, what you have experienced is not such a big deal after all. You can get through it.
You can either keep an positive outlook as much as you can, do what needs to be taken care of as quickly and efficiently as possible, then try to put it out of your mind and not dwell on it. Or, you can let yourself get upset and depressed, let it ruin your entire weekend. Either way the car is damaged and needs repaired. The price you pay can end up being greater the longer you let it drag down everything else in your life.
A very important rule to positive thinking is "acceptance" of the fact that you will not always come out a winner. Do your best that you can, and then accept whatever happens. Hold yourself accountable for making efforts, but not always for results. Sometimes the results are partially or sometimes even entirely out of your control.
This doesn't mean that results don't matter but they shouldn't be the only thing that matters. You are not going to win all the time. Everyday is not going to go smoothly. Positive thinkers have bad days just like everyone else. But, over an extended period of time the positive thinker has fewer bad days, because their attitude helps them see over and above the immediate problem and appreciate all that is going well in their life instead of focusing on what is going wrong.
A lot of people misunderstand what positive thinking is. They think positive thinking is about being overly optimistic, naive and thinking the world is all rosy and people should be happy all the time. That isn't true.
Most reasonable people can acknowledge that life can be difficult at times. They understand their will be periods of suffering in peoples lives but that we must continue to be vigilant to protect ourselves from harm. People who practice positive thinking can vary greatly in their personal philosophies as to the meaning of life or how much happiness one can expect to find. However, they do share a common determination. That, however much good or evil the world around them seems, at any moment, they are going to do their best to take advantage of opportunities that come their way. And, make the best life for them as possible.
Another element to the philosophy of positive thinking is to not be your own worst enemy. Don't let your own attitude and negative thinking add to your troubles. When you give yourself a hard time while it seems the rest of the world is giving you a hard time you are only taking whatever is wrong and actually making it worse. Those that practice positive thinking often think life is not only what you make of it, but also what you choose to see in it.
Some basic guidelines for practicing positive thinking are....
Concentrate primarily on what is going well in your life rather than what is wrong. You can't sweep your problems under the rug. But do not spend a disproportionate amount of time thinking and worrying about them. Analyze them, deal with them as best as you can, then try to put them out of your mind. Most of us may be in a situation where 80 to 90 percent of our life is essentially going well and only 10 or 20 percent isn't going well. However, we may spend 80 percent of our time worrying about the 20 percent that isn't as we would like it to be. When we do this, the 20 percent becomes 80 percent for all practical purposes, because we are effectively crowding the good things out of our life by not allowing ourselves to enjoy them.
Establish an effective way of dealing with fear. A lot of people can become overwhelmed with fear or dread. The fear might be of a person or event or something in general. General fears could include fear of getting a serious illness, fear of getting into a car accident or attacked or robbed, etc.
Some effective ways of dealing with fear are: First assess how realistic the fear is; in other words, how likely is it to happen.
Separate the "irrational' fears from those that you really need to pay attention to. In a sense no fear is totally "irrational" in that the things we are afraid of do really happen to people somewhere in the world. However, some scenarios are so unlikely that we'd do well to put them out of our minds. If they should happen then we will just have to deal with it when the time comes.
Once you have determined if your fear is reasonable, determine whether or not there is anything you can do about it. Can you change the locks on your door to prevent an intruder? Can you install smoke detectors to warn you of a fire? If you walk to and from work or somewhere can you take a safer route ? Is there something you can do to help improve your health? If there are some positive preventive action you can do, then doing so might make you feel better and somewhat calm your fears. On, the other hand if there is nothing you can do , you must accept it and try not to dwell on it. You must avoid dead end loops worrying about something needlessly without being able to come up with any useful conclusions.
Imagine the worst case scenario and what would you do if it happened? If everything you feared happen, what would you do about it? How would you cope, and how would you survive? If you are afraid that one day a nearby river will flood and drive you out of your home, then imagine it actually happening. Imagine moving in with a relative for a while. Imagine returning to your home later and friends and family helping clean up. Imagine applying for insurance benefits or possible government assistance programs to help get you started again. Imagine having gotten through all of that and being back safe in your home again. The same process can be used for problems with an abusive spouse, and fears of leaving and surviving alone. If you can picture yourself surviving then you know you are prepared for the worst.
Deal in specifics and aim for definite results. Start being more specific about what you want or expect, not just the long term but also on a day to day basis. Set yourself an achievable goal each day, something that will take you one small step closer to what you want. At the end of the day, if you have met your goal, you can feel some satisfaction in having done so. If not try it again the next day. You can only feel successful in life if you are able to identify specific and reasonable areas in which you hope to succeed.
Try not to lose site of the big picture when things do not go your way. A good example is if you are in a "fender-bender" in a parking lot or some other minor traffic accident with relatively little damage and no injuries. Such an experience can leave you feeling frustrated, whether it is your fault or someone else's. It means your day is going to be disrupted. You are going to have to stop and tend to this matter. You are not going to get to where you were going when you wanted to. The rest of your schedule will have to be rearranged. If the other person was at fault you might find it hard to not be angry with them.
The challenge, during times like these is to step back a little bit and look at the big picture. You are still alive. Neither you nor any of your friends and family were hurt. You hopefully have insurance and can get your car fixed. You still have a car and a life. All of the good things in your life when you woke up that morning are still there. Compared to a sudden death of a loved one, a catastrophic accident, a disabling injure, or other serious trauma, what you have experienced is not such a big deal after all. You can get through it.
You can either keep an positive outlook as much as you can, do what needs to be taken care of as quickly and efficiently as possible, then try to put it out of your mind and not dwell on it. Or, you can let yourself get upset and depressed, let it ruin your entire weekend. Either way the car is damaged and needs repaired. The price you pay can end up being greater the longer you let it drag down everything else in your life.
A very important rule to positive thinking is "acceptance" of the fact that you will not always come out a winner. Do your best that you can, and then accept whatever happens. Hold yourself accountable for making efforts, but not always for results. Sometimes the results are partially or sometimes even entirely out of your control.
This doesn't mean that results don't matter but they shouldn't be the only thing that matters. You are not going to win all the time. Everyday is not going to go smoothly. Positive thinkers have bad days just like everyone else. But, over an extended period of time the positive thinker has fewer bad days, because their attitude helps them see over and above the immediate problem and appreciate all that is going well in their life instead of focusing on what is going wrong.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.