Have negative thoughts ever brought you down? Or made you feel as though things are out of your control? Sometimes our thinking patterns are one of the biggest things that can hold us back. At times we fall into a negative thinking habit and that does more harm than good for us. There is a reason for the same, our mind has a habit of following patterns, and once it has learned those patterns it becomes extremely difficult to correct them. But it is not impossible. Practicing positive thinking can be beneficial if you want to bring changes into your life that will help you grow. In this blog, we will cover a few great positive thinking techniques that are the most effective.
How negative thinking leads to self-fulfilling prophecy
In psychology, there is a phenomenon of self-fulfilling prophecy. A self-fulfilling prophecy is an expectation or belief that can influence your behaviors, thus causing the belief to come true. This can happen a lot with our negative beliefs. For example, if we have a habit of thinking “I cannot do this” without even trying, we may never be able to do it at all. Oftentimes, our negative thoughts can lead to self-fulfilling prophecies.
Negative thinking and self-limiting beliefs
Self-limiting beliefs are when our own beliefs start functioning against us, we automatically start limiting ourselves and our potential even before anything can happen. Our negative thoughts can greatly affect this and exacerbate these beliefs. Therefore it is extremely important to differentiate when our negative thoughts start hurting us.
How can positive thinking help?
Positive thinking can help bring a more optimistic and holistic outlook to your life. It can help brighten an otherwise dull vision. Opening a whole world of possibilities. Our perspectives shift greatly, and to some extent for the better when we adopt positive thinking patterns. They aren’t easy to develop but very fruitful for our mental wellbeing. And if for no other reason, positive thinking can help us greatly with our self-limiting beliefs. Isn’t it better to believe in ourselves rather than bringing ourselves down before anything can even happen?
Positive thinking can be extremely beneficial to us for various other reasons as well such as:
- Improving our mental wellbeing
- Bringing a positive outlook to life
- Provide an optimistic perspective
- Improve self-esteem
- Improve self-confidence
- Improve our internal motivations
- It can have a lasting impact on our relationships as well
- Reduce negative self-talk
- Bring more positivity into our lives
3 Best positive thinking techniques
- 1. Practicing Gratitude
As cliqued as it may sound gratitude can be extremely helpful in boosting positive thinking as it helps us focus our energies on the things that matter the most in our lives. You can show gratitude towards a lot of different things in life; your family, your people, your friends, and yourself. Showing gratitude can help you recognize the things in your life that have been good towards you, helped you, provided you with warmth and love, and give you something in return even if it is positive energy. Even simply acknowledging can make a big difference. You can practice gratitude by journaling, through meditation, and simple affirmations. - 2. Visualization
Another great way to promote positive thinking is Visualization. Visualization as a technique allows you to focus clearly set goals for yourself, and visualize the life you want. Visualizing something can help you clearly define your goals as well as in the process what all you need to do to achieve them. Visualization is a tool that if used regularly can help you align your thoughts and actions with your goals, promoting a positive mindset and increasing the likelihood of success. It enhances your ability to make it a reality. - 3. Affirmations
Affirmations are great tools for cognitive reframing. It is a simple but very powerful technique. Often going hand in hand with visualization, affirmations help us form new positive thought patterns in our minds that can replace the negative ones. It is extremely helpful in boosting self-confidence, self-esteem, and belief in one’s abilities. Positive affirmations are often phrases that you repeat to reinforce a positive mindset. For example, “ I can do anything I set my mind to.” “ I am intelligent and capable”, or “I am worthy of love and happiness.” By repeating such positive affirmations, you can replace negative thoughts with positive ones and develop a more optimistic perspective on life.
Best Positive thinking Exercises to incorporate in daily life
People are mostly worried about tomorrow. “What will happen if I can’t achieve this?”, “What will happen if I get laid off?”, “What will happen if….” This is generally what makes us cynical and grim. To come out of this, we must cultivate a mindset where we tell ourselves that no matter what happens, the world is not ending tomorrow. That will open your mind to start thinking about alternatives in a positive way.
this exercise is simple to do. Just spend a few minutes each evening reflecting on the day until you think of three good things. You can make a note of it in a journal, a simple sheet of paper
Besides thinking of the things we love in the world, it’s helpful to think about the things we love about ourselves. You can spend 5 mins in your day in the morning or before sleeping, making a list of things that make you great. Even if it seems cheesy, it is a wonderful practice to boast self-confidence and positive thinking!
Difference between positive thinking and toxic positivity
One very important thing to keep in mind is that there is a difference between positive thinking and toxic positivity. Yes, it is important to have positive thinking but it shouldn’t become toxic. The major difference between positivity and toxic positivity is that toxic positivity is dismissive and often focuses on erasing one’s negative or difficult experience to create a fake ideal of positivity. Which can become extremely overbearing. Having positive thoughts doesn’t mean you ignore your negative experiences. Positive thinking if done right, can however better help us in overcoming them.
If you often find yourself engaging in negative self-talk, you can try out the AI Therapist for happiness and well-being, HEALO. Healo can help guide you and provide you with a listening ear whenever you need one.
Conclusion
It is very important to remember that positive thinking is a skill that can be developed over a period of time with regular and consistent effort. As mentioned in the analogy mentioned above, if negative thought patterns are the road most often taken by our mind, positive thinking requires us to build a new path altogether. If you are familiar with Road Not Taken by Robert Frost, you can think of positive thought as the road less traveled. We have to consciously train our minds to think in positive patterns and often unlearn the negative patterns of thoughts.
