The Powers of a Positive Attitude
I am going to ask you to something very weird right now. First of all, I want you to listen to your thoughts. Now tell me, what thoughts fill your head?
Would you label them as positive, or negative?
Now let’s say you are walking down the street with these thoughts. Do you think anyone who would meet you would be able to tell you what’s on your mind?
The answer to number one is up to you. But, the answer number two can be pretty generic.
Although people will not be able to tell you exactly what you think, they will more or less have an idea of how you are feeling.
Here’s another question. When you enter a party filled with friends, do they all fall silent as if something terrible had happened?
Or does everybody there perk up as if waiting for something exciting to happen?
You know what? The answer to all these depends on your frame of mind.
Thoughts are very powerful. They affect your general attitude. The attitude you carry reflects on your appearance, too – unless, of course, you are a great actor.
And it doesn’t end there. Your attitude can also affect people around you.
The type of attitude you carry depends on you. It can be either positive or negative.
Positive thoughts have a filling effect. They are admittedly invigorating.
Plus, the people around the person carrying positive thoughts are usually energized by this type of attitude.
Negative thoughts on the other hand have a sapping effect on other people.
Aside from making you look gloomy and sad, negative thoughts can turn a festive gathering into a funeral wake.
A positive attitude attracts people, while a negative attitude repels them. People tend to shy away from those who carry a negative attitude.
We can also define attitude as the way of looking at the world.
If you choose to focus on the negative things in the world, more or less you have a negative attitude brewing up.
However, if you choose to focus on the positive things, you are more likely carry a positive attitude.
You have much to gain from a very positive attitude. For one, studies have shown that a positive attitude promotes better health.
Those with this kind of attitude also have more friends. projecting a positive attitude also helps one to handle stress and problems better than those who have a negative attitude.
A positive attitude begins with a healthy self-image.
If you will love the way you are and are satisfied, confident, and self-assured, you also make others are around feel the same way.
A negative attitude, on the other hand, has, of course, an opposite effect. So, carrying a negative attitude has a twofold drawback.
You feel bad about yourself, and you make others feel the same way.
If you want to have a positive attitude, you have to feature healthy thoughts.
This is probably very hard to do nowadays since, all around us, the media feeds us nothing but negative thoughts.
A study shows that for every 14 things a parent says to his or her child, only one is positive. This is truly a saddening thought.
If you want a healthier outlook in life, you need to think happy thoughts, and you have to hear positive things as well. So, what can you do?
Well, for starters, you could see a funny movie, you could play with children, spend some time telling jokes with friends.
All these activities fill you with positive stimuli, which in turn promotes positive attitude.
Although it is impossible to keep ourselves from the negative things around us, you can still carry a positive attitude by focusing on the good things, the positive things in life.
And this positive attitude you now carry can be of benefit to other people.
Sometimes when other people feel down, the thing people mostly do is try to give them advice.
But sometimes, all they need is somebody to sit by them, and listen to them.
If you have a positive attitude you may be able to cheer them up without even having to say anything.
If positive attitude is really great, why do people choose to adopt a negative attitude instead?
One who carries a negative attitude may be actually sending a signal for attention. Before you get me wrong, feeling sad, angry, or gloomy is not wrong itself.
But dwelling on these thoughts for far too long is not healthy either. There is a time to mourn.
As always, if you are beset by troubles, even in your darkest hour, focus on the good things in life, you will always have hope.
Problems become something you can overcome.
You do not have much to lose by adopting a healthy, positive attitude.
Studies show that such an attitude actually retards aging, makes you healthier, helps you develop a better stress coping mechanism, and has a very positive effect on all the people you meet every day.
So, what’s not to like about a positive attitude? Adopt one today.
How Positive Emotions Affect Your Health
Our perception and response to our environment and community plays influences our mindset, behavior, and perception about other people and the world we live in.
We can be pessimistic, allowing gloom and negativity to haunt our every waking hour; or we can choose to be optimistic and see our stress and anxiety as normal human reaction to life’s challenges.
But there is more to human response to stress and anxiety than just having a “bad day.”
Our disposition not only affects our behavior but the state of our health, as well.
Extensive research has shown that people who are are suffering from depression and anxiety are at greater risk of having heart disease and other illnesses.
Further studies also proved that people who are under extreme prolonged stress are more susceptible to infections like the flu and the viral cold.
In recent years, researches have reinforced the theory that the human mind plays a major role in influencing the way that our body works.
Attitudes and emotions directly impact health and well-being.
Being too negative in terms of one’s thoughts or emotions somehow weaken an individual’s immune system, which also confirms the mind-and-body link of health and well-being.
The same study showed that people who are more optimistic have a 50% lower risk of untimely death than those who are pessimistic.
Aside from a lower risk of premature death, having a positive attitude increases a person’s energy and ability to handle life’s difficulties.
Having a positive attitude helps us deal with emotional pain and helps us attain peace, calm, and joy.
Although we cannot will ourselves to feel positive all the time, a number of techniques can be learned to help us reduce the impact of stress and anxiety.
Using relaxation techniques based on Western, Eastern, and other traditional forms of meditation can help us reclaim a positive outlook.
These techniques not only alleviate but also prevent psychological problems such as depression, anxiety attacks, aggression, and other stress-related illnesses like chronic pain, tension headaches, and hypertension.
The following are some of the useful methods that promote peace and relaxation:
l Visual Imagery
It involves visualizing oneself in the midst of a soothing and peaceful scene— a forest, a beach, a stream, a lake, or being in the mountains.
The important thing is that you visualize a scene that is beautiful and calm.
Aside from picturing nature scenes in your head, you could also try recalling a special, happy moment in your life.
The practice of visualization slows down the heart rate and breathing patterns.
l Meditation
This requires concentration or focusing one’s thoughts. It is a often referred to as the act of “emptying one’s thoughts of all negative thoughts and emotions.”
Meditation helps cultivate calmness and promotes the development of new and fresh insights into a problem and about life itself.
l Exercise
A good relaxation therapy that is mixed with physical exercise is called isometric squeeze technique.
This technique is used as part of a systematic desensitization therapy for people who suffer from anxiety and panic disorders.
The technique entails the application of alternate tension and relaxation on the body’s 16 different muscle groups.
There are other practical steps towards building a more positive life. These steps include the following:
1. Reduce Stress
2. Get Plenty of Rest
3. Get Organized
4. Exercise
5. Eat Well
By cultivating a more positive attitude and frame of mind, we can overcome life’s many challenges.
Having a calm disposition entails the development of a coping mechanism that enables as to face life’s many obstacles and occasional heartaches.
Through the application of stress management techniques and a commitment to overcome one’s personal problems, life can be more meaningful, worthwhile, and of course, happy as happy can be.
Consciously Choosing A Positive Attitude
Do you consciously choose your attitude each day? If you’re like most people, probably not. Most of us tend to let our circumstances choose our attitude for us.
We’re in a good mood as long as we get up on time, the kids cooperate and get to school on time, the car starts without a problem, we don’t encounter any traffic jams on the way to work, the boss doesn’t yell, our workload is manageable, etc.
This system can work fine as long as everything runs smoothly in our lives.
But that’s not always the case, is it? Situations don’t always adhere to our expectations. Accidents happen. Delays happen.
Spouses and bosses can be difficult to please. Vehicles break down. Kids may resist our efforts to keep the schedule running smoothly.
What happens to our attitude then? If we don’t make the effort to consciously choose a positive attitude, we run the risk of developing a negative one at random.
How would our lives change if we consciously chose a positive attitude each day?
For starters, we’d feel much happier about our lives.
We’d feel more motivated about pursuing our dreams because we’d believe in the possibilities for making them a reality.
We’d be able to enjoy the time spent with our friends and families more, because we’d want to share our joy with others.
We’d feel strong and empowered in our ability to do anything we set our minds to.
We’d be able to overcome challenges with ease because we’d have a strong belief in our own skills and abilities.
We’d be able to love deeply and completely without fear of rejection or betrayal.
We would pause to enjoy the smaller, more precious moments in life, without feeling pressured to do more, be more, or prove our worthiness.
Wow, it sounds awesome, doesn’t it? Is it really possible to feel that way all the time?
Yes, but probably not in the way you’re imagining it.
Just because we choose a positive attitude doesn’t mean that our lives will transform into smoothly-flowing works of art and stay that way forever.
Choosing a positive attitude is a process. We don’t just choose it once and expect everything to be perfect from that moment on.
We will still experience setbacks, delays, accidents, frustrations, arguments, fatigue, and fear.
The secret is how we choose to react to these experiences.
Do we want to let them ruin our day, or do we choose to pick ourselves up and look hopefully to the future again? We do have the power to choose.
You may be asking what the point of a positive attitude is. If we’ll still experience negative circumstances, why bother with choosing a positive attitude?
Ah, that’s the true beauty of the creative process.
What we choose to focus on the most, we create in our lives.
By choosing a positive attitude each day, we are actually attracting more positive experiences, and reducing the likelihood of negative experiences.
You may have noticed that each experience often determines the quality of the next experience, causing a chain reaction in our lives.
If one little thing goes wrong, it can throw off our plans for the rest of the day. In this context, it’s easy to see how a positive attitude would be powerful.
Rather than allowing one little thing to ruin our day, we would be able to shrug it off and continue on without a hitch.
Over time, this resiliency begins to strengthen and empower us, which will show through in our demeanor.
We begin attracting people and experiences that more closely match our attitude, and our lives eventually transform into more positive, fulfilling expressions of joy.
And it all begins with a little thing called attitude! Again, this is a process, so go easy on yourself if you’re trying to adopt a more positive attitude.
Simply focus on developing a stronger awareness of your attitude moment to moment in your daily experiences, and begin choosing a more positive one more often.
It takes time to realize the full benefits of this type of mindset, but it is time well-spent.
Before you know it, you’ll be one of those people you used to admire for their tenacity and strength, and your life will transform in amazing ways.
3 Positive Steps to discover the purpose of life
In this article we will discuss the concept of life and its underlying principle.
We will be going through a step by step procedure, exploring your feelings and options, and by the end of this article, you should have a fairly solid tool you could immediately employ in your life, to give it a meaningful direction.
There are three steps to the process of discovering the purpose of your life:
Understanding the principle of choice
Creating your underlying principle
Aligning your life with the underlying principle
Understanding the principle of choice
Norman Vincent Peale has this to say about the power of choice. “The greatest power we have is the power of choice.”
It is an actual fact, that if you have been groping under unhappiness, you can choose to be joyous, instead.
And, by effort, lift yourself into joy. If you tend to be fearful, you can overcome that misery by choosing to have courage.
The whole trend and the quality of anyone’s life is determined by the choices that are made.
Choosing is the most important activity of your mind, because by making a choice, you are proclaiming your desires to your subconscious mind.
Once the subconscious mind get to know your desires, it is going to do anything to manifest them in your life. The choices you make in your life become your goal.
And, if you are sincere in pursuing them, there is no reason why you should not accomplish them.
Indecision, on the other hand, not only creates frustration and anxiety, but can also confuse the subconscious mind about what you want.
But it is important that the choices you make are made by you, in accordance with your true desires, purposes and aptitude.
A lot us of let others make choices for us, or make our choices according to what we think is ‘correct’, even if that means that we go against our wishes.
What is right for someone is may not be right for you, and the way to know this is listening to what your heart says.
So, begin with, make a list of things which interests you; things which you have always enjoyed, which makes you feel better, which inspires you to surge ahead, no matter what obstacles you face.
Do you like doing something creative, or something artistic? Do you enjoy nature, do you like the sea? Do you enjoy helping others? Do you get pleasure out of making a difference in other people’s life?
What ever it is that interests you, go ahead and make a list under the following headlines:
Things you love to do:
______________________________________
What is it that you love in this thing and why? How you could do this for money, and make a living out of it?
__________________
__________________
Creating Your Underlying Principle:
The next step is to examine the list you just made and find out if there is any recurring item in them. Maybe, it is the contribution that keeps coming up, or an effect to seek or give love, or helping your parents cope with old age.
Whatever it is try to identify the central theme of the things you love to do, and try to put it in a short and precise statement. This will be your ‘Mission Statement’.
It may even be a quote by a famous person, or a philosophy that has influenced you. Of course, as you grow up, this statement could evolve, but its soul will remain the same. Now, write down your Mission Statement.
Aligning your LIFE with the Underlying Principle:
The final step in this journey is to map your path to your ultimate purpose.
Make the little changes in your lifestyle that would accommodate this principle in your life.
LIVE this principle each and every day. It might take a few days, but you will certainly feel the difference in your enthusiasm for life.
If you realize that you love being amidst nature, plan out your holiday. Maybe an outing with your children could be enough to recoup your energy. On the other hand, you might even want to change your job, or start a new business, that is more in line with your mission.
Remember – “Do what you love, and money will follow”.
