In the past few years many people have been talking a lot about positive thinking and staying positive, but what is it really? And how do you do it?
I've come across a lot of people who believe that one should always be positive. I agree, we spend a lot of time in our heads and the thoughts we create there can really affect our physical bodies. By now we all know that our mind and body are connected, the quality of our thoughts can make us feel a certain way and after while, the results can be seen in the physical bodies. In fact, some thoughts cause our bodies to react straight away. Try this to see for yourself. Close your eyes and imagine that you have a piece of cake or your favorite food in your mouth, try to recall the taste, scent and feeling. How does that make you feel? Did your body relax into the sweet thought? Are you even smiling? Now imagine you have a slice of lemon in your mouth, it's really sour and the rind is bitter. Did you notice the difference in your facial expression? Or maybe you noticed the saliva rising in your mouth? Your body reacted to your thoughts, didn't it?
Now let's talk about stress for a bit. We know how the stress mechanism works. We know that in stressful situations, the flight or fight response is triggered but if we constantly get into this state or stay here for a prolong period of time, our bodily functions begin to fail, certain things
get shut down, our immune system doesn't function so well anymore. We also know that there is such a thing as good stress and although the stress response is triggered the same way, good stress is actually beneficial to us. Excitement also triggers the same response, the same hormones and chemicals are released but excitement doesn't really harm us, does it? And where is the line between excitement and the bad stress? It actually comes down to our perception. If we perceive something to be a threat, we get into the stress mode. If we can change our perception and see that same thing as a challenge and have fun with it, it can become an excitement. We'll discuss perception later. For now, I wanted to give you a clear example of how our thoughts and feelings can affect our bodies and I believe we're clear on that.
So the quality of our thoughts can influence our bodies. Our thoughts also have an impact on our energy fields and the more of certain energy we imprint upon our fields, the more of that we are going to attract. Which means, it is very helpful to stay positive and have more positive thoughts and outlook on life. Otherwise, we only hurt ourselves by being negative and bringing more negativity into our environment and bodies. But does it mean that when something bad happens, we should just pretend it hasn't happened?
There are little things that you don't need to pay attention to, there are things you can brush off and you don't need to give a second thought about them. But there are also things that you cannot run away from. There are things that you simply need to work on. If you have health issues, financial issues or other issues in life, pretending that the issues aren't there will not help solve the problem. If you have a health issue and you ignore it, it can get worse. Of course, if you have bruises and scratches, they will heal even without you noticing it, but if you have other, more serious issues that demand your attention, you need to do something about it. Denying their existence will not help you recover and the condition may worsen.
Looking at the problem and admitting you have a problem doesn't make you a negative person. A negative person would find something negative about everything even when negativity doesn't exist. Let's say if you used to rent a flat but now you are able to afford a house and you're buying one, most people would be happy for you and congratulate you, but a negative person might come to you and talk about the mortgage that he or she thinks you'd never be able to pay off. That person is being negative. Or maybe you posted a food photo that most of your friends like and some may even ask for the recipe and then someone comes along and start attacking the people who ask for the recipe that they are so useless they can't even google the recipe. Now, that is really negative! By the way, if you think I was exaggerating with the recipe example, I wasn't, someone did that on my Facebook page a while ago after I posted a picture of something I cooked.
If you're only trying to be realistic and admit that there is something in your life that demands attention, it needs healing, help, it needs to be resolved, you're only trying to solve the problem. You can see the problem, acknowledge the current situation and reality, and then figure out how to solve it. This is not being negative. But this is all there is to do, look at it and solve it without getting into lower frequency if possible, or if you do, don't stay there very long. What do I mean by that? When you are in pain or suffering, you might need extra help, you can talk to people, you can recruit help to find out a solution to the situation. You might feel bad, you want to cry. You can cry, you can let it out, you can tell your friends about your feelings. But then you slowly work on the issue and find your way back to being happier again. If you stay there, never solve the problem, never try to get out of the situation and always complain about the same thing over and over again, sooner or later you will identify with the problem and it will be harder for you to get rid of it when it has become your identity.
There are, of course, problems or issues that take a lot of time to be resolved. It can take you
years to recover from something, but at least make a tiny step forward when you can, hold on to the possibility of things getting better for you and everyone, don't kill the hope. You can see things for what they are. The situation can appear terrible and you can accept it as current reality and situation, but you don't need to give excess negative energy into it. Let's say, for example, you are waiting for some news. You still have a week to wait. You might even be afraid of the worst case scenario because it is a possibility and it may even be a likely possibility. But you have a choice to imagine the worst possible and think about it over and over again and stress yourself out for the whole week while waiting for the news to arrive. Or, you can get stressed later, once you receive the news, 'if' the news are bad. It's out of your control, there is nothing you can do anyway. You can kind of prepare yourself that the outcome might not be what you want but then leave it there. Spend the week focusing on something else, do something else, enjoy the time you have. Maybe there are other things you need to take care of, do them. Maybe you need to rest, do that! Who knows? You might receive good news, so why spend the whole week working yourself up and tormenting yourself? In fact, you could even try to think that it is also possible that you would receive good news and there is no need to stress during the waiting!
If you've never tried, it might feel difficult at first but with time and practice you will get better
at it. You can start small, let's say, for one hour today you will not worry and you will just enjoy such and such, and do that. When you get a hang of it, you can extend it to a day, a week, a month, or as long as you want to. Make this a habit, and habit can be learned, unlearned and relearned! In the end, we all want to be happy. If we want positive energy, we can start attracting it by adding positive energy into our lives, by creating that positivity, or at least by minimizing the negativity as much as we can. It can take time for us to really see what kind of thought process we have and how much time we spend with negative thoughts in our heads each day but it's never too late to start. We only need to observe ourselves and become more aware of ourselves.