What Can Positive Thinking Do For You?

The way we think creates the life we live. For example, if we are pessimists, our lives will be negative and we will limit ourselves. On the other hand, if we are optimistic and always see the positive side of things, our lives will be blessed and happiness will be a normal part of our lives. Positive thinking is truly is the key to bliss.

Check out this helpful article on positive thinking from tiny buddha.

“Turn your face toward the sun and the shadows will fall behind you.” ~Māori Proverb

 

Depressing, isn’t it?

 

Struggling to get out of bed every day—but you can’t.

 

All you need to do is turn off your alarm, get up, and go on with the day. Instead, you hide under your covers, avoiding life. You’ve lost jobs, friends, and a whole more—but still, you can’t make yourself do it.

 

All you want to be is normal. To live without the huge emotions and downward spirals.

 

I once felt this way, too. Diagnosed with severe depression and borderline personality disorder when I was young, getting out of bed was brutal.

 

Part of what makes depression so, well, depressing, is the crushing weight of pessimism holding your head under water. Pessimism makes it easy to believe that nothing will work out, and everything is pointless.

 

What a terrible way to live life.

 

On the flip side, an optimistic life is about believing in the best, through the worst.

 

Were you raised to be an optimist or pessimist?

 

I was raised an optimist. Believe in people, hard work pays off, things will get better…the usual. As a slightly nerdy and completely gawky teen, life sucked. Classmate cruelty was an unavoidable part of life. Those years were painful. It was mind-boggling how mean, how pessimistic, people could be.

 

My mother, a textbook optimist, trotted out the usual lines:

 

“It’s not you; it’s them.”

“They’re just jealous.”

“It’ll get better. Just wait.”

It didn’t get better. It got progressively worse as I entered early adulthood. I hid behind alcohol and drugs to numb the pain of feeling.

 

Involving myself with bad people (you know, the kind you hope your kids never meet) made me feel strong.

 

For the depressed optimist, pessimism offers a heady feeling of power.

 

Or, maybe that was the drugs and alcohol talking. Eventually, life overwhelmed me, and it was time to end it.

 

What was the final straw? The simplest, funny-yet-sad answer is the movie Groundhog Day, and the thought of waking up, over and over again, to a never-ending cycle of anger, hurt, and pain.

 

So I tried to kill myself. Once, twice, three times. The third time was not a charm. (I’m still here, obviously.)

 

Fast-forward a year, and while I was officially “in recovery,” I was far from feelings of peace and contentment. I was, however, something else:

 

Pregnant.

A wise therapist once told me my depression stemmed from my life choices and environment, not chemical imbalances. Fix the choices, fix the environment, and you’ll fix the depression.

 

Not ready to hear that it was my job to fix my depression, I sought out a new therapist.

 

Still, I was told my pregnancy would go one of two ways: Either I would be completely “cured,” or my depression would quickly get worse.

 

If my parents had been pessimists and expected the worst, I wouldn’t be here today. If my parents had been pessimists, they would have given up on me; in turn, I would have given up on myself. But as optimists, they had faith that I would learn, grow, and recover.

 

As optimists, they didn’t have any other choice. Neither did I. And that, I realized, was an attitude I wanted to pass on to my child.

 

I wanted her to be a fighter, to always look for the best in others, to fall down and get back up again—and again, and again.

 

I decided to be an optimist not just for myself, but for my child.

 

It’s a struggle to stay positive, and pessimism desperately wants to be BFFs. My negative alter-ego is always sitting on my shoulder, whispering in my ear, “Isn’t life unfair?”

 

The thing is, life can seem unfair. But life got so much easier, and happier, when I learned how to overcome negative thoughts.

Some Helpful Tips

Let’s talk about seven useful ways to live life positively:

 

1. Ditch the following phrases:

 

“It figures,” “Isn’t that just my luck,” “It would only happen to me,” and, “I just can’t catch a break.” Words that make you a victim also make you a pessimist. Stop using them.

 

2. Flip the switch on negativity.

 

The violent television shows and the funny-but-mean viral videos. Negativity is an insidious disease, and it spreads through seemingly harmless mediums. Turn it off.

 

3. Refuse to be misery’s companion.

 

Gently, but firmly, tell your partner/mother/best friend/colleague that you can’t participate in their pity party. Empathy and compassion are important, but learn how to deal with difficult people.

 

Living bitter-free is a skill. Learn to acknowledge and explore feelings of negativity, but don’t dwell on them. Turn them around, taste them, and set them free.

Image Credit: wanderlustworker

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