Positive Thinking Effects You Can Enjoy Today!
Thinking positively is something that takes a lot of work and discipline. For many people, it’s a conscious struggle against the tide to avoid negative thinking and see things in a realistic, yet positive way.
Conditioning yourself to think positively does yield a lot of benefits, however, and is well worth striving for. Here are 5 profound benefits of thinking positively.
- Improved health
- Better work performance
- A better sense of wellbeing
- Superior handling of stressful situations
- Unlock your sense of purpose
Positive thinking is a difficult school of thought. It’s not about ignoring your troubles or choosing to live in a fairy-tale land; rather, it’s a willful mental process that you etch into your mind over the course of a lifetime.
The rest of this article will walk you through how to think positively and how to reap the benefits of positive thinking.
What Is Positive Thinking?
Positive thinking is more of a discipline than a state of being. People aren’t born to think positively―evaluating threats, whether real or perceived, is part of our human nature.
We magnify small problems to plan for contingencies. It’s how we survive. Even so, our natural tendency to ruminate on anything and everything can leave us with a less-than-satisfying quality of life in the long run.
Sure, some people are naturally more optimistic than others about the outlook of their lives, but positive thinking isn’t a willful denial of reality or ignorance of problems.
It’s actively generating positive thoughts, turning negative thoughts into positive ones, and implementing subtle habits―tips and tricks, if you will―into one’s daily life.
Effects of Positive Thinking
Positive thinking can reap bountiful rewards for your wellbeing and is well worth the discipline it takes to achieve.
Thinking positively can help boost your self-esteem, navigate stressful situations more easily, and give you a profound sense of purpose.
Improved Health
As it turns out, positive thinking can serve to improve your health, both physical and mental.
Clearing out stress in your mind can help reduce the risk of a whole host of illness and disease associated with it, including heart disease, diabetes, depression, and other anxiety disorders.
Stress has a detrimental effect on the body, and reducing your stress levels with positive thinking can improve your physical and mental health to some degree.
Additionally, positive thinking has been shown to improve your immune response to some diseases.
The study suggests that negative thinkers are more susceptible to the flu and other illnesses, demonstrating a weaker immune response than those who were positive thinkers.
Better Work Performance
Not only can positive thinking make you feel better, but it can also improve your effectiveness at work. If you’ve ever had to slough through a long, dreary day of work, feeling as though you’ve gotten nothing done, then it’s possible that negativity is affecting your productivity.
Thinking positively can help you focus more on the big picture, to step beyond the trivial meetings, conferences, and piles of paperwork waiting for you.
Having a positive attitude towards your workspace (and life in general) can make your work environment seem more appealing and less stressful.
If you’re constantly stressed out juggling tasks at your job, then you might benefit from positive thinking to help you take the edge off the stress that you’re expecting in the workplace.
The more you disassociate your job from a ‘stressful’ environment, the less stress you’ll experience.
A Better Sense of Wellbeing
One of the major benefits of positive thinking is an improved self-esteem and outlook on life. Cliches like “stopping to smell the roses” or “enjoying the simple things in life” may be rather crude examples, but they’re not wrong.
Going day to day feeling as though life is an endless grind of work and sleep is extremely grating on the soul.
Thinking positively about your worldview, workspace, and even life itself can offer a better sense of wellbeing and provide some catharsis.
Better Handing of Stressful Situations
If you already knew anything about positive thinking, you probably recognize that positive thinking can help you handle stressful situations, but this is one point on which positive thinking is often mislabeled as willful ignorance.
To think positively about a stressful situation isn’t to pretend it does exist. It’s a mindset intended to help people cope with difficult things.
It doesn’t mean that positive thinkers don’t feel pain or hurt when something unexpected comes out of nowhere.
Positive thinking does, however, give you a starting rebound point to build from. A positive thinker, for example, might respond to a negative situation by saying, “This is upsetting, but I can recover.
This is part of my growth journey,” while a negative thinker might respond by saying, “This is just one more thing on top of everything else I have to deal with.”
Handing stressful situations well is the mark of a seasoned positive thinker, and disciplining yourself to react to negative situations in a positive way is a good life skill to learn.
Unlock Your Sense of Purpose
It’s hard to see “the bigger picture” when you’re constantly weighed down by all your problems and a never-ending cycle of ruminating thoughts.
These thoughts can make it seem as though life has no meaning and that everything you do will inevitably be for nothing.
This kind of negative thinking can disrupt your sense of purpose and discourage you from taking proactive steps to advancing your career, relationships, and personal goals.
Thinking badly about yourself is another impediment to bettering yourself as a person. Learning to set aside the self-doubt and criticism and replace them with more positive affirmations is a great way to develop who you want to be as a person.
It’s a lot easier to pursue your passions when you establish confidence in yourself and believe that you’re a unique individual with intrinsic value.
Positive thinking compliments a forward-looking lifestyle and helps you to look ahead to the future, even if you’re in a rut right now.
Your purpose is whatever you choose to make it, and if you think positively about the future, it becomes one step closer.
Final Thoughts
Thinking positively can be difficult―no one’s arguing that the process isn’t hard―but the benefits are well worth it.
Going through life with a positive mindset not only helps you improve your physical and mental health, but it can also make you more efficient in the workspace.
It helps you to develop your sense of purpose and gives you the gumption and motivation to actualize your goals and visions for the future.
Stress is a killer of both the mind and body, and learning how to put your thoughts into perspective and convert negative emotions into positive ones is the best way to reduce stress in the workplace and in the confines of your mind.
Establishing a pattern of positive thinking takes time.
Cloudy negative thoughts aren’t going to go away in a day, and you’ll have lots of hiccups on the road to positive thinking; however, the benefits of maintaining a positive mindset about the world and yourself has a myriad of benefits that are well worth exploring for everyone.