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Always Think Positive
Always Think Positive
Think Positive: 11 Ways to Boost Positive Thinking
The complete guide to positive thinking, according to science.
When you harness the power of positivity, its amazing the impact it has on your life. It makes every moment worth experiencing and every goal worth shooting for. By thinking positive, you just can't help but be optimistic, even when everyone around you is miserable. As a result, you are happier, less depressed, and more satisfied with your life. The benefits of positive thinking are vast. So how do you train your brain to think positive?
1. Ask yourself, "Do I think positively?"
Not sure whether you're a negative nelly? Take this well-being quiz, which not only gives you a score on "positivity", it can help you identify the other skills that can most help you improve your happiness and well-being. If you're someone who needs to work on your positivity, keep reading.
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2. Strengthen your memory for positive information.
Did you know that you may be able to increase your positivity just by memorizing lists of positive words? That's right. It's because when you force your brain to use positive words frequently, you make these words (and their basic meaning) more accessible, more connected, and more easily activated in your brain. So when you go to retrieve a word or idea from your memory, positive ones can come to the top more easily.
Not sure which words are positive? Psychologists have painstakingly measured thousands of words to determine how positive and negative they are. I've compiled only the most positive of the positive words into a positive word workbook for adults, and a positive word workbook for kids. If you're struggling to think positive, try this strategy first. It can help develop your brain in ways that may make the other positive thinking strategies easier to implement.
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3. Strengthen your brain's ability to work with positive information.
Once your brain has built strong neural networks for positive words, try to extend these networks by asking your brain to use positive information in new ways. For example, you could memorize positive words and set an alarm that reminds you to recall these words, in reverse order, an hour later.
Or, you could print out these words on cards, cut them into 2 pieces, shuffle them all together and then find each card's match. For example, the word "laughter" would be cut into "laug" and "hter". To match the word pieces, your brain has to search through lots of positive information to find what it's looking for. This positive memory recall task may make it easier when you try to think positive.
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4. Strengthen your brain's ability to pay attention to the positive.
Are you one of those people who notices the bad stuff—like when someone cuts you off in traffic or your food doesn't taste quite as good as you wanted it too? Then you likely have trained your brain to focus on the negative, and your brain has gotten really good at it. It can be really challenging to undo this training. So instead, train your brain to be even better at focusing on the positive.
Just routinely focus on positive information and direct your attention away from the negative. Need help paying attention to the positive? Check out these positivity games (the games in point 2 are designed to increase attention to positive things).
5. Condition yourself to experience random moments of positivity
Did you know that you can condition yourself for positivity? If you've ever taken an intro to psychology course, you've probably heard about the study of Pavlov's dog. Here is a quick refresher just in case:
Pavlov had a dog. Pavlov would ring a bell to tell his dog that it was almost feeding time. Like most dogs, Pavlov's dog would get really excited when he was about to get fed. So he'd drool all over the place.
What happened? Well, sudden
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