Good Vibes Only
Why positivity matters and how it can change your life
Positivity is without doubt one of the most powerful forces in the world. In the words of Dalai Lama:
In order to carry a positive action we must develop here a positive vision
Thinking positively will not only improve our overall mental and physical health, but also empower our minds to see new opportunities and ideas.
On the contrary, negative thoughts have been proven scientifically to limit our vision and creativity. Getting stuck in endless cycles of ruminative, negative thoughts can drastically decrease one’s motivation to step up and solve problems.
Four Important Questions to Ask When Facing Difficulties
We can’t really know the good times if we don’t know bad times.
Whether it’s a bad breakup or your car broke down for no particular reason, it is true that everyone faces difficulties in life.
While we cannot change the fact that bad things happen, we can change our emotions attached to these events by asking the following questions:
What can I learn from this?
What is in my control? What is out of my control?
Will this matter a year from now? What about five years from now?
What is the next step forward from here?
Yes, bad things do happen from time to time, and sometimes the best thing we can do in challenging times is to be thankful that we’re still alive.
Maintaining a PMA (Positive Mental Attitude) not only allows you to overcome difficulties, but also skyrockets your efforts and makes you succeed.
As famous British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill once said:
The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty.
Thinking Positively Makes You Physically Healthier
Researchers from Johns Hopkins University has found that positive thinking is linked to better overall cardiac health.
People with a family history of heart disease who also had a positive outlook were one-third less likely to have a heart attack or other cardiovascular event within five to twenty-five years than those with a more negative outlook
It does not take a well-trained scientist to understand the damage of stress to one’s body.
Ineffective stress management has been proven again and again to cause high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity and many other health problems.
Stress also weakens your immune system by triggering inflammatory responses. People who consistently practice positive thinking may have better immune systems due to reduced stress.
If you find it hard to adjust your mind to think positively, try to smile more. Studies have found that even fake smiling will help reduce blood pressure during stressful circumstances.
As cited from Kraft TL and Pressman SD’s research:
Awareness was manipulated by explicitly asking half of all participants in the smiling groups to smile (and giving the other half no instructions related to smiling). Findings revealed that all smiling participants, regardless of whether they were aware of smiling, had lower heart rates during stress recovery than the neutral group did, with a slight advantage for those with Duchenne smiles.
The Law of Attraction
Positivity not only attracts success, it also attracts positive things and people into your life.
Everything around is made up of energy. To attract positive things in your life, start by giving off positive energy.
It all comes down to the Law of Attraction, which is first mentioned in a book written by the Russian occultist Helena Blavatsky in 1877. The Law of Attraction was popularized by the 2006 film The Secret, where Dr. John DeMartini says:
What we think about and thank about, we bring about.
It is all about thinking positively. It is the idea that thinking positively will lead to positive emotions, thereby leading to positive actions that will change your life for the better.
Start off by removing the word problem from your vocabulary. Instead, add the word challenge and accept challenges as part of your life. Challenges can be overcome and good things often stem from challenges.
And this is where the magic happens. When you start to view negative events as challenges in your life, you will actively seek solutions instead of focusing on recurring, negative thoughts. When you finally overcome these challenges, positive things will come into your life.
Being positive is also an attractive trait to many, while constantly being negative is unattractive. Most people, when wounded and traumatized by negative circumstances, tend to slip into a negative state of mind. If these feelings are not recognized and addressed, they will in turn attract more harmful people.
Those who project a positive outlook on life succeed in attracting everyone around them.
In Conclusion
As quoted from Judith Orloff, M.D.’s article How to Attract Positive People in Your Life:
Love creates an irresistible charisma, a warm glow that makes us and others happy
Positive people are attractive, grateful, and courageous.
Positive people are compassionate.
Positive people are authentic.
Live a positive life.
Be unstoppable.
❤
This story is published in The Startup, Medium’s largest entrepreneurship publication followed by +417,678 people.
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