20 positive thinking tips
“The change of diet will not help a person who does not change his thoughts.
When a person makes his thoughts pure, he no longer desires impure food..”
– How a man thinks
All of us have many thoughts running through our heads all the time, both positive and negative. positive thinking usually spawns positive realitywhile negative thinking generally breeds negative results. Both mindsets are in constant tug-of-war in our minds, and the thoughts that dominate will manifest in our actions and perspective. Positive thinkers tend to face life’s challenges with confidence and are more likely to succeed than negative thinkers, who tend to look at everything in an unconstructive way.
Obviously, we would prefer to put on the positive thinking cap most of the time and leave out any room for negative thoughts. However, whether we like it or not, many thoughts keep going through our heads, including failure and other unhealthy activities. What we can do is train our minds to focus on the good things instead of the bad, on the happy moments instead of the sad ones, on what we have instead of what we don’t have.
It is sometimes said that we will never really know what we have until it is gone. So should we wait for some things to disappear before appreciating them? No, in fact, we can train our minds to focus on the brighter things in life, no matter how small, so that negative thoughts don’t cloud our future perspective. Here are 20 positive thinking tips to start cultivating a positive mindset:
• love yourself. Before you expect other people to love and adore you, you must first love yourself. Make a positive commitment to get better at learning, work, family, building friendships, appreciating nature, and pursuing worthwhile causes. Praise yourself as much as you praise others. When you start to feel confident in yourself, positive thoughts will naturally flow.
• know yourself. There is no better person in the world who can say who you really are. Know your passions, desires, tastes and principles. Be sure to set aside some time each week for private self-reflection. If you know yourself well, you will be aware of how far you can go physically, mentally and emotionally.
• balance your desires. We live in a place of opposites and duality: gain and loss, pleasure and pain, light and dark, male and female, love and hate. This is life. We can never have all the good things in life at the same time. In love, sometimes someone gets hurt. In wealth, there will always be people richer and poorer than you. Moderation is a main key to happiness.
• Be realistic. Make sure that what you want is something possible. Waiting for something to happen that would never really materialize in real life will only bring you disappointment. For example, you may want to lose weight. Therefore, you need to set a goal and take appropriate action within a period of time to achieve what you want. No one can lose weight overnight. Don’t expect miracles or quick fixes as they are rarely real.
• learn from experiences. Learning in a classroom is very different from learning in real life. In school, one learns the lesson first before taking an exam. In real life, you take the test first before you learn the lesson. The proof in real life is our experiences. If we fail that test, that is, the experience is not so good, we study the situation and learn the lesson. From here, we can avoid making the same mistake twice.
• Being detached from the outcome. It is sometimes said that life is like a Ferris wheel; sometimes you are at the top, and sometimes at the bottom. Inevitably, there will be times in our lives when some things do not turn out according to what we planned or wanted. Do your best at the important things, but don’t get too upset if you don’t get what you want, as some things aren’t meant to be. Don’t get attached to results alone, as this single approach can only cause disappointment and upset. Sometimes, it is the journey and the experiences that can be valued and treasured.
• Keep a list of your goals and actions. Set the goals you want to achieve and map out your plan to achieve them. When you are sure of what you want to do and accomplish in your life, a stronger mind and willpower will usually follow.
• Keep your mind focused on important things. Visualize the fulfillment of your goals. Develop a strategy to deal with obstacles and problems. Focus on the important things that need to be taken seriously, but at the same time, take some time to relax and enjoy yourself. With a fresh and clear mind, there is a greater chance of success.
• Plan the day ahead. Minimize avoidable mistakes that will cause lost productivity and negative results. First plan your work and then work on your plan. Have clearly defined goals for today, in the medium and long term as well. You can refine your daily goals before you even get out of bed each day, so you can avoid firefighting problems that could have been avoided with proper thought and planning.
• Start the day with joy. How you greet the morning largely determines your outlook for the rest of the day. Welcome it with energy and good humor, and things are likely to go smoothly and you can focus on achieving what you want.
• Ask for guidance. Only God knows what awaits us on any given day. He will surely appreciate a few minutes of prayer. Ask for guidance in your daily prayer. Have faith that He is more than willing to grant our requests as long as it is for our own good and according to His Will. With God as our guide, negative thoughts will be much less likely to dominate our day. I can get through this day. Nothing is impossible. After all, God is with me.
• Try new things and challenges. See learning and change as opportunities rather than something to fear. It is worth changing attitudes and routines as long as they improve oneself and the things around him. Doing new things could include considering more options for a project, meeting new people from different places, asking lots of questions. Through this, the flow of thought is directed towards improvement and negative thoughts are minimized.
• Laughter. Enjoy and have a good time. Looking on the bright side of life begins with entertainment and pleasure. Laughter is the best medicine, and that is very true in many cases. Whether you have a physical or emotional ailment, a few laughs and giggles can help ease some of the pain or lift heavy baggage like anxiety, disappointment, or nervousness.
• Associated with positive people.. In every classroom, workplace, or just anywhere you go, look for upbeat people and associate with them. There are many of them, I’m sure. They can help you build self-confidence and self-esteem.
• be open. We have to accept the fact that we don’t know everything. And that we are continually learning everywhere we go, with the people we meet every day. Our mind is so spacious that it is impossible to fill it completely. Therefore, we must open our minds to new experiences and knowledge that help us to be better people.
• Get used to asking questions. This should please with ignorance; rather, it should be associated with seeking more information to understand matters more clearly. With more knowledge, comes more power.
• have trust in other people. Although it may seem difficult and risky to trust someone, trusting people is key to dispelling doubts and negative judgments. Develop a keen sense for identifying trustworthy people and associate with them. This will help you build harmonious relationships with your colleagues, friends and people around you.
• Forgive. Mistakes and failures are the root causes of negative thinking. If we somehow learn to let go of the pain, agony, and fear that we try to keep inside, it will be easier to express our good intentions and reach out to other people. Forgive yourself and others for making mistakes and at the same time learn from them.
• count your blessings. Focus on what you have and not what you don’t have. Focusing on our desires that do not materialize will only bring discontent and disappointment that will waste our time. Instead, be thankful and appreciative of all the blessings we receive.
• Leave your worries behind. At the end of each day, before going to sleep, there is no need to keep inside yourself the bad experiences and unhappy moments that have happened during the day. Let them go, throw them out the window and kiss them goodbye, and you will have sweet dreams. As a new day unfolds, a new hope arises. Keep believing and always have faith.
Here are some positive thinking tips that come to mind. You don’t have to practice them all, in any particular order. Just adopt a few of them and you should start to see some noticeable changes in your attitude and in your life.