We would all like to overcome negative thinking and become more positive in our lives. Positive thinking may sound like feeling happy or smiling more. But the effects of positive thinking can transform our lives.
Recent research has shown that positive thinking can create tangible value in our lives and help us develop essential skills to help our careers and personal lives.
Our survival instinct produces emotions that are helpful when we are in danger. These include fear, anger or stress. Negative thinking can program our brains to act in specific ways which are not helpful to achieving our goals. The result is that we are thinking more often in the way that should be reserved for extreme action in moments of danger.
Positive thoughts also have an impact on the way that we think. Thinking positively can produce signals in the reward areas of the brain. These make us feel happier, more confident and less fearful. Because of this, people who are in the habit of thinking positive often achieve more and do not give up as easily as negative thinkers.
Learn Meditation or do Yoga
Meditation and yoga can help you to focus your mind away from negative thoughts. Yoga and meditation offer methods to relax your body and calm the mind. By focusing on your breathing you can train your mind to experience the present and not become concerned with the future or the past.
Ways to Meditate
Chanting and mantra
Mantra yoga makes use of a particular sound or phrase to help the meditator focus . The mantra is traditionally given to a student by a yoga teacher who understands their personal needs. A mantra requires full engagement of the meditator to repeat the sound with feeling and purpose. The mantra is an instrument of thought which provides a point of focus.
Chanting makes use of longer sounds than a mantra. A chant makes use of rhythm and pitch to repeat a prayer that can expand your state of awareness. A chant can be a learned Sanskrit phrase or a meaningful prayer composed in your own language.
It can sometimes feel awkward or self conscious to begin chanting aloud to ones self. It can be helpful to join a meditation class where the group follow a teachers chant or by using audio recordings of group chanting to follow along to.
Visualise Imagery
Any object can be used as a point of internal focus while meditating. This would traditionally be a depiction of a chosen deity which a meditator can visualise in vivid detail.
The focus of your visualisation can be a natural object such as a flower or the sea. Some people find it helpful to focus on energy centres in the body known as chakras. These are organs within the body which can be visualised along with its associated colour.
Open-eye focus on imagery
Focusing on a nearby object can help focus your mind while meditating. This form of meditation is often called drishti. You can choose any object to use as your point of focus. This can be a statue, an image of a deity or a vase. Many people use a candle as a method of visual meditation.
Many yoga postures have gazing points where you look toward a point of focus. This can sometimes be used to gaze toward the ‘third eye’ which is the point between the tip of the nose or eyebrows.
Breathing
Breathing meditation allows you to focus purely on the way that you breathe and the sensations that it produces. You can allow yourself to become fully aware of how your breath effects your body without dwelling on it or judging it. Simply remain detached from the process to be at one with the breathing.
Physical Sensations
Meditating on a physical sensation is similar to breathing meditation. Focus your attention on a part of your body. Observe how it is physically reacting and how your body is effected. You can focus on the heat or coldness of your hands or feet, the strength of your spine or how supple you feel elsewhere. You can also use an emotional feeling as a point of focus and use that to penetrate deeper into your sensations.
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Smile More Often
It can be hard to find ways to think positive in our busy lives. Once all of the daily tasks have been completed, we often complain that we do not feel as happy as we would like. One way to improve our experiences is to smile more.
Smiling can improve the way that we think about our lives. You will also benefit from the positive way in which other people respond to you. Many long lasting relationships are built from a starting point of a smile. Smiling at others shows that you respect them and that they are important.
The Benefits of Smiling more
Increase confidence
When you think positive you will increase your self-confidence and feel more in control of your life. Other people are inspired by those who are confident in their own actions. An important part of thinking positive is to smile at others.
A single smile can transform the attitude of someone with low self-esteem. By offering this to others, you will be rewarded with positivity and affection which will increase your self-confidence.
Make a point each day of visiting each person at your workplace and offering them a smile. Ask each person how they are and allow them to express how they are feeling and what they are doing. Each time you add a smile to someone’s day you are increasing the overall happiness and productivity of the workplace.
By increasing the self-esteem of others, you will also feel the benefits yourself. It feels good to make other people happy. As a result, you will be rewarded by your brain with increased production of feel-good hormones. These make you feel happier in yourself and make you appear and act more confident.
Improves positive thinking
Smiling produces positive activity within your brain which helps you feel better about yourself. When you smile, your brain releases more of the natural happy drugs, endorphins. By smiling more often, you will begin to act and feel more positive and as a result produce more rewarding results in your actions.
When you feel good about yourself you have a positive effect on the people and situations around you. People who are more positive appear more attractive, can inspire others and can build friendships more easily.
People respond to mood. If you approach others with a negative or passive look on your face, people take it personally. By not offering a smile to those who you interact with, you will be sending the signal out that you are unhappy with the other person for some reason.
As a team leader, you do not want staff members to assume that you have a negative view about them. Negativity in the workplace slows production and increases the idea of instability. People will begin to wonder if you are unhappy with their work or if their job is in question.
As a professional or within your personal life, it is important to maintain a positive attitude. The way you approach others will directly affect how they think about you and how you are treated in return. One simple way to show that you do care and that you think well of someone is to offer them a smile.
Build self-esteem in others
Smiling is a universal sign of mutual respect for other people. When someone is smiled at they are shown acceptance and that they are valued. This offers a real boost to self esteem. By smiling at other people in your daily routine, you will have more chance of being smiled at in return. Thus you can produce a reciprocal feel good throughout the day.
Antisocial behaviour has been recognised by sociologists as stemming from people who feel dissatisfied within our culture. Many of the problems of society are a result of people who feel unaccepted or unloved. If we all smiled more often we could encourage those with low self-esteem to feel wanted.
Helps develop healthy relationships
Within a healthy relationship what people seek is to be recognised and accepted for who they are. Smiling is the recognised way of demonstrating that you like and accept someone for who they are. A smile is such a powerful expression that most long term relationships and marriages began with a shared smile.
How can smiling help you overcome negative thinking?
By wearing a smile throughout the day you are offering a sign of unconditional acceptance to everyone you work with or meet. When you make such an important gesture to everyone that you meet they will instinctively like you more.
Everyone wants to feel important and respected. So if you can show others that you think well of them your popularity will surely increase throughout the home or workplace.
Choose Positive People to be Around
Choosing the right people to surround yourself with is as important for your well being a s the food that you eat and the amount that you exercise. Some people enrich your life and offer encouragement to help you obtain your goals. Others can zap your energy and make you feel less happy.
You need to surround yourself with people who have a positive impact on your life. These are friends, family or work colleagues who make you feel happy to be around them.
Who are positive people?
People who make you feel positive are those who offer the following characteristics:
Can share their own happiness
Seek out people who are able to find their own happiness and who share it freely. Emotions are contagious, so the more time you spend around people who can nurture their positive emotions, the more the effect can improve the was you feel about yourself.
Can Laugh and have fun
When you find someone who has a sense of humour which you share, it can make it more enjoyable to spend time with them. Laughter is a feel good emotion which encourages people to bond and feel closer to each other. Laughing also stimulates positive hormones in your body to be released. This offers a feel good factor which can become infectious between friends.
Don’t Complain too much
We all have our own personal struggles to endure and understand that life can be hard for everyone. Being around someone who does not focus on these negative aspects of life can lift your spirits. When you are with someone who is complaining constantly it feels as though you are wasting energy in dealing with more bad experiences when you could be focusing on the good things in life.
Can deal with hard times
It can be helpful to learn the coping strategies that others use to deal with difficult times. Discovering how someone else manages stress can inspire you to follow their example. Whether it is walking, swimming or reading old novels, you may find a new way to release your tension. Adopting the coping strategies of others can also lead to sharing an experience which can make it more enjoyable.
Have a positive influence on you
We should always strive to be the best possible person that we can be. By surrounding yourself with positive people you can help improve the way that you develop as a person. It is commonly understood that we become more like the people who we surround ourselves with the most. For this reason, choose to spend time with people who you admire and respect.
How can positive people help you reduce negative thinking?
They can inspire and encourage you by:
Being productive
Within the workplace you will be surrounded by people that you have not chosen to spend time with. In this environment it is refreshing to be working alongside a person who enhances your experience. The most positive characteristic of people in the workplace is someone who is productive. Productive people are organised and make your life easier. They are able to focus on the goal that they have set for themselves and not become distracted until they have achieved it. When others around you are more productive it encourages you to adopt a similar positive attitude towards your work.
Help you achieve your goals
Do the people who you surround yourself with believe in you and encourage you? When you have a goal in mind, are you helped by other people so that you can achieve it? People who offer to help you reach your goals will give you confidence and energy to move forward. They may be able to provide helpful advice, introduce you to the right people or offer to look after the kids to give you some extra time in the evening.
Offer diverse opinions
It is important to surround yourself with people who will help you to grow as a person. You can do this by immersing yourself amongst a diverse range of people from different backgrounds and influences. If you only ever speak to people who already share the same opinions and views that you do, you will never be challenged to think differently. Find people who have a range of perspectives so that you can absorb their knowledge and develop as a well rounded individual.
Motivate you to take positive action
When you surround yourself with positive people, you will feel more confident in your abilities and self worth. You can push negativity aside and harness a renewed energy. If you face a problem or a new challenge in life, you need support and help from those around you. When the people who you spend time with most have confidence in your abilities then you will develop a stronger self confidence. This positive energy will motivate you to achieve more and overcome difficulties.
Support you
You need to assess whether the people who you spend time with enrich your life or subtract from it. If your friends sap your energy then you will have less strength to face the challenges of your life. When your friends are supportive of you and make you feel good about yourself you will be able to grow stronger as an individual and find it easier to overcome any problems that you face.
Make you feel attractive
When you surround yourself with people who genuinely care about you it makes you feel good about yourself. You will feel more attractive, more confident and have more energy. When you feel good about yourself you will experience less negative thoughts and emotions. If you feel energised and happy when you are with your friends you are spending time with the right type of people to help you improve your life and feel positive about yourself.
How to attract positive people
Positive people attract positive people. If you want to be surrounded by people who can improve your life you will need to attract them to you.
You will need to begin thinking positive about other people to give off the right vibes about your personality. You should be confident in yourself and more forgiving of others.
The more bitter or resentful you are of other people the more this will show in your persona. To surround yourself with people who are worth keeping as close friends, you need to become a valuable person to be around too.
Try to become the person that you would like to be friends with. Offer care and support to others and you can make a positive effect on the lives of others. By caring about others you will become the type of person that people want to be around.
Replace your Thoughts from Negative to Positive
Every person goes through periods of having depressing thoughts and bad moods. By learning how to replace your negative thinking with positive solutions, you will be able to find a way out of the slump. Even the most distressing situation can be viewed through a positive perspective if you can train your brain correctly.
When we become obsessed with our negative thinking, our lives can grind to a halt, we become less productive and as a result, we do not achieve the positive goals to pull us out from the gloom. Little annoyances can quickly escalate to enormous problems.
Remember that it is not possible to hold a negative thought at the same time as a positive one. Therefore you should try and replace negative self-talk with positive thinking.
Methods for replacing negative thinking
Acknowledging Your negative thoughts
Negative thoughts often become overwhelming when we are feeling at our worst. When we are feeling low or depressed, negative thoughts can take control of our mind and disrupt normal thinking behaviour.
Negative thoughts are not only a symptom of feeling in a depressed mood., Negative thinking drives the depression deeper. As a consequence, being depressed allows the negative thinking pattern to grow stronger which increases the impact of the low mood.
When a person gets caught in the cycle of negative thinking, it can paralyse your life and make it difficult to function. This creates a downward spiral which is hard to pull yourself out from.
Take responsibility
When you start to notice negative thinking is becoming the most common mode of thinking, you will need to address the problem. Remember that the negative things that happen in your life are only negative if you let them be.
It is important to realise that you are in control of your thinking and behaviour. By taking responsibility for how you respond to a situation, you can begin to address the way that you think.
Negative reactions cultivate more negativity. Positive reactions cultivate positivity. If you can begin to adjust the way that problems affect you, you can turn the situation around into a positive.
By blaming others for how you are feeling, you are never going to address the problem.
Don’t give attention to negative thoughts
Begin by starving your negative thoughts of attention. The more you dwell on a negative aspect of your life, the more prominence you give it in your mind. So what began as a small problem can become enormous and unmanageable.
It is important to break the vicious circle by introducing a positive thought. Pay more attention to the positive spin on a situation, this will reinforce in your mind that things are not out of control. Soon your positive thinking will overpower the negative thoughts.
Let Go of Negative Thoughts
If your negative thinking feels as though it is taking control you may not be able to overcome it by simply replacing it with a positive thought. Sometimes fighting against the problem takes more energy than simply avoiding the fight in the first place.
By wrestling too much with your bad thoughts, you are acknowledging them and giving them the power to take control. Instead, try to face the thought and telling it exactly what you know needs to be done. Then go ahead and do it.
By letting go of the negative thinking you can continue to be productive without the interruption of bad thoughts making any impact. Let them come in and go out at will. This offers the opportunity of a positive thought coming in and taking its place.
Begin to change anything negative
One helpful way to visualise your problem is to write a list of all the negative things in your life. Look at the items that you have written down and decide upon ways in which you can change them to produce a more positive outcome.
After you have thought of the ways in which you can make changes in your life, destroy the paper to symbolise that you are able to let go of any problems.
Don’t have unrealistic expectations:
Many habits of negative thinking stem from having greater expectations of our lives than we see. When you begin to let go of unrealistic expectations you can begin to develop a more positive attitude towards your current situation.
Remember that imperfection adds character. Stop trying to be perfect and dwelling on not achieving it. Instead, if you adopt a more positive outlook, you will be more likely to achieve more than you currently are when you feel negative.
Practicing Positive Thought Replacement
Anything negative in your life can be replaced with a positive thought. The loss of a job may reveal a new opportunity in your career. A breakdown in a relationship signals that it was time to move on to discover your full potential.
This will seem hard to do. You have developed a habit of letting negative thoughts drive your thinking processes for so long. You will need to practice letting in thoughts which are reasonable and encouraging. When positive thoughts arrive grasp onto them, keep repeating them in your mind.
It can be helpful to associate positive thinking with a particular image or colour. Whenever you find negative thinking taking control, try to create a depiction of your calming image in your mind to give you strength.
Change the Direction Of Your Mind
When you can replace a negative thought with a positive thought, you can establish control of your thought processes. Feeling in control can help you to not become so affected by negative thoughts when they occur. This will begin to pave the way for positive thoughts to enter and find solutions to your problems.
With time and practice, it will become normal to find the positive solution to a negative thought. You will be able to turn a rainy day into an opportunity to read a book or a car break down into an excuse to call a friend for advice and a chat.
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Take Responsibility for your Life
To achieve success in life you need to gain control of the direction that you are heading. This can only be done if you can overcome negative thinking. Once you have done this you can begin to look for positive ways that you can do to improve your situation.
One of the most important ways to make a positive change is to stop blaming other people. By taking responsibility of your life you can plan to achieve goals and make changes towards achieving them.
You are not a victim
When you find yourself stuck in a difficult situation it can be tempting to think of yourself as a victim. You may feel as though the situation is something which has been done to you by the environment or other people.
We all know people who are always experiencing misfortune or feeling depressed. These are usually the same people who always talk as though they are the victim of circumstance.
By taking responsibility for your own actions or the thoughts that led to those actions, you can begin to control your life more effectively.
It is not somebody else’s fault
Blaming other people when things go wrong can be tempting. It removes the responsibility from yourself and you can convince yourself that you are not at fault. But this is a negative attitude to have.
A positive attitude is to accept that you made the decision to be where you are and to surround yourself with the people who you are with. Once you come to terms with this you can leave an unhealthy relationship or move your career into a new direction.
There is no get out clause
Most people get scared of taking responsibility as they are to blame if anything fails. Instead of taking full responsibility, many people set goals with an excuse ready in case anything goes wrong. This way, we can always find something or somebody to blame if our goals are not achieved. This offers a get out clause so that we are not seen to fail.
However, this way of thinking means that we are not accepting that we are in complete control. If you are not in control of your life, you cannot influence it to achieve a positive outcome. To achieve success we need to take full responsibility for our actions.
Realise that you can take control
Only by realising that you can take control of your own life can you steer it towards your goal. This is true for your professional career as much as within your personal relationships.
This may seem like a huge responsibility if you are used to accepting things as they happen. But remember that if you want to experience a positive outcome you must first take responsibility for your own success or failure.
Once you have made the decision to take control of your own experiences, there is nothing that you cannot achieve.
Helping Other People
There are many benefits in helping other people. In fact the act of offering support to someone else provides more benefits to you than receiving help from others. Studies have shown that the psychological benefits of helping others mean that selfishness is less rewarding than acting more magnanimously.
Psychological studies show that evolution has wired our brains to reward helpful behaviour. The areas of the brain that deal with caregiving and reward-related activity benefit from our behaving more generously. Stress levels also become reduced when we act more caring to others.
Overcoming negative thinking by helping others
Helping other people can be a simple act of donating valuable items to a charity shop or helping an elderly neighbour with their shopping. You could also volunteer your time as a regular assistant in an organisation which provides social good.
Wherever you find an opportunity to provide assistance to improve the life of others, you will be benefiting your own well being.
The Benefits of helping others
It makes you feel good
When you do good deeds you will feel good as a result. Many people who continue to provide voluntary work do it because of the way it improves their mood and they get enjoyment from it.
Overcome depression
Volunteering can help you combat depression by introducing you to an increased social group. By developing your support system, you will find it easier to overcome negative thinking. Regular contact with people who you can rely upon can often help reduce the stress and moods that depression can produce.
Adding a valuable service
Charities and voluntary groups are often the only providers of vital services in the community. By offering your time to help with worthwhile projects, you are filling a gap left by publicly funded services.
Receive favours in return
When you help people you should not expect to receive a favour in return. but if you have offered assistance to others, there is a good chance that they would like to repay the favour when you need it.
Create a chain of help
Helping other people often creates a chain of help effect. When someone receives a favour, they feel good and often go on to offer help to a third person. This person may wish to offer help to a fourth person and continue to provide good deeds from your initial work.
Develop skills
Providing help for other people often introduces you to new ways that you can develop your talents. By taking part in voluntary activities you can learn new skills and experience. This can improve your confidence as well as make you more desirable for employment opportunities.
Receive gratitude
Everybody likes to feel appreciated for doing good. Helping people makes them grateful to you. Gratitude and positive feedback for the work that you have done makes you feel good about yourself.
Improve the lives of others
Volunteering your time and skills can add real value to someone’s life. By offering to help others in little ways, you can make a big difference.
Keep physically fit
Volunteering and doing good work for others can help to keep you healthier. By taking part in regular activity, you will become more physically active. Older people who volunteer often have a lower mortality rate than those who do not. By offering your time to helping others you will walk more often, are less likely to develop high blood pressure and improve your mental abilities.
Good Karma
When you act in a positive way, people respond positively to you. By helping others you may be rewarded directly or indirectly as a result. The people that you help in life are likely to offer you help and advice when you need it. They may be the key to an introduction to a person that can offer you employment or open up a new relationship. Good karma is more likely to find you when you are good to others.
Advance your career
Taking part in voluntary activities is beneficial to your social and mental well-being. It can also make you more valuable as a potential candidate when applying for a job. Volunteering and helping people in society will help you to develop personal skills which are transferable into the workplace.
There are a wide range of volunteering opportunities available which offer extensive training. From crisis councilling to managing a sales department, you can learn essential skills and gain experience.
Other transferable skills which you can develop within voluntary work include communication, public speaking, marketing and customer service. Finding unpaid work which is relevant to your chosen career path can help you to find employment while also benefiting others.
The Happiness Effect
The happiness effect is the improved happiness that people feel when they are actively involved in good work. A study by the London School of Economics has shown that people who volunteer are more likely to feel happier.
The improvement in happiness amongst volunteers is comparable to someone earning $20,000 improving their income to between £60,000 and £80,000.
Deciding to volunteer can provide valuable services to the community. You will be able to make a big impact on the lives of vulnerable people, animals and valued organisations.
Alongside the benefits of feeling good about helping others, you also make new friends, expand your networking options and improve social skills.
Stop Trying to be Perfect
People who are constantly trying to achieve perfection will ultimately end up becoming unhappy about themselves. This is because aiming for an unrealistic ideal of perfection will never become a reality. As a result, you will feel bad about your performance which can lead to depression, anxiety and stress.
A perfectionist will get caught in a vicious circle of self-criticism and not being able to live up to their own high standards. Perfectionists try to achieve everything, then fail to get there. As a result, they develop negative self-talk and become critical about themselves. They will then try to make themselves feel better by aiming for perfection again.
When you look at the people around you who you are the most comfortable around, they are generally those who feel comfortable in their own skin. Once people accept who they are and begin to like themselves, they become more attractive to others. So if the people who you like to be around most are not the most perfect people then why should you expect perfection from yourself.
The dangers of perfectionism
There is nothing wrong with trying to achieve the best that we can. By doing well in your work and relationships you can develop yourself and improve your experience.
Being a perfectionist is not the same as healthy growth and achievement. Perfectionism is a self-critical habit which never produces good self-worth.
Our society offers a never ending flow of imagery and endorsements of the perfect person and the perfect life that we should aspire towards. Advertising and magazine articles are designed to make us feel inferior so that we buy into their products or solutions. This intense level of perfection makes it impossible for us to live up to our perceived levels of what society defines as perfect.
As a result, people construct a shield of perfection to hide their insecurities. Once we have become accustomed to trying to live up to some ideal level of perfection, it gets harder to lower the shield and admit that: I do not feel as though I can become this perfect person.
As healthy balanced individuals, we need to recognise that it is not productive to aim for these distant aspirations. We need to accept our imperfections and realise that we all deserve to be respected and loved for who we already are.
Avoid black and white thinking
Perfectionists only see things as black or white. This means that unless something is 100% then it is a failure. This produces an unrealistic mindset where we feel like a failure at most activities which we undertake. People who think in black and white often apply this thinking to avoid showing their weakness. They will not ask for help as this will seem to them as showing imperfection.
Stop feeling anxiety from future events
One of the causes of anxiety for a perfectionist comes from projecting to possible futures. Many of these futures will probably never happen but you may be spending the present worrying about them as if they are real events. This can lead to a fear of making a mistake in front of peers or causing upset to others. Living imagined futures now can cause unnecessary anxiety and prevent you from following a path which may have resulted in a greater success.
Replace negative self-talk
We all have an inner monologue where we describe our thoughts and feelings to ourselves. If this self-talk is primarily negative then our outlook on life is also negative. If we have decided that an activity is going to fail before we attempt ti there is more chance of it meeting with failure. Thinking that something will be terrible or that people will not like you before the situation has arrived creates a self-fulfilling prophecy. You will become convinced that you were right all the long and that it was never going to end well. This way of thinking can lead to social phobias, isolation, performance anxiety and general fear of doing new things.
Forget Body perfectionism
When you begin by thinking that you are imperfect, you can start to want to change the way that you look. This need to achieve the perfect body can become addictive as you will always find flaws if you continue to seek perfection. This type of thinking leads to the need for face lifts, nose jobs, trout pots, boob jobs, plastic surgery and other body alterations. We should stop trying to live our lives through the eyes of other people. Become comfortable in your own skin and you will become more attractive to others without the need for modification.
Defeat negative thinking by Overcoming perfectionism
A perfectionist will be constantly critical of themselves. This includes feeling unhappy with the way that you look, perform at work, act in relationships and behave in other aspects of their lives.
When people become self-critical they can become negative in their outlook to life. This can make them less productive, more unhappy about themselves and less able to form strong relationships with others. As a result, many perfectionists develop anxiety, stress, and depression.
If you are too self-critical you can develop mental and physical illnesses. To stop this becoming a problem, you need to change the way that you think about yourself. Someone who is self-critical needs to replace their thoughts with helpful, realistic and rational thinking.
The best way to overcome the negative thinking of self-criticism is to practice positive self-talk. You will need to repeat positive affirmations to try and transform the way that you think about yourself.
Positive affirmations include:
- I love and approve of myself
- It’s okay that some people don’t like me
- My best is good enough
- Getting things wrong does not mean that Iím a failure
- Everyone has a bad day sometimes
- No one needs to be perfect
- I do not need to be pleasant all the time
- No one is liked by everyone
If you are in the habit of thinking negatively about yourself, you may not believe the positive statement, but over time it will become a new habit to have a more positive self-image.
Remember The Things That You Are Grateful For
We all experience days when we need a bit of help to stay positive. When everything seems to be going wrong it can appear that there is nothing good about our lives.
One effective way to improve your mood is to remember the positive things that you still can be thankful for. Writing a gratitude list can focus your mind on the positive things in your life that you should be grateful for.
Much of what we should be thankful for in our lives, we take for granted. But if it were not for these simple pleasures and modern conveniences, life would be a whole lot less endurable.
A place to live
Reminding yourself that you have a comfortable home to provide a roof over your head can be reassuring. You should be especially grateful for your home on rainy days and winter mornings.
Your own home provides shelter from the elements as well as a retreat from the outside world. Your home offers you the following:
- A place to Relax
- A Bed to Sleep
- Safety and Security
- Central heating
- Indoor Plumbing
Drinkable water and access to food
Remember that many parts of the world are without clean drinkable water or enough nutritional food to keep them healthy. Be thankful that you have access to fresh drinking water every day and that you can visit a supermarket whenever your fridge starts to look empty.
Not only can you keep yourself nutritionally balanced in your diet. You can also eat meals which taste great.
Access to natural beauty
Taking time to walk through the woods or going for a swim in the sea can be relaxing and beautiful. Whether you are enjoying the colours of an autumn day or sunbathing in a sun-soaked garden, nature offers pleasant surroundings which cost nothing to enjoy. Remember to be thankful that you can enjoy:
- Sunshine
- Mountains
- Campfires
- Rainbows
Modern technology
You may or may not remember life before the internet. But modern technology has given us all access to information and social contact which was impossible only a few decades ago. Next time you are online, remember how lucky you are to be alive today. Benefits of the modern world include:
- Cars
- Access to money in the bank
- Cell Phones
- Internet
- Music and Film on demand
- Global Social networks
Friends and family
Your friends and family are the support network which is always there for you. You should always remember to be grateful for the unconditional love that a family provides. We get most of our treasured social interactions from the following people:
- Pets
- Parents
- Partner
- Children
- Grandparents
- Friends
- Work Colleagues
Health
Looking after your health is important to ensure that you do not experience major health problems. When we become ill or injured, we realise how important our health is. Remember if you do have a health problem that gets you down, it could always be worse.
Things that make me stronger
Although it can seem difficult to face hard experiences, these often teach us something about ourselves. Following a difficult time, we grow stronger and wiser. Rather than regretting your mistakes, remember that without making mistakes, you would not learn anything new. Therefore one of the advantages of growing older is that you grow wiser. So even growing old can be seen as something to be thankful for.
Being alive
Remember all the times in your life when you avoided accidents or survived extreme events. If you had been in another place at the wrong time you may have been fatally wounded and would no longer be here.
Be thankful that you were born in the time and place that you were so that you could be here now.
Opportunities
The time and place that you live in can determine the opportunities and freedoms that are available to you. A few decades ago, women or minorities would not have the same rights that they do have now. This is still true in some parts of the world. With education and healthcare available for all we have the best opportunities to progress and improve our lives. These are some of the opportunities available to us which we take for granted:
- Freedom of Religion
- Opportunity to Get an Education
- Ability to Read
- Art galleries
- Holidays
- Freedom of Speech
Now, go and write a list of ten things that you are grateful for in your life. You may have more positive benefits around you than you think.
Find more ways that you can replace negative thinking with positive thinking in these books below.
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