It is always easy to advise someone to look at the brighter side or see the cup as full half. All these comments made by people to instill positive thinking are very easy but difficult to follow. Installing optimism and positive thinking in one’s life is a long process, and everything comes down to the feeling of gratitude.
Now there are many ways to practice gratitude in your daily life; however, the effects of gratitude on the brain are immense. In this world filled with negative thoughts, positive thinking is not what comes naturally. It takes a long time to get this habituated in their daily routine after one has started cultivating the seed of positive thinking in their life.
Here are ten ways by which you can cultivate the habit of positive thinking in your daily life –
1. End the day with writing in your gratitude journal –
Spending time on the gratitude diaries is by far the easiest and most effective way of instilling a feeling of gratitude and positive thinking in your life. You can sit down and write in your gratitude journal any time you wish for but the end of the day is the best time for it. It is always best to write a few points on your gratitude list before going to bed.
There are many different ways to express gratitude. You could either take the help of your gratitude diary, or you could even download free templates from the internet and use them. If you are someone who does not like writing too much, you could even find a trustworthy person to say five grateful things that happened to you today.
2. Focus on the small non-materialistic things that bring happiness –
I would not disagree with you on the fact that we all love to receive materialistic gifts. However, non-materialistic things provide much more happiness than materialistic ones.
For example- a simple surprise visit from your loved one or even a long walk in the garden during sunset will be enough to live your mood for the rest of the day. Try to find out the non-materialistic things that make you happy and then give them to yourself as a present after a long day.
3. Talk to people who surround themselves with positive vibes –
Though the world has got more number of people who preach negativity out of their mouth, there is still a small population of those people who preach the bible verses about gratitude and have an aura of positive thoughts around themselves.
Try to surround yourself with people who have positive vibes in them. This will help you have self-confidence and will also help you try out new things in your life.
Talking to people who do not have positive vibes will help you fall into the pit hole of uncertainties, and you will find yourself stuck in your life. Positive people know that there is light on the other side of the tunnel, and you need to run fast so that you reach the other side of the tunnel soon.
On the other hand, negative people also know that there is light on the other side of the tunnel, but they are lazy enough to run fast. Instead, they wait for a bus or truck to pick them up and help them out of the tunnel. Thus life turns ugly if you surround yourself with a negative aura.
4. Start your days on a positive note –
Try to start your day on a positive note by doing things that help you start the day with a clear mindset and goal.
For example, meditating for fifteen minutes in the morning will give you a direction for your life and will provide the energy that you are searching for to start your day.
You could also start your day by spending time on the gratitude diaries that you have made all these days. This will make you feel loved and important.
Do not meet negative people just after you get up from your bed because that will not only lower your productivity but also lower your self-confidence.
5. Save the good moments by either writing about them or by clicking pictures of them –
In a day, many small incidents happen to you that is enough to bring a smile to your face. Write them all down in your gratitude journal. You can just make a gratitude list, and the next time when you go through the list, you will be flushed with a feeling of gratitude for the next few hours.
You will get to re-live the moments in your life again and again and feel how special life made you feel at times.
If you are not into writing, you could even click pictures of moments that gave you joy. You could click Polaroid and past them in your notebook or keep them safe in an album. Pictures are also a good mute way of keeping memories.
You could click pictures of your dog’s first birthday, or your eighteenth birthday, or even of a tour that made you feel light and happy. Save every one of them with yourself.
6. Stop downplaying your success –
No matter how small your success is, learn to appreciate and praise it. Your success is a result of your hard work, and no matter how small it is, it is your hard-earned.
You do not have to compare your success to the success of other people and then downplay it. Make a list of small things that you want to achieve on a particular day. It does not have to be too significant. It could be as small as getting your dog on a walk and after accomplishing your task, award yourself for doing it.
Your success need not make sense to anyone else. It should just make sense to you. Do not forget to mention these small achievements in your gratitude journal. You could simply start with “I want to express my gratitude on” and then start writing in points about what you are grateful for.
7. Learn to live in the present –
Stop worrying about the future or procrastinating about the past and learn to live in the present, think about this moment. Forget what happened to you one hour ago and sit back and start your work again.
Most sources of negative thoughts are memories of incidents that happened to us or the fear of something that might happen to us. Once you learn to overcome this fear, you could lead a life with positive thoughts and no worries.
8. Try talking to yourself and make yourself strong –
Talking to yourself makes yourself the strongest. This will help you take charge of your thoughts, and you will learn to determine your powerful energy. This will also help you believe in yourself and will give you the strength to silence the power of negative thoughts that were growing as weeds inside your body. You will stop thinking about irrelevant topics and spend your time on things that provide you happiness.
The only people who can give you take an unbiased, correct decision for your life are you. Do not rely on anyone else for help. Just go in front of the mirror and ask yourself what’s the problem and how you can get out of it.
You will gradually see doors and windows open in front of you, and you will get a solution out of it. Try maintaining a gratitude journal, something that will also help you know yourself better. In the end, you will find yourself with a stronger and confident mindset.
9. Practice gratitude in daily life –
Practicing gratitude in your daily life is the key to lead a life ruled by positive thinking. You need to keep aside your negative thoughts and walk on the path of positive ones. This means growing in a gratitude journal and following the path of gratitude to perform the small tasks in daily life, like saying “thank you” to the shopkeeper after buying the bread or calling a distant relative and talking to them about how good the weather is today.
Everyone has their ways to express gratitude, and you need to search and find out the way most suitable for yourself. If you are new to gratitude journaling and you are falling short of things to write in your gratitude list, then you may search on Google for different gratitude list ideas and then come up with your ones.
Talking to a person at the end of the day is also a good way to end your day on a positive note such that you do not take any negative thoughts or grudge for your next day.
10. Learn the lesson that your failure is trying to teach you –
Always remember that no one is perfect, and so are you. In the long run of life, you are sure to make mistakes and experience multiple failures in your path.
Try to turn these failures and mistakes into a lesson in your life, and then think about what you are going to do next. Make sure not to make the same mistake again. Make these lessons learned from your mistakes as concrete rules and follow them in every path of your life.
Negative thoughts have got many side effects that could be fatal to our physical and mental health. Negative thoughts are the prime source of stress and headache, nausea, and difficulty in sleeping.
Thus the person gets lesser sleep than is required by him, and as a result of this, he gets a higher risk of heart diseases and gets laid back in his life. This leads to anger and pessimism, and the results are uglier than one could imagine.
On an end note, I also want to mention the various benefits of positive thinking such as it lowers stress level and improves mental health; it increases the body immunity and provides the person with a better resilience power.
Thus one should stop cultivating negative thoughts in their mind and preach the bible verses about gratitude to lead a life filled with positivity and success.
SUVANGI CHANDA
It is always easy to advise someone to look at the brighter side or see the cup as full half. All these comments made by people to instill positive thinking are very easy but difficult to follow. Installing optimism and positive thinking in one’s life is a long process, and everything comes down to the feeling of gratitude.
Now there are many ways to practice gratitude in your daily life; however, the effects of gratitude on the brain are immense. In this world filled with negative thoughts, positive thinking is not what comes naturally. It takes a long time to get this habituated in their daily routine after one has started cultivating the seed of positive thinking in their life.
Here are ten ways by which you can cultivate the habit of positive thinking in your daily life –
1. End the day with writing in your gratitude journal –
Spending time on the gratitude diaries is by far the easiest and most effective way of instilling a feeling of gratitude and positive thinking in your life. You can sit down and write in your gratitude journal any time you wish for but the end of the day is the best time for it. It is always best to write a few points on your gratitude list before going to bed.
There are many different ways to express gratitude. You could either take the help of your gratitude diary, or you could even download free templates from the internet and use them. If you are someone who does not like writing too much, you could even find a trustworthy person to say five grateful things that happened to you today.
2. Focus on the small non-materialistic things that bring happiness –
I would not disagree with you on the fact that we all love to receive materialistic gifts. However, non-materialistic things provide much more happiness than materialistic ones.
For example- a simple surprise visit from your loved one or even a long walk in the garden during sunset will be enough to live your mood for the rest of the day. Try to find out the non-materialistic things that make you happy and then give them to yourself as a present after a long day.
3. Talk to people who surround themselves with positive vibes –
Though the world has got more number of people who preach negativity out of their mouth, there is still a small population of those people who preach the bible verses about gratitude and have an aura of positive thoughts around themselves.
Try to surround yourself with people who have positive vibes in them. This will help you have self-confidence and will also help you try out new things in your life.
Talking to people who do not have positive vibes will help you fall into the pit hole of uncertainties, and you will find yourself stuck in your life. Positive people know that there is light on the other side of the tunnel, and you need to run fast so that you reach the other side of the tunnel soon.
On the other hand, negative people also know that there is light on the other side of the tunnel, but they are lazy enough to run fast. Instead, they wait for a bus or truck to pick them up and help them out of the tunnel. Thus life turns ugly if you surround yourself with a negative aura.
4. Start your days on a positive note –
Try to start your day on a positive note by doing things that help you start the day with a clear mindset and goal.
For example, meditating for fifteen minutes in the morning will give you a direction for your life and will provide the energy that you are searching for to start your day.
You could also start your day by spending time on the gratitude diaries that you have made all these days. This will make you feel loved and important.
Do not meet negative people just after you get up from your bed because that will not only lower your productivity but also lower your self-confidence.
5. Save the good moments by either writing about them or by clicking pictures of them –
In a day, many small incidents happen to you that is enough to bring a smile to your face. Write them all down in your gratitude journal. You can just make a gratitude list, and the next time when you go through the list, you will be flushed with a feeling of gratitude for the next few hours.
You will get to re-live the moments in your life again and again and feel how special life made you feel at times.
If you are not into writing, you could even click pictures of moments that gave you joy. You could click Polaroid and past them in your notebook or keep them safe in an album. Pictures are also a good mute way of keeping memories.
You could click pictures of your dog’s first birthday, or your eighteenth birthday, or even of a tour that made you feel light and happy. Save every one of them with yourself.
6. Stop downplaying your success –
No matter how small your success is, learn to appreciate and praise it. Your success is a result of your hard work, and no matter how small it is, it is your hard-earned.
You do not have to compare your success to the success of other people and then downplay it. Make a list of small things that you want to achieve on a particular day. It does not have to be too significant. It could be as small as getting your dog on a walk and after accomplishing your task, award yourself for doing it.
Your success need not make sense to anyone else. It should just make sense to you. Do not forget to mention these small achievements in your gratitude journal. You could simply start with “I want to express my gratitude on” and then start writing in points about what you are grateful for.
7. Learn to live in the present –
Stop worrying about the future or procrastinating about the past and learn to live in the present, think about this moment. Forget what happened to you one hour ago and sit back and start your work again.
Most sources of negative thoughts are memories of incidents that happened to us or the fear of something that might happen to us. Once you learn to overcome this fear, you could lead a life with positive thoughts and no worries.
8. Try talking to yourself and make yourself strong –
Talking to yourself makes yourself the strongest. This will help you take charge of your thoughts, and you will learn to determine your powerful energy. This will also help you believe in yourself and will give you the strength to silence the power of negative thoughts that were growing as weeds inside your body. You will stop thinking about irrelevant topics and spend your time on things that provide you happiness.
The only people who can give you take an unbiased, correct decision for your life are you. Do not rely on anyone else for help. Just go in front of the mirror and ask yourself what’s the problem and how you can get out of it.
You will gradually see doors and windows open in front of you, and you will get a solution out of it. Try maintaining a gratitude journal, something that will also help you know yourself better. In the end, you will find yourself with a stronger and confident mindset.
9. Practice gratitude in daily life –
Practicing gratitude in your daily life is the key to lead a life ruled by positive thinking. You need to keep aside your negative thoughts and walk on the path of positive ones. This means growing in a gratitude journal and following the path of gratitude to perform the small tasks in daily life, like saying “thank you” to the shopkeeper after buying the bread or calling a distant relative and talking to them about how good the weather is today.
Everyone has their ways to express gratitude, and you need to search and find out the way most suitable for yourself. If you are new to gratitude journaling and you are falling short of things to write in your gratitude list, then you may search on Google for different gratitude list ideas and then come up with your ones.
Talking to a person at the end of the day is also a good way to end your day on a positive note such that you do not take any negative thoughts or grudge for your next day.
10. Learn the lesson that your failure is trying to teach you –
Always remember that no one is perfect, and so are you. In the long run of life, you are sure to make mistakes and experience multiple failures in your path.
Try to turn these failures and mistakes into a lesson in your life, and then think about what you are going to do next. Make sure not to make the same mistake again. Make these lessons learned from your mistakes as concrete rules and follow them in every path of your life.
Negative thoughts have got many side effects that could be fatal to our physical and mental health. Negative thoughts are the prime source of stress and headache, nausea, and difficulty in sleeping.
Thus the person gets lesser sleep than is required by him, and as a result of this, he gets a higher risk of heart diseases and gets laid back in his life. This leads to anger and pessimism, and the results are uglier than one could imagine.
On an end note, I also want to mention the various benefits of positive thinking such as it lowers stress level and improves mental health; it increases the body immunity and provides the person with a better resilience power.
Thus one should stop cultivating negative thoughts in their mind and preach the bible verses about gratitude to lead a life filled with positivity and success.