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Does the little voice in your head encourage you, or does it insist on failure, taking you to worst-case scenarios and reliving unpleasant moments?   If, like many people’s, your little voice is more on the doom and gloom side, there are some simple ways to include more positive thinking in your life.

Replacing negative self-talk with positive self-talk, identifying triggers for negative thinking and responding to them in new ways, envisioning positive scenarios and enjoying small pleasures are all ways to create a positive thinking habit. The definition of positive thinking, the way psychologists, researchers and medical professionals define it, is simply self-talk (that little voice in your head) that is realistic and self-affirming. And it’s something you can learn.

Whakate Club members are invited to download the e-paper in which we explore the history of positive thinking and take a more in-depth look at the research.

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» Get the PDF on Positive Thinking including this article, full references and 10 additional pages on the history of positive thinking

If you have never seriously weighed the benefits of positive thinking before, consider that the United States-based Mayo Clinic, an internationally known non-profit medical group, identifies positive thinking as an important stress management skill.  It can also keep you on track in a large project or move you forward on a long-term dream, as well as increase your enjoyment of every aspect of your life.

Plus, there are health benefits: Research shows that optimism and positive thinking may lead to decreased stress, greater resistance to catching the common cold, easier breathing for people with certain lung diseases and reduced risk of coronary artery disease (Positive Thinking: Practice This Stress Management Skill, Mayo Clinic).

All of these aspects make positive thinking a valuable skill for anyone. Fortunately, there are some simple steps you can take to get yourself into the habit.

Replacing Negative Self-Talk

The first step is to identify negative self-talk. It can be hard to pin down, but it might sound a bit like this: “Forget it, why should I bother?” It is the voice that predicts failure and reaffirms self-doubts. The Mayo Clinic identifies a number of thought patterns common to negative self-talk:

• Filtering– Magnifying the negative aspects of a situation while ignoring the good ones.
• Personalising– Automatically blaming yourself when something bad happens.
• Catastrophising– Assuming that the worst case scenario will always come to pass.
• Polarising– Seeing things as either good or bad, with no middle ground.

Once you’ve identified negative self-talk, you can start replacing it with positive self-talk.
Throughout your day, stop and listen to your little voice. Gauge its attitude and honestly ask yourself if you would talk to someone else that way. If your answer is no, then stop the negative thinking or try to apply a positive twist to it. Self-talk with a positive spin is realistic, but includes such phrases as:

• Why not?
• Let me try that again.
• I’m going to take a chance.
• Let me think of another way to approach that.
• You know what, I can do that.

You can find other specific suggestions for replacing negative self-talk with positive self-talk here: How to practice positive self-talk.

Another technique to encourage positive thinking involves envisioning positive situations where things are going your way. This can, and often should, be as simple as imagining that someone will have made a fresh pot of coffee just before you arrived at the office, or that the bus driver will be in a good mood today.

Engage Assistance

A stronger approach engages others whom you trust to help you create positive thinking scenarios. In “Make Yourself Happy” (Storch, 2005), University of Zurich psychologist Maja Storch suggests making a detailed list of situations that trigger negative thinking, then asking friends, family and your children for ideas on how to respond to those triggers. Choose one or two responses for each situation and replace your usual response with the new one.

Enjoy the Little Things

Another way to move your thinking in a positive direction is to use short-lived and immediate pleasures to create what psychologists call the “positive affect.”
Storch’s article explains that short-lived pleasures include the anticipation of success when you complete a task or watching a beautiful sunset at the end of the day. Taking the time and effort to enjoy these brief, but frequent occurrences can increase your overall positive thinking far more than a few very large enjoyable activities.

While these techniques may feel forced at first, over time, you’ll find your self-talk contains less criticism and more encouragement. Still, don’t expect results overnight, as you are trying to ingrain a new habit.

To check out one man’s attempt at replacing negative thinking and self-talk with positive thinking, see the Financial Times article Jumping for Joy? The Diary of an Optimist (Martin 2004). In it, Andrew Martin, a self-described “miserable git,” spends a week trying positive affect and positive self-talk techniques. At the end of the week, he finds that “whereas formerly the negative voice delivered a monologue in my head, there is now at least a dialogue between negative and positive.”

These techniques are not to be confused with unbridled optimism. As Storch points out, “If you maintain positive thoughts, you will indeed start to feel happier. That is not to say that habitual happiness can be grounded in figments of the imagination. It must be based on a solid foundation.”

Does all of this sound familiar? As a self-improvement tactic, positive thinking dates back decades, but researchers have only recently begun seriously studying its measurable effects.

Whakate Club members are invited to download the e-paper in which we explore the history of positive thinking and take a more in-depth look at the research.

» Get the PDF on Positive Thinking including this article, full references and 10 additional pages on the history of positive thinking

Author: Rochelle Broder-Singer

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