Understanding the
Psychology of Positive Thinking
You may
have heard about positive thinking, but don’t really know enough about to know
exactly how it works. Positive thinking can provide many benefits in your life
such as improving your health, opportunities in life, the way you relate to
others and the way you see yourself.
The
psychology behind the power of positive thinking is that you’re more apt to
take on life with a positive outlook and have more positive results than if you
face the world negatively. That doesn’t mean that you should gloss over the
obvious, but it does mean that a bad circumstance can be made much brighter
than viewing them in a negative way.
Some
psychologists view positive thinking as how you explain what happens in your
life. If you have an optimistic attitude, you’re more likely to explain away
bad things that happen by blaming something else for the circumstance. You’re
also more apt to view a negative happening as outside the norm or a temporary
circumstance.
Abraham Lincoln once commented, “Most folks
are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.” When you make up your
mind to approach life’s challenges with a positive attitude, you’re not
ignoring the bad stuff in the world, but it does mean that you’re attempting to
see the best both in people and in situations.
Positive
thinking and positive psychology are often thought to be the same, but they’re
really not. With positive psychology, the focus is definitely on positive
thinking, but most psychologists tend to think it’s more beneficial to think
realistically.
For
example, positive thinking might lead a person to take risks that he or she
shouldn’t, such as investing money in a business that’s extremely risky or
thinking positively that you can swim across the lake without taking into
consideration the distance.
However,
it is clear that thinking more positively will ensure more positive outcomes in
your life. The best thing you can do is to pay attention to your self-talk and
realistically assess whether it’s better to think that way – or not.
As you
practice positive thinking, you’ll become more adept at culling out the
positive thoughts that aren’t realistic as opposed to the thoughts that can
have a positive impact on your life.
Learn
more about the psychology of positive thinking by visiting online sites and/or
reading the many books on the subject.
