How to learn positive thinking. The benefits of positive emotions

How to learn to think positively? Positive thinking is a conscious choice of every person. The individual has the right to choose those thoughts that will cheer him up, suggest a more constructive way out of difficult situation or “decorate” his day with optimistic, bright colors. Life doesn't always bring happy moments. There are often sad days, and only having a person is able to gain strength and aim himself at fighting difficulties, achieving his goals and accepting right decisions. A person often has to deal with negative thoughts, emotions, while feeling deeply unhappy, misunderstood and lonely. But changing your life for the better is very simple - you just need to learn to think positively and follow the rules of positive thinking. It must be remembered that even in the worst moments of life there is at least something good, you just need to be able to see it. By making choices in life, one can step out of the negative mindsets that limit one's life and see that life is filled with opportunities and solutions, not just worries and barriers.

It's no secret that there are many negative moments in life, and if you focus on them, then life will turn into "hard labor". Life is given to a person for happiness, it should bring joy and pleasure.

If you want to learn how to learn to think positively, you just need to follow following advice. If you look at things realistically, then in almost every situation you can find for yourself both negative and positive sides. It's all about what a person chooses for himself. Undoubtedly, everyone wants to see only positive moments in life, but our subconscious mind does not always choose positive thoughts. is an art that needs to be learned. Thinking positively is a difficult enough person. To do this, you need to make an effort, especially for those people who have constant unpleasant moments and failures in their lives.

So, the rules that will help you learn to think positively. To begin with, you should learn that the ideal technique does not exist, and it is selected individually for each, taking into account life principles, positions, and character.

The first thing to do is to exclude from your circle of acquaintances and friends who bring on melancholy, despondency, telling unpleasant and horror stories from your life. It is required to exclude from your life those who, thinking negatively, do not believe in personal success, trying to convince others of failure. Such people pull their energy "to the bottom" and do not allow others to think positively, preventing them from enjoying life. If it is not possible to completely stop contact with negative people, then such communication should be minimized. You can resort to the following method, as soon as a person begins to oppress with his conversations, then you should move on to another topic and try to end the conversation faster.

The second important point is the inclusion of successful, positive and cheerful personalities in your social circle. Such people are able to radically change their attitude to life, their mood will rise, they will inspire various accomplishments, even without doing anything for this. It is important to try to take an example from them in life, communicate with them more, and following their logic, do as they advise.

It is very important to monitor your emotions. As soon as they start to overcome negative thoughts, you should immediately stop yourself and look for the cause of the negative.

Next important point- this is to exclude from viewing films and programs that are annoying or alarming. These irritants will contribute to the development of anxiety and tension, which will prevent the emergence of positive thoughts. After eliminating negative moments from your life, you should fill your life with positive - watching funny comedies, as well as positive news. Next, you should learn to find the positive side with the help of objective evaluation. Is everything so bad? And if it’s bad, then if you stay in this negative, it won’t be better. Therefore, it is worth pulling yourself together and realizing that life does not stop there and thus sharply change your views.

How to learn to think positively and attract success? You should reflect on your experiences and realize the delights of a positive attitude towards life. When a person decides to think positively, he begins to take control of his life and makes every day he lives more pleasant for himself, thereby attracting success to himself.

Positive thinking is displayed on the physical, mental state, on the ability to adapt to circumstances and unforeseen changes in life. Realizing this, a person has a constant positive thinking.

If you learn to think positively and live positively, you can:

- prolong your life

- reduce the impact of stress;

- minimize the appearance;

- develop resistance to cold;

- improve physical and mental condition;

- create a strong family.

It depends only on the person his attitude to life. No one can control the feelings and thoughts of the individual - only he himself. If a person is used to absorbing the preferences and negative emotions of other people, then he personally makes this choice. The individual needs to realize that their thoughts and feelings can be controlled, and having understood this, one can feel that there is an opportunity to change their thought patterns.

How to learn to think positively - exercises

You need to make a plan to help you stop thinking negatively. This means to overcome everything negative around you, which will always be in abundance. You should think about what you can do for yourself useful and constructive. It is important to decide how your own personality will react to the changes that will appear in life if you stop different people and situations to dictate what to do and what to think. Having drawn up a plan for positive thinking, no one should be allowed to destroy it. Often, some things seem to be more significant than they really are, and they certainly do not bring as much anxiety as a person actually thinks. Not allowing yourself to succumb to all-encompassing anxiety, you need to calmly think about everything and make an informed decision.

By making a plan, a person learns to control his life and be responsible for it. The plan is quite simple - we identify and write down our negative thoughts every day, then we analyze, reflect on why they appeared and what can be changed. As the plan progresses, a person will gradually find that it is already easier for him to identify his negative thoughts and it is quite difficult for him to be in the possession of negative thinking.

How to learn to think positively, psychology gives the following advice in this regard:

- look for the positive in everything;

- do not succumb to the bad mood of the people around you;

- control your thoughts and desires, because the law of gravity operates and a person unconsciously attracts into his life what he thinks about;

- be selective in communication and not let into your world dissatisfied individuals with negative emotions, constantly complaining about their lives;

- not to avoid problems, but to solve them;

- keep the house clean;

- plan ahead for cash spending by making a list. This will protect against spontaneous acquisitions and save inner peace;

- to be bold in any of your endeavors;

- reflect on your negative thoughts;

- timely identify and stop their bad thoughts;

- be an optimist in life, smile;

- regardless of the result, treats any of his actions aimed at changing situations as an experience;

- by raising the mood of other people, you can improve your mood, which will allow you to think in a positive direction;

- you should not reproach yourself for mistakes;

- you can’t accumulate negative emotions in yourself, so you should change the perception of situations in which negative accumulates;

- it is necessary to do what gives pleasure: to sing, dance, listen to music, go in for sports, creativity;

- find time to relax at home, do your favorite things;

- in life you should experiment, changing hairstyles, clothing style, place of residence;

Don't put off learning to think positively.

How to learn not to lose heart and think positively?

You need to identify your negative, involuntary thoughts that do not allow you to look at the world differently. By learning to quickly identify them, you can challenge and block them. When an individual identifies a negative thought and understands its origin, this helps in the further fight against negative thoughts, and then the person is able to counteract these thoughts with positive attitudes.

You can learn not to lose heart and think positively by avoiding black and white thinking. In this type of thinking, everything that a person encounters is perceived as either everything is there, or there is nothing, and there are no other shades. For example, if something goes wrong with an individual, as he would like, then it immediately falls into the category of terrible, because nothing can be saved, since there is no category of gray. In order not to think only in two directions - positive and negative, you should make a list of all possible outcomes that will allow you to see that everything is not as bad as it seems. If in any situation you see shades of gray, then this can allow a person to understand that this is not the end of the world.

You can also learn not to lose heart if you avoid personalization. With this kind of thinking, a person thinks that if something went wrong, then he is the cause of the failure. Such thinking leads to the fact that a person begins to feel terrible in any situation. To avoid such thinking, it is necessary to be rational and think carefully about the reasons for the occurrence of an unpleasant situation.

You can learn to think positively if you avoid “filtered” thinking. This means that you should not see a negative message in what was addressed to the person. For example, the boss praised the work done, but at the same time mentioned where it could be improved next time. The leader tries to help, and the person perceives this as terrible criticism. If you continue to think in this way, then there is a possibility that a person will never see the positive in any situation. Reflecting on this situation, one can conclude that the boss's positive comments far outweighed the negative ones.

For positive thinking, it is important to avoid "disaster", in which a person is completely pessimistic and believes that everything is doomed to failure. This requires the individual to be realistic and find evidence against this negative belief.

It is very important to avoid predictive thinking. For example, one should not think that if the past friendship was doomed to failure, then so will the next one. Most likely, it will be so, since the person has programmed the outcome of events in his brain, and the human subconscious will do everything so that the individual turns out to be right. Instead, you should learn from each individual life situation.

It is possible to challenge your negative thoughts, even if the individual has been thinking negatively all his life. At first, a person will feel resistance, and each time it will be necessary to remind himself that he should fight bad thoughts and not let them take over, because they can stress or make you suffer.

An effective method to begin to fight negative thoughts are questions that the individual asks himself. For example, "Is this situation really as bad as I make it out to be?" or “How can these bad thoughts help me?” After the individual feels that he is able to identify negative thoughts, he needs to immediately change them to positive ones. It doesn't mean that everything will be positive.

The purpose of positive thinking is to replace everyday unnecessary thought patterns with thoughts that will actually achieve what you want.

There are great ways to learn to think positively and attract success:

- you should find something good in events, things, people;

- it is necessary to make a list of what you can be grateful for the past day;

- it is required to perceive problem situations and people as opportunities, and not as failures, because they give a chance to learn and grow;

- you need to remind yourself that the future is filled good opportunities;

- it is necessary to make a list of what to look forward to in the future.

So, positive thinking, like any other skill, requires reminders and practice so that you don't go back to negative thoughts. It should be remembered that it takes time to master positive thinking, since the development of these abilities is the development of certain skills that allow you to think in an optimistic direction. Say good things to yourself regularly. This will positively affect thoughts and emotions. Be sure to praise yourself for a job well done. Thus, it is possible to raise and understand what has been specifically achieved and the efforts were not in vain. Seeing particles of positive in other people, you can allow your thoughts to flourish in this direction, and the ability to control your life will be an important part in the development of positive thinking.

Each of us knows the feeling of oppression, when it seems that nothing will ever be able to please and positive thoughts will not appear in our heads. However, some people are able to be in complete harmony with themselves. Initially, we can say that every free thought can become both positive and negative.

A person is not created for stress, haste and depression, all this comes gradually, and we ourselves let in all this negativity and each of our free thoughts finds itself in a cage of doubts.

Positive thinking, the basis of life's tranquility

Every person wants to be happy and here it is important to understand that the main source of happiness is inside each of us. Attempts to change the surrounding reality will only aggravate the existing depression, feeding it with a fresh portion of disappointments. The cause of a bad mood should be looked for within yourself. Since the speed of thought does not allow us to focus on everything, therefore, we single out from the general mass only what we are used to paying attention to.

In order to cheer yourself up, you don’t need to go far at all, you just need to look into yourself and change the charge of consciousness from negative to positive.

The speed of thought will not change from this, it’s just worth trying to find the positive in everything that surrounds you.

Problems won't go away, that's the way it is modern life that worries and anxieties in it are often much more than peace and joy. Unfortunately, if we take into account the speed of thought, all things that are not essential at a given moment in time pass by our consciousness. And because of this, we drive ourselves into the established social framework, and free thought becomes limited, preventing us from seeing the beauty and joy around us.

positive in everyday life

All the positive in everyday things, we take for granted, often not noticing how the world amazing. But besides this, we overthrow the beautiful and amazing in the rank of solving the problem.

Presentation: "We must think positively!"

For example, when a young mother, instead of rejoicing and touching the first steps of her child, sighs with relief: “Well, thank God, his legs are healthy.” Each of us can be sad and fall into melancholy, but how quickly you get out of this state depends on how positive your thinking is in general.

The speed of thought in this case plays into your hands, but only on condition that you have "accustomed" your mind to the positive.

For everything that happens to us, only we ourselves are responsible, anyone is able to change their inner mood. Thus, we take full responsibility for ourselves, ceasing to go with the flow of life and begin to change something in it.

Humans are prone to mistakes and negative emotions, and at such moments the number of troubles seems to double. And yet, we can say with full confidence that our thoughts attract related energy. That is why it turns out that problems "grow like a snowball." And here the speed of thought only exacerbates the situation, the more negative you highlight from the stream of consciousness, the more problems you attract.

The most important thing is to learn how to deal with your negativity. First of all, you need to figure out where it comes from.

Presentation: "Positive Thinking"

You should sit in silence and "get to the bottom" of the source of the problem, while trying to change it in better side. After all, it is precisely because of the disorder in the mind that the largest number negativity.

Using Positive Thinking

Unusual lightness in thoughts will become your permanent state if you remember the following:

• speak positive thoughts;
• periodically write down positive statements in bright colors;
• use written reprogramming, for this, write down a positive thought and a negative one that arises for it, repeat until the negative thought goes at least into a neutral one.

Creating a positive way of life at first glance is not difficult, you just have to want it and believe that it is possible.

Do not forget about how the speed of thought will affect your reality, if you manage to slow down this process a little in the process of analyzing your problems, then it will be much easier for you to solve your problems.

However, everyday worries will not disappear from life. This means that we should try to think in such a way that free thought does not turn into a “prisoner” of the negative. And then there will be an extraordinary lightness in thoughts.

Surely, many have heard the expression that "thoughts are material." Also, more than once you may have noticed that when something very bad happens, a participant in unpleasant events often exclaims: “I knew it would happen!”. This does not at all mean that a person experiencing troubles is a seer - he simply “pulled” failures to himself with his negative thinking. How does it work?

Positive thinking, what is its essence

The essence of such thinking is not to not fix attention on failures and small problems, but to see something good in any negative situation. Faced with trouble, positive-minded people immediately identify positive aspects for themselves. Betrayed by a friend? It is good that this did not happen in a more serious situation, and his essence was revealed right now. Got fired? Well, now you have a chance to find a place that suits you much more. There can be many such examples. Of course, not every dramatic story can find a positive moment, but in most of them it is present.

How to develop the habit of thinking positively

1) Environment. Try to communicate with successful people who have achieved a lot, look at life easily and with humor, being an example for you. You should also exclude friends who “pull you to the bottom” - provoke negative thoughts, belittle your successes, and the like. 2) Control yourself. As soon as you feel that a negative thought has crept into your head, immediately stop its spread. Have a fight with a loved one? Put yourself in his place, think about why you have such different views that it came to a conflict. Bring him to a heart-to-heart talk and solve the problem. Argued with a fellow traveler on the bus or a saleswoman - it's not worth thinking about at all. This person was in a bad mood, or it happened that he was angry at the world itself, and this has nothing to do with you. 3) Look at the situation from the outside. Perhaps you often overestimate the extent of the problem, and in fact everything is not so bad? How would you describe the situation from the outside if you were not involved in it? 4) The principle of "but". Whatever failure happens to you, mentally add the word “but” to its description and continue the thought. Perhaps the continuation will immediately come to mind, the path is even funny, or you may have to try. For example: “Due to traffic jams, I didn’t get to the interview, but now I’ll have a cup of delicious coffee”, “I found out about my wife’s betrayal, but the weather is very good today”, “I caught a cold, but I have a trip planned for next month.” As you can see, continuations can be quite ridiculous and seemingly inappropriate, but still this principle often allows you to control yourself at critical moments.

Learn to think and live positively easily

Do not tune in to failure, think that you are on the right track and you will certainly be lucky. Mentally praise yourself, remember your past achievements, convince yourself of the correctness of your decision. Think about what can set you in the right direction. For many, this factor is music - listen to your favorite songs, dance, watch comedies. In general, do everything that can improve your day. Even if some kind of trouble has happened to you, stop looking for the guilty or engaging in self-flagellation. An optimist in this case will think: “Well, this could happen to anyone, next time it will be better!” Laugh and smile more often. Does it seem like there is no reason for this? So find it, and even if it is the simplest one - a comedy film in the cinema, a concert of an excellent group, games with a cat, and so on. Plan interesting events, trips, and carry them out by checking the boxes next to certain items. Don’t put off until “someday” things that can please you right now.

10 tips on how to learn to think positively in any difficulties

So, by putting these tips into practice, you will thereby attract success and significantly improve the quality of your life.

We are looking for pluses and benefit for ourselves

Use settings. These are the words that you should mentally pronounce when starting any business. Think: “I will succeed”, “I will certainly be lucky”, “I deserve this!”, “I am doing great!” etc. Visualize your success. If you want to achieve something, then imagine that your plan has already come true. Imagine again and again how you achieve your goal, what emotions you experience at the same time, how your life changes. Get rid of fear. If you understand that you definitely need to do something, but your fear is a barrier, do everything possible to get rid of it. Remember that it is enough to take the first step, and things will move from the point. Allow yourself to take this step, and think about fear later. Don't worry about trifles. Often we worry about situations that may never happen or have little to no effect on our lives. Accept the fact that there is a lot of injustice in this world, and your goal is not to let all this negativity through you, because, undoubtedly, you have more interesting things to do! Keep track of your achievements. Buy a nice notebook and write down every little thing in it every day that made a good impression on you - you don’t need to write anything neutral or negative. It does not matter what will be discussed - you drank a cup of fragrant tea or your salary was increased. Reread your notes periodically. Thank fate more often. Often we complain about the unfairness of life, ignoring the gifts it sends us. Be attentive, notice all the good things that happen to you. Avoid negativity. It can be about situations as well as people. Try to minimize communication with those who upset you or cause conflict. If possible, it is better to exclude such contacts altogether. Love yourself. Make nice gifts for yourself, take care of your appearance, indulge in goodies, visit interesting places. Learn to see the positives. Let it be a very small plus, but more often think about this plus, and not about losses. Be kind to yourself. Often we are very strict with ourselves or try to fit into someone else's established framework. Realize that you, like any other person, have the right to laziness, losses, fatigue, Bad mood. Forgive yourself for momentary weaknesses and think more often about your positive aspects.

Only positive thoughts attract success

You have probably noticed people who are constantly unlucky, and they are already so used to it that they take it for granted, without thinking about the fact that they themselves attract problems. Negative thinking can be "material" and lead to already expected problems. The situation is exactly the same with positive thinking - the harder you program yourself for success, the more likely it is that luck will really smile at you. Do not focus on what you have lost or on what disappointed or offended you. Such thoughts can lead to depression - think about the good things that you have.

Communicate with dear people who make you feel positive emotions. One evening in the company of a good friend or mother at a meal and discussion of topics that interest you can “charge” you for the week ahead. Charge yourself with positive emotions from others. The easiest way to do this is to provide such a mood loved one. Make pleasant surprises and gifts for no reason, and a charge of positive energy is provided to you!

Psychology about the connection between thinking and physical health

Once upon a time was open interesting fact: our mental sensations and physical health are directly related to the emotions that we pass through ourselves throughout our lives. That is, the more positive moments we experience, the better our well-being will be in all aspects! Even try to use the negative moments of life for your own good. Set yourself this task: whenever you encounter an unexpected difficulty that cannot be ignored, you will make the most of it for yourself. Let it be even a simple life lesson. You probably noticed that children have a much easier attitude towards life, and, for example, an upset from a scratched knee can be instantly eliminated with a pack of ice cream or a chocolate bar. The thing is that children know how to enjoy the little things, but what's there - the little things can lead them to real delight! Good weather outside? Can I go for a swing ride? Rain? You can splash in the puddles! Etc. We, for the most part, not only do not attach importance to trifles, but also do not pay attention to significant pluses! Communicate with children more often, and notice their attitude to life - many adults have a lot to learn from toddlers and schoolchildren! There is another psychological trick that will help you become a real optimist. Think about your successes in the present tense more often, fix them in your mind: “I’m frying an amazing scrambled egg!”, “I’m doing an excellent job fulfilling the order!”, “I look great today!”, “This color really suits me.” The sooner you realize that you yourself are the creator of your mood, and your success depends on how you “set up” yourself, the sooner you will notice positive changes in life!

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How happy you are does not depend on external circumstances, but on your thinking. We offer you to get acquainted with 11 ways that will help you look at life with optimism.

1. Switch your attention away from negative thoughts

Negative thoughts have tremendous power. They destroy our mood, motivation and joy. Therefore, do not give them energy. This is not difficult to do - you just need to divert your attention from negative thoughts. Of course, this does not mean that there will be no more of them. But they will no longer have a significant impact on you. Here's how it works: when you find yourself having thoughts of difficult events, fears, self-criticism and the like swirling in your head, mentally cross them out and switch to something positive. Negative thoughts are only harmful, so there is no point in cultivating them and wasting time on them.

2. Smile

Some people go through life with a sullen expression on their face, while others smile even for a minor reason. And the latter are always happier. Why? The reason lies in the smile itself: scientists have found that it contributes to the release of hormones of happiness. The brain also receives information from the facial muscles about how you feel. Smiling relaxes and makes us happy, which allows us to look at things positively.

3. Look for the good in a situation

Almost any life situation is a medal that has a light and a dark side. Obstacles can be perceived as a challenge, mistakes as a valuable experience and the need to learn something. For example, when you can't find a free parking space near your house, you have a choice: either get angry or enjoy the walk home. If the store does not have the product you need for the recipe, you can experiment with other ingredients. Of course, in some life situations it is difficult to find pluses - dismissal, parting with a loved one. But even they can be seen as a chance to radically change your life. Therefore, it is better to start thinking positively by training in small situations, then it will become much easier to deal with major troubles.

4. Keep a gratitude journal

Even when things go wrong, there is always something to be grateful for. Get a beautiful notebook and write down all the positive little things that you need to enjoy: a roof over your head, a refrigerator with food, a job, health, a cat purring, sunny weather, and so on. You can do 3 entries in the morning, 3 in the evening. Let them repeat - it doesn't matter. Soon you will see how your thoughts flow in the mainstream of optimism and joy.

5. Dose the news

Disaster reports on television, radio, social networks quickly create the feeling that everything around is bad. But besides tragedies and violence, there are a lot of positive events, only the media pushes them into the background. To reduce the flow of bad news, dose it: read the headline and summary or unsubscribe from those channels where terrible news pours like from a cornucopia. Don't let negativity seep into your mind and soul.

Our thinking also largely depends on the environment. When someone around complains and whines, we involuntarily absorb the negative message and begin to scroll through it in our thoughts. And vice versa - cheerful, cheerful people make us happier. Therefore, do not be afraid to revise your environment: communicate less with grumblers, spend more time with optimists.

7. Say goodbye to being a victim

Thinking positively means taking full responsibility for your own life. Say goodbye to thoughts that you are a victim of circumstances, that other people are to blame, or a bad fate. In fact, the steering wheel of your life is only in your hands! When you fully understand this, it will be much easier for you to make decisions and see new opportunities.

8. Avoid comparison

Neighbors beautiful apartment and a big car, a colleague is slimmer and prettier, and a relative is much more successful in her career. Comparing ourselves to others makes us unhappy, switches our thoughts to negative points, starts the self-digging process. But you can compare yourself with people who are doing worse, but do it infrequently. Basically, our thoughts concentrate on the success of people we know and flow into self-criticism. Doing this, of course, is not worth it.

9. Highlight Your Achievements

In our life there are always achievements, even the smallest ones. Make a list of your successes: graduating from school, college, getting driving license, getting out of a difficult situation, having children, moving into your own home, completed projects, and so on. When you start to analyze the past, you will see how many achievements and successes there are in it. Feel free to add little things to the list, for example, “baked tasty pie"," did a general cleaning. Such a leaf will be a solid foundation for positive thinking and self-love.

Can positive thoughts reflect on us with more than just a smile on our face? Yes. This is convinced Barbara Fredrickson (Barbara Fredrickson) - holder of a Ph.D. from Stanford University. Fredrickson is one of the world's leading scientists studying social psychology. Her works have been widely disseminated and have been awarded honorary awards. In her 20 years of scientific activity, Barbara has conducted a number of studies aimed at studying the influence of emotions on human life in the future. What conclusions did she come to? Let's find out.

How negative thoughts affect the brain

Let's imagine that you are walking through the forest and suddenly meet a wolf on your way. In such a situation, your brain registers a negative emotion - fear.

Scientists have long known that negative emotions program the gyrus to perform certain actions. For example, when crossing with a wolf, you start to run away from him. The rest of the world ceases to exist. You focus solely on the beast, the fear, and the desire to get away as soon as possible.

In other words, negative emotions narrow thinking and limit thoughts. Looking objectively at the situation, you could try to climb a tree or defend yourself with a stick, but the brain ignores the options available. There is no other way out for convolutions when the eyes of a predator are looking at you.

Of course, millions of years ago, the self-preservation instinct inherent in our ancestors helped them survive and procreate. But in our modern society no need to worry about unexpected meeting with dangerous wildlife. The problem is that your brain is still programmed to respond to negative emotions in the same way - by disconnecting from the outside world and rejecting alternative courses of action.

Why composure and the ability to restrain one's emotions are almost the most important qualities good boxer? Because anger and emotions in battle narrow down mental abilities and prevent tactical thinking. Looking at your to-do list for the day, find it not very realistic and can't get started? Yes, you have been paralyzed by the horror of contemplating a long list of tasks. Do you feel bad about not taking care of your health? Now all your thoughts come down to how weak, lazy and loafers you are.

In each similar situation, the brain closes off from the outside world and concentrates on negative emotions: fear, anger or stress. Negative emotions keep your head from looking around for the alternatives and opportunities that surround you. It's just a survival instinct.

How positive thoughts affect the brain

Fredrickson studied the effect of positive thoughts on the brain during a small experiment. She divided her test subjects into groups of five and showed each company a different video.

The first two groups were shown clips that evoke positive emotions. Group 1 was filled with a sense of joy. The second five watched frames that create a feeling of pleasure.

The third company looked at images that were neutral or did not contain significant emotions in terms of their emotional richness.

The last two groups “enjoyed” the video that generated negative emotions. The fourth five absorbed the feeling of fear, and the final five absorbed the feeling of anger.

After that, each participant was asked to imagine themselves in a situation where such feelings could arise, and write down what they would do. Each subject was given a sheet of paper with 20 blank lines that began with the phrase "I would like to ...".

Participants who watched videos of fear and anger wrote the fewest responses. And the subjects who admired the images of joy and pleasure completed a significantly larger number of lines, even in comparison with the neutral group.

Thus, when you experience positive emotions, such as joy, pleasure, love, you pay attention to more opportunities in your life. These findings were among the first to really prove that positive experiences increase one's sense of one's own strength and open up new possibilities of thinking.

But this is only the beginning. The most interesting impact of positive thinking comes later...

How Positive Thinking Develops Skills and Abilities

The benefits of positive emotions are not limited to a few minutes of pleasant sensations. Positive experiences help you acquire skills and develop resources for later life.

Let's consider a real example.

A child running down the street, jumping in puddles, waving a branch and playing with friends develops athletics (physical skills), communication skills (social skills) and the ability to discover new things and explore the world around him (creative skills). Thus, positive emotions from play and joy bring up in the child skills that will be useful throughout his life.

Acquired skills live much longer than the emotions that initiated them. Years later, a strong physical form can grow a real athlete, and communication skills can reveal a competent manager to the world. Happiness, which gave the base to the skills, has long passed and forgotten, but the skills themselves are not lost.

Fredrickson calls this feature the theory of expansion of boundaries and development. Because positive emotions increase the feeling of one's own strengths and give rise to thoughts, which in turn develops new skills that are sure to be useful in other areas of life.

As noted earlier, negative emotions have the opposite effect. It is they that hinder the construction of new skills due to the existence of a threat or danger.

In conclusion of the above, a completely logical question arises: if positive emotions are so useful for our future, how to become positive?

How to get positive thinking

So how do you increase the amount of positive emotions in your life and apply the effect of the theory of expansion and development on yourself?

Any spark of joy, satisfaction and love will certainly do its job. But only you know exactly what works for you. Maybe it will be playing the guitar, taking a walk with a loved one, or carving a wooden gnome for your favorite flower garden.

Nevertheless, it is worth paying attention to some activities that are suitable for many earthlings.

Meditation. A recent study by Fredrickson found that daily meditators experience more positive emotions than non-meditators. As expected, meditating had a positive effect on long-term skills. For example, three months after the end of the experiment, daily meditators had increased attention and purposefulness, and their health improved.

Letter. The study, published in the Journal of Research in Personality, looked at two groups of 45 students. The first group during three days wrote about strong positive feelings. The other one is on a regular topic.

Three months later, members of the first team noted better mood, they were less likely to get sick and seek medical help. Just three days of writing about positive things affected the improvement of health.

A game. shove game types sports into your life. You plan meetings, negotiations, events and various duties, putting them on your calendar, but why don't you find time for amateur sports?

When was the last time you indulged in an experiment and discovered new things for yourself? When was the last time you planned entertainment? Is happiness less important than a meeting on Tuesdays?

Give yourself permission to smile and enjoy the benefits of positive emotions. Plan a futsal game with your friends or a little adventure with your significant other. Thus, you will experience satisfaction and joy, as well as learn and develop new skills for yourself.

What comes first: happiness or success?

There is no doubt that happiness is manifested as a result of achieving success. For example, winning a championship, moving to a new high-paying job, meeting a loved one will certainly bring joy and satisfaction to your life. But do not mistakenly believe that happiness is ALWAYS preceded by success. Have you ever thought: “As soon as I get (achieve) something, I will immediately be in seventh heaven with happiness”? In fact, there is no need to postpone your happiness until a certain event occurs. Be happy here and now.

Happiness is both the precursor to success and its result!

The life of happy people is like an upward spiral. They enjoy everything that surrounds them. Thus, they develop themselves and their skills that help to achieve success, and success itself saturates a person with even greater joy. And so round after round.

What will we do

Positive thinking is not just a bland and fluffy term for wellness. Yes, it's great to just be happy. But moments of joy also have importance for your mind, helping it push boundaries and acquire skills that will become valuable in other areas of your life.

You need to look for ways to build your happiness and bring positive emotions into your life. Meditation, writing, playing and whatever - it's not just a momentary reduction in stress and a few smiles. Do interesting things, chase the ball, rush into experiments. Your brain will do the rest for you.