Focus on the Positive: 8 Effective Methods for Turning Negative Thoughts into Positive Ones
It is probably obvious without saying that life is much more enjoyable if you know how to focus on the positive.
But focusing on the positive does not mean that you must think positively and be happy 24/7. You are human, and as such have a multitude of thoughts and emotions, both those that we label positive as well as those that we call negative.
Focusing on the positive is not about what thoughts or feelings we might have, but about how we choose to frame those thoughts and feelings.
Having a positive mindset will allow you to see the positive side of things and face many situations in a positive and productive way.
The point of focusing on the positive is to learn to think positively and feel happiness (among other positive emotions) more often and for longer periods of time – not to neglect negative thoughts and emotions completely.
Everybody can learn how to focus on the positive and replace negative thoughts with positive ones. Read on to learn all the reasons and techniques to be more positive.
In this article you will learn:
– What are the benefits of focusing on the positive
– What does it mean to focus on the positive
– How to focus on the positive
You can learn to focus on the positive
First of all, focusing on the positives in every situation is a skill that can be learned. Sure, genetics play a part in how we react to life, but most of what you think, say, and do, is learned behavior.
I’ll give you two examples.
Example 1: You witness an accident
Let’s imagine that you witness a car crash.
How do you react?
Some people who witness such an event freak out and are unable to do anything but panic. Some people can remain calm and even rush to the scene of the accident and help others. Some may just run away.
The event, a car crash, remains the same. Yet, we react in a variety of different ways. Why is that?
Because of what we have learned to do habitually. Just as we react to a stressful situation, we react to any situation in life based on our beliefs and habits. This often happens without consciously being aware of it.
The police officers and paramedics that arrive at the scene of the accident are able to sort things out almost without thinking about what they are doing. That’s because they have been conditioned to work under stressful conditions.
They have formed beliefs and habits that allow them to perform according to their highest potential.
The thing is, It’s not any different with you and your life.
You react to any and all situations based on what you have learned to believe.
Think you could never be a paramedic? I bet you could! It’s just a matter of training. Think you can never focus on the positive? I know you can, it’s just a matter of practice.
Example 2: How you tend to react
Think about your life and the way you react to different situations.
If you are like me, you’ll notice a tendency to think the worst of every situation.
Although there is a bias behind this way of thinking (which we’ll examine in a moment), it’s mostly a matter of conditioning.
Think about all the negative thoughts that you have: Notice how well you’ve conditioned yourself to think negatively.
Now drop the negative thoughts out of the equation:
Notice how well you’ve conditioned yourself to do a certain thing, react in a certain way, and think in a specific manner.
You are very good at conditioning yourself!
Now that’s a good example of positive thinking.
Reframing a negative thing in a positive way and replacing negative thoughts with positive ones. We’ll talk more about this later.
Positive self-talk = focusing on the positive
Focusing on the positive starts with self-talk.
Self-talk means all the thoughts that run through your head every moment of every day making assumptions about yourself and your life. It can be positive or negative.
Self-talk is always ongoing and cannot be stopped, but it can be influenced and directed.
Self-talk may originate from logic and reason. Or it may be based on intuition and instinct. But often it comes out of habit: You tell yourself what you have learned to tell yourself.
The key to changing your focus from negative to positive is catching the negative self-talk and replacing it with positive.
Why is it important to focus on the positive?
Very few of us (perhaps none at all) want to dwell in negativity.
Despite our current life situation, we have all likely experienced brief periods of happiness and all other positive emotions that stem from it.
Those of us who have experienced happiness know that living in a constant state of happiness is one of the most wonderful things that life can offer. It just feels so good (duh, no surprises there).
It’s in our nature to seek pleasure and avoid pain. We love positivity. It indeed brings good sensations to our bodies and our minds.
And studies have proven what we know intuitively:
if we focus on the positive rather than the negative, we will gain a multitude of physical and emotional benefits.
Positive thoughts have POSITIVE EFFECTS ON YOUR MIND AND BODY
If you have experienced prolonged periods of positivity, you may have noticed many positive “side effects” of that state of being.
Maybe you were active and had more energy. Perhaps you found yourself eating healthier and not being ill so often. Possibly you had more focus and performed better at work.
If you have, it will not surprise you that there’s scientific evidence showing that positive thinking will improve your life in many ways.
If you focus on the positive things in life, you will likely live a healthier, wealthier, and happier life than you would if you have a negative attitude.
Focusing on the positive and replacing negative thoughts with positive ones has many benefits for your health, income, and social life.
Here are the 3 most important reasons you should focus on the positive.
1. Focusing on the positive HAS MANY SCIENTIFICALLY PROVEN BENEFITS
My favorite source of happiness information is The World Happiness Report, where all of these benefits and the studies that back them up have been listed.
These are the studied benefits of subjective well-being (e.g. positive thinking and happiness):
Health & Longevity
- Reduced inflammation
- Improved cardiovascular health, immune & endocrine systems
- Lowered risk of heart disease, stroke & susceptibility to infection
- Practicing good health behaviors
- Speed of recovery
- Survival & longevity
Income, productivity & organizational behavior
- Increased productivity
- Peer-rated & financial performance, reduced absenteeism
- Creativity & cognitive flexibility
- Cooperation & collaboration
- Higher income
- Organizational performance
Individual & Social behavior
- Longer-term time preferences and delayed gratification
- Reduced consumption & in- creased savings
- Employment
- Reduced risk-taking
- Pro-social behavior (e.g., donating money and volunteering)
- Sociability, social relationships & networks
Quite an impressive list of benefits, isn’t it?
I think it answers the question “why is it important to focus on the positive” pretty comprehensively.
positivity is a GOAL WORTH STRIVING FOR
If you can focus on the positive rather than the negative, you will be happier and reap many or all of the above-mentioned rewards that positive thinking brings along with it.
Most of these are things that we intuitively know without looking at any studies.
For example, when we are sad we often resort to eating comfort foods (I know I do), which are usually not the healthiest foods out there. When we are happy, it’s so much easier to find the motivation to work out and eat healthily.
Yet, it’s good to remind ourselves from time to time of all the reasons happiness is a goal worth striving for.
Focusing on the positive will help you be happier and healthier. Read the list of benefits again now, and come back to it periodically.
Reminding yourself of all the benefits of focusing on the positive will help to rewire your brain to accept new a new belief; the belief that you want to be happy and that you can be happy.
Thinking about something often enough will eventually turn that thought into a new belief.
2. POSITIVITY SPREADS TO PEOPLE AROUND YOU
What’s more, focusing on the positive and being happy does not only bring benefits for you, but it will also bring positivity to the people around you.
The World Happiness Report cites evidence from studies that show happiness has the potential to generate “positive snowball effects”.
Happy people bring happiness to those around them, resulting in groups of happier people.
Research suggests that happiness extends up to three degrees of separation. Also, individuals who are surrounded by happy people are likely to become happier in the future.
Turns out happiness is contagious. Isn’t that awesome!? What a reason to focus on the positive. I bet you have witnessed this yourself when being with a group of happy people.
Even if you are feeling down when going to a party, it’s unlikely that you can be sad when the people around you are happy and having fun.
BE HAPPY FIRST
And of course, it gets even better. My whole agenda here, the main point of Happiness On Demand, is that happiness is your natural state of being.
You do not need money, cars, houses, or life partners to feel happy (as long as your basic physical and emotional needs are met). If you concentrate your efforts on being happy first, then you will likely manifest in your life all the things you thought you needed to be happy.
Well, guess what? If you thought that you need a life partner to be happy, think again. Or rather, think the other way around.
Studies have found that happiness can have effects on the long-term quality of relationships you have. Unmarried people with high life satisfaction (positivity/happiness) are more likely to get married in the following years and less likely to get separated or divorced if they get married.
If you want to find love and get married, be happy first!
If you want any other positive outcome in life, be happy first. Focus on the positive and good things will follow, as we will prove under the next heading, which is…
3. Focusing on the positive BRINGS POSITIVE LIFE OUTCOMES
If all of this hasn’t convinced you and you still wonder why to focus on the positive, I saved the best part for last.
It seems that positive thinking, and being happy, may positively influence life outcomes.
If you are familiar with any manifestation practice, that is, any practice that aims to make the things you imagine appear in your physical reality, you know that they emphasize how you would feel if you already had the things you are after.
For the best outcomes, it’s usually suggested that you focus on feeling happiness.
With that in mind, The World Happiness Report tries to answer how focusing on positive thoughts and emotions might influence life outcomes. It is still an emerging area of research mainly within psychology and neuroscience.
POSITIVITY LEADS TO POSITIVE OUTCOMES IN LIFE
The pathways leading from positive thoughts to positive life outcomes can be direct or be influenced by other variables that together cause an outcome of interest.
Simply put:
Do you want to be rich? Focus on the positive.
Do you want to be healthy? Focus on the positive.
Do you want to find love… you know the drill (and we already covered this in the previous chapter)
It’s mentioned in the World Happiness Report, that “one branch of thinking in psychology posits that positive emotions broaden cognitive capacity and attention, allowing individuals to engage in the behaviors and build the skills associated with better health, productivity, and social interaction. Evidence from lab experiments provides initial backing for this theory.”
There seems to be a strong connection between positive thoughts, happiness, and having the outcomes in life that you want to have.
It should be a no-brainer to start learning to focus on the positive and be happy.
What is focusing on the positive?
Positive thinking can be defined in different ways, but focusing on the positive means that you intentionally monitor and discard negative thoughts and replace them with positive ones.
The focus is on thoughts as opposed to emotions, behaviors, and more extensive outcomes like well-being or depression.
Yet, you can influence all of these areas and experience more positive thoughts as a result.
But focusing on the positive doesn’t mean that you should completely ignore any negative thoughts.
All of our feelings are natural and meant to be expressed, not repressed. If you have negative thoughts or feelings, there’s likely a reason for them that should not be ignored, but instead addressed.
So if you feel sad, angry, frustrated, or anything else, please don’t ignore your thoughts and feelings. Strive to find the cause and heal it, then concentrate your efforts on focusing on the positive.
The negativity bias
It’s important to understand that noticing the negative rather than the positive is a natural behavior for humans. There’s nothing wrong with you if you tend to focus on the negative.
It’s a documented psychological behavior called negativity bias.
Over the thousands of years of human evolution, it’s been beneficial for us to pay more attention to “bad things”, meaning things that we perceive as potential threats to our existence.
The early humans that were more attuned to danger were more likely to survive.
Focusing on potentially dangerous and negative things was literally a matter of life and death. Thus this ability became genetic and was inherited by the following generations.
Your brain is therefore quite literally wired to focus on the negative. You perceive the negative, form negative memories, and regularly repeat those memories in your mind to make sure you avoid the same negative things in the future.
Knowing it empowers you to overcome it
This bias toward the negative makes it hard to focus on the positive, but not impossible.
The first step in learning to focus on the positive is to acknowledge that you have a tendency to notice the negative.
You can’t fix what you don’t know is broken.
So take note of your brain’s preferred (negative) way of thinking:
- You remember traumatic experiences better than positive ones
- You remember insults better than praise
- Negative stimuli cause a stronger reaction than positive
- Negative thoughts are more common than positive ones
- Your decisions are based more on negative data than positive data.
I’m sure you can think of an example from your life, where a single negative thing that was said to you ruined your whole day. That’s the negativity bias at work right there.
Now, the real question is: Was the thing that was said to you truly negative, or was it something that you perceived as negative?
In either case, it’s your reaction that you can control, not the thing itself.
The 4 steps to replacing negative thoughts with positive ones
Now that you know you are biased toward the negative, you can consciously overcome it and start focusing on the positive instead.
Focusing on the positive does not mean that you are always happy and think positively around the clock.
The point of focusing on the positives is to learn to think positively and feel happiness (among other positive emotions) more often and for longer periods of time.
There are 4 steps in learning to focus on the positive:
1. Catching your thoughts
Learn to notice your thoughts (tips and an exercise for this later in this article). Condition yourself to be aware of your thoughts throughout the day.
Stop and take a deep breath. Ask yourself: “what am I thinking”?
Write post-it notes that ask this question or otherwise remind you to be aware of your thoughts, and put them around your house and office.
2. Identifying the negative thoughts
When you learn to catch your thoughts, the next step is to identify whether they are positive or negative.
Your thoughts are not inherently negative or positive; they are just thoughts.
The negativity or positivity depends on your goals. What are you trying to accomplish? Who do you truly want to be?
Compare your thoughts to your goals. Do your thoughts support you or hinder your efforts?
For example, if you want to exercise more, but keep thinking “I don’t have the time”, or “I don’t have enough energy”. These thoughts put you down and go against your goals and are as such labeled “negative”.
3. Replacing negative thoughts with positive ones
Whenever you catch yourself thinking a negative thought, make a conscious effort to replace that thought with a positive one.
Using the previous example, if you’d like to go to the gym more, but catch yourself thinking “I don’t have the energy”, think again.
Replace that thought with “I have more than enough energy for a quick workout”, or “my energy is starting to grow and in a moment I am ready to hit the gym”.
You’ll find out that your body reacts to your thoughts very strongly (it’s called the mind-body connection), and soon you’ll find yourself having more energy.
Another very common example would be catching yourself thinking “Why does this keep happening to me?”. That’s the negativity bias in action, as we often think that bad things inevitably happen to us.
Try replacing that thought with “What is the lesson I’m supposed to learn here?”. You might be subconsciously guiding yourself to negative situations in order to learn a lesson.
Try this thought, ponder on the lessons, and you may find many negative things disappearing from your life.
4. Making the previous three points a habit
The three previously mentioned steps are all you need for focusing on the positive.
But overcoming the negativity bias by making a habit of thinking positive thoughts is where the magic is at.
Habits are made by making a conscious effort to repeat a certain thing long enough that it becomes automatic.
There are things you can do to develop a new habit:
1. Start small, try catching your thoughts just once or twice a day
2. Set yourself up for success by arranging your environment in a way that supports your new habit. For example, put notes around your house that remind you to catch your thoughts and think positively.
3. Reward yourself. Give yourself a small reward each time you catch and replace a negative thought.
You can read more about starting new habits here
And of course, there’s much more you can do. Read on to learn how to focus on the positive.
HOW TO FOCUS ON THE POSITIVE?
Just as you can learn any skill in life, you can learn to focus on the positive.
Your brain is constantly building new neural pathways and when new pathways are formed, you will have developed a new habit.
That’s a bit simplified, but it’s just to remind you that your brain (and mind) are constantly evolving. You can learn new skills and develop new habits no matter your age.
Here are 8 ways to focus on the positive
1. Set yourself up for success
Start with the basics. When the fundamental parts of your life are in order, you’ll find it much easier to focus on the positives.
First, make sure your lifestyle choices are healthy.
Try to be active every day and do some form of exercise 2-3 times per week. Resistance training is the preferred choice since, besides physical health, it has been proven to benefit your cognitive abilities and self-esteem as well.
Although any form of exercise can positively affect mood and reduce stress.
Second, make sure your diet is in check. Healthy food is fuel for your body and mind. Eat fruit and vegetables, and avoid highly processed foods, especially processed carbohydrates such as sugar. Try time-restricted eating and fasting for even more benefits.
Don’t forget to get enough sleep and learn some techniques for stress management, such as tapping.
Third, identify the areas in your life where you want to change. Think about areas of your life that you usually think negatively about. It could be work, relationships, family life, hobbies, exercise, or any other area.
Start with one area where you want more positivity.
2. Use humor to your advantage
Bringing more humor to your daily life can be a great way to focus more on the positives.
Just laughing out loud is a good way to improve your mood, not to mention that laughter in itself has positive effects on your body and mind.
Laughter can reduce stress, improve your immune system, relieve pain, make it easier to cope with difficult situations, and help you connect with other people.
Madan Kataria, a medical doctor in Mumbai, India, made a discovery, that the human body does not differentiate between real and fake laughter.
Even if you fake it, laughter produces the same health and wellness benefits. We can’t all laugh at the same jokes, but we can all laugh.
"Fake it ’til you make it"
Paul Osincup, president of AATH (Association for Applied and Therapeutical Humor) shares his tips:
“If you find something funny, don’t hold back and simply smile to yourself, but push out an audible “Ha ha!” This might feel fake at first, but after a while, you’ll release and laugh naturally more often and louder than before”
My best tip is: Read, listen or watch something that you know will make you laugh.
There’s bound to be something that you find funny. As you do this, instead of just smiling and thinking “this is funny” laugh out loud just as Paul Osincup suggests.
Try it a couple of times. Then repeat this process, preferably every day, but as often as you can until it becomes a habit.
3. MAKE A HABIT OUT OF THINKING POSITIVE THOUGHTS
This is where checking in and catching your negative thoughts comes into play.
As a general rule, you should be gentle and encouraging with yourself. Your self-talk should be supportive.
Think about all the things that you would like to hear about yourself, such as: “you are so talented”, “it shows that you are working out”, or “you look so successful and happy”.
Then, make sure you are the one telling yourself these things. You don’t need validation from others, you need validation from yourself.
To do this, stop and evaluate what you’re thinking periodically during the day. If you catch yourself thinking negative thoughts, discard them, and consciously replace them with positive thoughts.
Check out exercise 3 below for tips on how to do this more effortlessly.
When you catch your thoughts, it may also help to write them down in a journal.
3.1. Exercise A: Journaling your thoughts
Example in the picture above.
Journaling will help you notice patterns in your thoughts and figure out if you spend your days focusing on the negative or the positive.
This exercise is an excellent way to learn to monitor your thoughts and choose the positive ones.
Take a notebook or open your laptop.
Divide a page into three columns, and label them from left to right: “what did I think today”, “+/-” and “turn into positive” (see the image above).
- Write down thoughts that you remember thinking during the day (you may do this every time you do the “what am I thinking” exercise below)
- Give your thoughts a + or a – (positive or negative, does it make you feel good)
- Count the + and –
- If positive, go for more of those thoughts
- If negative, write down the positive version of your negative thoughts
- Next time you catch yourself thinking a negative thought (you will start to catch them when you do this exercise often), turn it into a positive one right away.
- Track the sum of +/- every week to keep track of your progress. After a while, you should start to see more + than – signs in your journal.
It’s simple, yet effective. You don’t have to do this every day, even once a week may be enough. But the more you do this, the faster you will learn to focus on the positive.
3.2. Exercise B: Start a gratitude journal
A gratitude journal may help you focus more on the positives.
Writing down just a couple of things you are grateful for each day will help you form a habit of noticing all the good things going on in your life.
Pretty soon you will also have a journal full of things that make you feel grateful and going back to this journal might make it even easier for you to realize that things in your life are generally positive.
You don’t have to do this every day and don’t worry about how many things you come up with.
Even coming up and journaling one thing once or twice a week is enough to keep you in a state of gratitude and help you develop a positive mindset.
I recommend doing this in the morning to start the day with positive energy, but you can do it before going to bed too, or any other time that suits you.
- Think of three things in your private life that you are grateful for.
- Think of three things in your work life that you are grateful for. If you don’t have a job, think of things that might help you pursue your dream job. For example “I am grateful for all the opportunities that are open to me”.
- Think of three things in the world that you are grateful for.
Write the three things in each area in your journal.
Gratitude can have a powerful impact on your life
We’ll examine this more under the topic “change your beliefs, change your life”, but in short, in addition to the negativity bias, you also have a confirmation bias.
It means that in your mind, you are unconsciously looking for things that prove what you already know.
For example: When you focus on the positive and have a belief that good things tend to happen to you, your mind will focus your attention on things that prove this belief to be true. Therefore, you will notice more and more good things in your life.
So start practicing gratitude. Once you start to focus on things that you are grateful for, your mind will start looking and showing you even more things to be grateful for.
It’s a positive feedback loop that you want to engage yourself in.
3.3 Exercise C: What am I thinking?
Start asking yourself: what am I thinking?
Condition yourself to do this. Here are tips that will help you remember to ask this question:
- Write it on post-it notes and put them around your house.
- Write it on your bathroom mirror with a water-soluble marker
- Put an alarm on your cellphone that says: “Take a deep breath and check your thoughts”
- Schedule an event in your calendar with the title: “what am I thinking?”
- Use fridge magnets to write it on your fridge door
- Ask your friend to call and remind you
Asking this question often enough during the day will eventually form a habit.
You’ll notice that once you become aware of the thoughts you are thinking, you can consciously weed out the negative ones.
For example, when you find yourself thinking “I can’t do this”, discard that thought. Don’t give it a second thought, instead, replace it with a positive thought. Say to yourself: “I CAN do this!”.
After some time your brain will adopt this new behavior of thinking positive thoughts.
Warning! Use positive words only
Use positive words only, don’t try to cancel the negative thought.
Why? Because your subconscious mind does not differentiate between
“I am feeling down”
and
“I am not feeling down”.
It just picks up the feeling down part and tries its best to do what it thinks you want it to do: feel down.
So always replace the negative thought with a positive.
Instead of “I am feeling down” think “I feel GREAT” or “I am feeling better already”. That way you instruct your subconscious mind to focus on the positive.
4. Surround yourself with positive people
Make sure the people you spend time with the most in your life are positive and supportive.
Positive people around you will help you to focus on the positive. They will give helpful advice and feedback, whereas negative people may increase your stress level and make you doubt yourself.
As mentioned all the way back in the benefits of positive thinking:
Individuals who are surrounded by happy people are likely to become happier in the future (a fact backed by findings from the World Happiness Report).
There’s a tendency in us to unconsciously and automatically mimic the emotional expressions of others. What this means is that we actually feel the same feelings as others simply by being in their company.
Basically, we tend to “catch” other people’s emotions.
The process is often unconscious, but now that you are aware of it, you can use it to your advantage. Make an effort to be around positive people, and your thoughts will tend to focus on the positive automatically.
5. Learn to reframe your situation
Focusing on the positive is a choice you make every moment. The events around us are not positive or negative, they just are (contrary to what many philosophers argue about something being “objectively” good or bad – Our universe is governed by relativity, meaning things gain meaning only in relation to something else).
So your interpretation of your surroundings, events, and life in general can be either positive or negative depending on how you choose to frame it.
Here’s an example from my book The 3 Steps to Happiness:
Srikumar Rao, in one of his lessons about resilience and joy, put it this way:
You are driving to work, the traffic is terrible and you are in a hurry. You are stressed. Suddenly another car cuts you off, only narrowly avoiding a collision. This slows you down even further.
How do you feel?
Most likely you feel angry and start honking the horn and yelling. “Why’d you do something like that? Idiot! Learn how to drive!”
Now think about the same situation, reframed: The person who cut you off and is driving like a madman is on his way to the hospital. One of his loved ones has been seriously injured in an accident and he is worried and desperate to get to their side.
What do you think of the situation now?
Maybe you are more forgiving, willing to let him cut you off. Maybe you even feel sympathy, but you most likely do not get angry.
Same situation with two different emotional responses.
What changed?
Only the way you chose to frame the situation.
You can learn to focus on the positive by reframing the situation. Again, this comes down to being aware of your thoughts. When you catch yourself thinking a negative thought, think again – consciously.
Refer to the “what am I thinking?” Exercise for tips on how to make a habit out of it.
6. Savor Positive Moments
Remember what was said about our negativity bias?
We are wired to focus on the negative and with that wiring, we tend to remember traumatic experiences better than positive ones, insults more than praise, and make decisions more on negative data than positive data.
In other words, it takes more for positive experiences to be remembered: You need to make more of an effort to get happy moments stored in your long-term memory.
That’s why it’s very important to give extra attention to good things when they happen.
When you experience something positive that makes you happy, stop and take a moment to focus on it. Notice how it feels in your body. Notice the thoughts and emotions that dwell in your mind.
Replay the moment several times in your head. Intentionally focus on the feelings the memory evokes.
Now, the great thing is, you can do this anytime you want.
In your memory, you can go back to a moment that made you happy, replay that event in your mind, and bring all the positive emotions from that moment with you to the present.
Gratitude journaling and meditation can be a big help with this.
And you can also Check out my 15-minute happiness meditation here.
7. Practice Mindfulness
Speaking of meditation and negativity bias, it’s been studied that mindfulness increases positive judgments and reduces negativity bias.
The goal of mindfulness is to learn to be aware of your thoughts and feelings each moment, which, as we have established,
is the prerequisite for learning how to focus on the positive.
Being aware of your thoughts allows you to weed out negative thoughts and think positive thoughts instead.
There are many methods for practicing mindfulness, for example, breathing methods, guided imagery, and meditation that aim to relax the body and mind and help reduce stress.
Take a look at mindfulness and a quick mindfulness meditation here
8. Change your beliefs, change your life
Now let’s put it all together. Making a habit out of focusing on the positive, overcoming the negativity bias, and reframing your situation, comes down to what you believe.
Your beliefs about your life will largely determine what you think, say, and do, and how you react to different stimuli and situations.
Reacting and (surprisingly) making decisions are processes handled mainly by unconscious mental activity.
Studies show that the brain unconsciously prepares our decisions. Several seconds before you make a decision, the outcome can be predicted from unconscious activity in your brain.
In fact, brain activity predicts up to 7 seconds ahead of time how you are going to decide.
So navigating through your daily life is largely an unconscious activity dictated by your beliefs and habits.
If you hold negative beliefs in your mind, you are going to react and make decisions based on those unconscious beliefs.
If your beliefs about yourself and your life are positive, your unconscious brain activity will generate positive thoughts, decisions, and outcomes for you.
Change your beliefs, change your life.
Your happiness in life is belief-dependent
Your brain is a system of billions of neural pathways, arguably the most complex biological system found on planet earth.
And one of its main functions is to find meaning in the information that your senses pour into it.
As such, your brain operates as a “belief engine”. Once you have formed a belief, your brain ceaselessly focuses your attention to seek information that validates that belief.
Your brain rationalizes your beliefs by focusing your attention on things that support said beliefs.
Your brain is so invested in the beliefs that it reinforces them by looking for supporting evidence while blinding itself to anything contrary.
This process is described as “belief-dependent realism”
In other words:
What we believe determines our reality, not the other way around.
If you believe that bad things tend to happen to you, that you are “unlucky”, or believe the worst about everything, your brain will do everything in its power to show you those things in the events around you.
It focuses your attention on everything that you deem negative while ignoring the positive.
Ultimately, your ability to focus on the positive depends on your beliefs.
When you believe that positive things will happen, your brain will show you reasons to be positive and happy.
Beliefs can be tough to crack since they sit tight and your mind is constantly looking for evidence that supports your current beliefs.
But there are things you can do to change your beliefs:
8.1. Act positively, think positively, and speak positively
I stated that beliefs and habits control how you react, and while this is true, it is also true that our beliefs and habits follow our behavior.
It’s just as likely to act yourself into a new way of thinking, as to think yourself into a new way of acting.
Social psychologists tend to agree, that your thoughts, words, and actions, shape your beliefs. What you think, say, or do for long enough will eventually form into a belief.
Every thought, word, and action amplifies the underlying idea or tendency behind it. Make a conscious effort to act, think, and speak positively.
8.2. Visualize your ideal life
Your brain reacts to anything that you input. It will not distinguish between an event that you witness with your own eyes and an event that you imagine in your mind.
Imagine anything consistently, and your brain will come to accept that as truth. Use techniques such as visualization meditation to train your mind to focus on the positive and on the things that you wish to think, say, and do.
8.3. Change your perception
Your perception (point of view) shapes your life.
Your thoughts, words, and actions follow your perception – the way you look at things. Your perception, therefore, determines how you think, and how you think about things determines what you will come to believe.
Changing your perception will allow you to change your beliefs. And how do you change your perception?
By increasing your awareness.
Pause for a moment and think about your life when you were a child.
Do you believe the same things now that you did when you were a child? Of course not.
What changed? Your awareness. You learned new things and more importantly gained new experiences. Based on this new awareness you dropped your old beliefs because they were no longer serving you.
You can increase your awareness and change your perception by learning and trying out new things. For a thorough guide, Read more about perception and awareness here
8.4. Try hypnotherapy
And what I mean by hypnotherapy, is a hypnosis session aimed at changing one or some of your core beliefs. It can be a professional-guided session, or you can use self-hypnosis audio for this.
Either way, hypnosis allows you to work on your deepest beliefs and habits in an easy, safe, quick, and affordable way.
Hypnosis isn’t mind-control or manipulating you to do something against your will.
Hypnosis helps you relax into an “altered state of consciousness” (into the alpha brainwave state where your brainwaves slow down).
It helps you tune out most stimuli around you and focus your attention on the new beliefs and habits you want to create.
In a hypnotic state, you are in control of your mind
In a hypnotic state, you are in control of your mind rather than your mind controlling you, allowing you to address your subconscious mind directly.
In this state, you are able to re-write the stories you are telling yourself (your self-talk), replace negative thoughts with positive ones, and condition your mind to focus on the positive in general.
Studies confirm that hypnotherapy can change our perceptions and behavior. It can help create new habits and beliefs that will cause behavioral changes.
There are many modalities to self-hypnosis, but from my own personal experience, I can tell that hypnotherapy is a powerful tool for fixing any area of your life.
You can read about my experiences with one form of self-hypnosis here, which allowed me to heal many of the physical and psychological issues I faced some years ago.
And for more information about hypnotherapy and self-hypnosis, there’s no better place to go than the link down below.
CONCLUSION
You can learn to focus on the positive, it will just take a little time and effort.
Focusing on the positive does not mean that you must think positively and be happy 24/7. The point is to learn to think positively more often and for longer periods of time – not to neglect negative thoughts and emotions completely.
Focusing on the positive is not about what thoughts or feelings we might have, but about how we choose to frame those thoughts and feelings.
Focusing on the positive is replacing negative thoughts with positive ones.
There are 4 steps in learning to focus on the positive:
1. Catching your thoughts
Learn to notice your thoughts. Ask yourself: “what am I thinking”?
2. Identifying the negative thoughts
When you learn to catch your thoughts, the next step is to identify whether they are positive or negative. Compare your thoughts to your goals. Do your thoughts support you or hinder your efforts?
3. Replacing negative thoughts with positive ones
When you catch yourself thinking a negative thought, make a conscious effort to replace that thought with a positive one.
4. Making the previous three points a habit
Habits are made by making a conscious effort to repeat a certain thing long enough that it becomes automatic.
Use the tools and techniques in this article to your advantage, and start focusing on the positive.
Your mind’s confirmation bias makes you constantly look for things that prove what you already know.
So when you focus on the positive, even just a little bit, your mind will focus on things that prove your life to be positive. Therefore, you will notice more and more good things in your life.
Disclaimer
The entire contents of this blog are based upon the opinions of the author. It is intended for informational and educational purposes only. The information in this blog is not intended to replace a one-on-one relationship with a qualified health care professional and is not intended as medical advice. Please consult your health care professional before trying any of the products or methods based on this content. I cannot guarantee that you will be free of stress, anxiety or depression, or that you will be happy. I simply want to share with you what I have discovered during my twenty years of seeking happiness and what has worked for me may not work for you.
