Happiness is a Choice – The Miracle of Positive Thinking

How do you talk to yourself?
“I’m an idiot, I should’ve just kept my mouth shut.”
“I don’t think I can do this. I should get out of it while I can.”
“You gave it your best shot. That’s all that matters.”
“Everybody likes her. Why can’t I be more like her?”
“God! I am absolutely useless.”
“It’s okay. Take a deep breath. You’ll be fine.”

Does any of this sound familiar?
We all talk to ourselves, and half the time we don’t even realize what we’re saying. Sometimes we’re kind. We cheer ourselves on and dive deep within our wellspring of confidence to keep us going. But most of the time, we’re unduly harsh and unforgiving towards ourselves. We severely scrutinize our mistakes and don’t hold back criticism.
Doesn’t that seem unfair and unnecessarily harsh as this negative self-talk could end up sabotaging your happiness?

Believe it or not, the way we speak to ourselves makes a big impact on our happiness. And when our negative self-talk outweighs the positive things we say to ourselves, it will adversely affect how we feel about ourselves.
Remember, happiness is a choice. Our ability to make this choice depends on how we think, which in turn affects how we talk to ourselves and finally how we feel.

Confusing? Here, let me break it down for you:
Positive Thoughts → Positive Self-Talk → Happiness → More Positive Thoughts
And the circle of positivity goes on and on and on...

How Do We Practice Positive Thinking?

Now, most of us believe that positive thinking is the absence of negative thoughts. Quite surprisingly, that’s not the case. In trying to be positive, you don’t shut out feelings of sadness, anger, or frustration. You accept it, acknowledge it, process it, and then muster the hope to keep yourself going. Embracing reality without losing hope is the essence of positive thinking.

Here’s a quick exercise: Imagine you have to stand in front of a room full of people and say three things you love about yourself. How would that make you feel? Uncomfortable? Nervous? Queasy?
If yes, it probably means you’re not treating yourself right. And if you can’t think of three nice things to say about yourself, you’re probably not talking to yourself positively enough. Feed yourself a little bit of encouragement and compassion every day, and you’ll flourish both on the inside and outside. Withhold kindness from yourself, and your soul will become unhappy and lifeless.

The Benefits of Positive Thinking

Need a little more convincing?
Many scientific studies have suggested that being optimistic significantly lowered the risk of the participants dying from heart disease, certain types of cancer, infection, and respiratory diseases. Unbelievable, right? It gets better. These are not the only proven benefits of having a positive mindset! Other benefits include faster recovery from injury and illnesses, fewer colds, lower rates of depression, better stress management and coping skills, a better quality of life, plus higher energy levels.

You may not be able to wish away all of your problems with positive thinking. What it will do is make your problems seem more manageable and help you approach them in a better frame of mind.

I’ll leave you with an anecdote that perfectly illustrates the power of positive thinking:
“Two frogs fell into a deep dried-out well. Both tried desperately to jump out of the well but alas! They did not succeed. The news of this accident swept across the forest, and soon a lot of other animals began gathering around the well. The animals felt sorry for the frogs and, seeing that there was no way to save them, they began telling the frogs to stop jumping and be at peace with their destiny.
One of the frogs gave up hope and silently took his own life by hitting the wall. However, the other frog kept on trying. After a thousand failed attempts, he finally jumped high enough to escape from the well! The other animals could not believe it and asked him how he was able to make the seemingly impossible jump. But the frog did not answer them.
It turned out that the frog was deaf! He presumed that the animals were cheering him on from the gestures they were making! That fueled his optimism enough that he made the jump in the end.”
Moral of the story: When life tries to bring you down, jump as high as you can! :-)