How to Get Out of that Negative Thinking Habit
and
Six Simple Ways to Increase Positive Thinking

Do you find yourself thinking negatively?

• Do you find the same problems occurring time and time again in your life?
• Do you see the worst in situations?
• Do you assume the worst of others - they are just lazy or not trying hard enough?

Focusing on What is Wrong

Many people see the worst in life and focus all their time and energy on preventing things from going wrong. They are motivated only by problems. This is a very inefficient way of working. It means that you spend time again and again on the same issue when it could have been spent on achieving a new goal.

Loosing Weight

If you have ever tried to loose weight you will be familiar with the scenario; you realise you can't get into your best dinner jacket or tuxedo. Or you step on the scales and get a shock. So you focus all your effort onto loosing weight. You stop eating your favourite foods, you cut down on drinking. And after a while you have lost some weight. Then, suddenly you discover most of it has gone back on again. How did that happen?

It happened because you were focusing on what you didn't want. As soon as it disappeared, your motivation left you, so the problem returned again. (You started eating all your favourite foods again.)

Wasting Time

I remember a great deal of emphasis being put on stopping Production Workers from 'wasting time' years ago when I was a Production Manager. There were black looks and hints from Managers when they saw Production people talking and, in their minds, not working. (It was always all right for the Managers to stand around talking, of course.)

The more we focused on stopping people from wasting time, the more they would find hidden corners in which to talk. When the focus was changed to making sure the product went out on time, life became a lot easier. We stopped worrying about people wasting time talking. We worked with people to improve production systems and techniques instead of blaming people when it didn't work.

Habits

When people get into habits of behaving and thinking in these negative ways, this affects their brain, which, in turn affects the way they think and behave. This then has a negative effect on the other people they work with and so the cycle goes on. It means that they miss opportunities, they can often become very stressed and they don't achieve as much as they could.

What's happening in your brain?

Your brain filters information that it perceives. If you are in a bad mood the chances are that your right frontal lobes are activated and you are noticing mainly problems and threats. There is a good reason for this. When we were evolving thousands of years ago it was very important to notice something that was a threat to your survival. So there are ways to activate these circuits in your brain and make them especially sensitive.

When you're smiling

When you are feeling happy and cheerful it is more likely that the left frontal lobes of your brain will be activated. As a result of this you will notice opportunities and have more ideas. You will be more likely to categorise inputs as opportunities and not threats.

The way you categorise any input to your brain affects the way you think about it and the way you deal with it.

Can you change the way you categorise inputs to your brain?

Yes, you can. Try this simple experiment now.

Step 1

Sit with your legs crossed and your arms folded. Take a pen and hold in your lips - horizontally across your mouth and do not let it touch your teeth. Think of a problem you are tackling at the moment, frown and look down as you do. Spend thirty seconds or so doing this.

Step 2

Now stand up and give yourself a shake. Take the pen and hold it in your teeth without allowing your lips to touch it. Relax your shoulders. Let your arms hand loosely by your sides. Smile. Look up. Now think about that same problem.

How does the problem compare to last time you thought about it?

For most people the problem looks much easier to resolve the second time. This is just because you have changed your physiology and that has activated different parts of your brain.

Research

Recent research has shown that you can change the way your brain works. You can make it see more the positive side to life. Here are six tools to try straight away:

1. Meditation

There is a great deal of research being carried out at the moment in this area, and much that has already been done which shows that people who meditate tend to be less stressed and more positive.

2. Aerobic Exercise

This flushes out the cortisol in your body that makes you feel stressed. Stress can lead to feeling depressed. Many people feel much better after some exercise just for this reason.

3. Smile

Do this three times and your brain thinks you are happy. It produces chemicals telling you that you are happy.

4. Move around

When you are feeling negative you tend to slump your body and gather tension in your muscles. Just moving around and changing your posture will help you to feel better and to think more positively.

5. Look up

Looking down is associated with negative feelings. Looking up helps you to think of more positive things and feel more positive too.

6. Play music that makes you feel good

Music for many people is a way to access emotions very quickly, Make sure you are using it to access emotions that will help you.

Just a habit

Most of the time there is no need to get stuck in a negative rut, it's just a habit people get into without realising it. Don't wait till things are really bad. All of these tools can help you to feel better and be more effective. Make sure you encourage others to use them too.

For more on how to improve your brain have a look at my booklet:

Boost Your Brain in Your Spare Time

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