we all well-meaning advice to “stay positive.” The biggest challenge, more half full glass of Pollyannaish and wisdom can appear unrealistic. It is difficult to find the motivation to focus on the positive when positivity seems nothing more than an illusion.
The real obstacle to the positive is that our brains are designed to look and to focus on the threats. This survival mechanism has served humanity when we were hunters and gatherers who live every day with the very real threat of being killed by someone or something in our immediate environment.
It was thousands of years ago. Today, this mechanism generates pessimism and negativity by the tendency of the mind to wander until it finds a threat. These “threats” magnified the perceived likelihood that things are going – and / or be – wrong. When the threat is real and hides in the bushes along the way, this mechanism works well. When the threat is imagined and you spend two months have convinced the project that is working on the flop, this mechanism leaves you with a bitter vision of reality that is wreaking havoc in your life.
Maintaining positivity is a daily challenge that requires attention and care. It must be intentional to remain positive if it will overcome the tendency of the brain to focus on the threats. It will not happen by accident. Therefore positivity is the skill that will give special attention in 2016.
Positivity and health
Pessimism is cloudy because it is bad for your health. Many studies have shown that optimists are physically and psychologically healthier than pessimists.
Martin Seligman of the University of Pennsylvania has conducted extensive research on the subject. Seligman has worked with researchers from Dartmouth and the University of Michigan in a study that followed people aged 25 to 65 years to see how their levels of pessimism or optimism influenced their overall health. The researchers found that the pessimists health deteriorated much faster than older.
Seligman’s conclusions are similar to research conducted by the Mayo Clinic found optimists have lower levels of cardiovascular disease and increased life expectancy. Although the exact mechanism by which pessimism affects health has not been identified, researchers at Yale and the University of Colorado found that pessimism is associated with a weakened immune response to tumors and infections.
Researchers at the University of Kentucky have even optimists and pessimists injected with a virus to measure their immune response. The researchers found that optimists had a much stronger immune response than pessimists.
Positivity and performance
Keeping a positive attitude is not only good for your health. Martin Seligman has also studied the relationship between positivity and performance. In a study, which measures the extent to which insurance salesmen were optimistic or pessimistic in their work. optimistic sellers sold 37 percent more policies than pessimists, who were twice as likely to leave the company during its first year of employment.
Seligman positivity studied more than anyone, and he believes in the ability to transform thoughts and pessimistic tendencies around with a simple effort and experience. But Seligman does not think. Their research shows that people can transform a tendency to pessimistic thoughts on positive thinking through simple techniques that create a lasting change in behavior time after its discovery.
Here are three things I will do this year to keep a positive attitude.
1. Made of fiction
The first step in learning to focus on the positive demands to know how to stop the negative self-talk in their tracks. Rather than ruminate negative thoughts, the more power you give them. Most of our negative thoughts are just that – thoughts, not facts.
When you find yourself thinking negative and pessimistic things said his inner voice, it’s time to stop and write. literally stop what you are doing and write what you think. Once you have taken a moment to stop the negative dynamics of his thoughts, which will be more rational and lucid in assessing its veracity. The evaluation of these statements to see if they are facts. You can bet that the statements are not true every time you see words like never, always, worse, never, etc.
You really never lose your keys? Of course not. Perhaps often forget, but most of the time do not remember you. You will find a solution to your problem? If you are really stuck, it can resist you were to ask for help. Or if it really is an insoluble problem, then why are you wasting your time to beat your head against the wall? If your statements always look to the facts once they are on paper, bring a friend or colleague, you can trust, and see if he or she agrees with you. Then the truth will surely come out.
When it feels like something always or never happens, this is just the natural tendency threatens your brain to inflate the perceived frequency or severity of an event. The identification and labeling of their asthoughts thoughts that separate the facts will help you escape the cycle of negativity and move toward a new positive outlook.
2. Identify a positive
Once the negative self-defeating thoughts is broken, it’s time to help your brain to learn what you want to focus on – the positive.
This will come naturally after a little practice, but you have to give your brain a little help wandering consciously choosing something positive to think about. Any positive thinking will refocus the attention of your brain. When things go well, and your mood is good, which is relatively easy. When things go wrong, and your mind is flooded with negative thoughts, this can be a challenge. At the moment, think about your day and identify a positive thing that has happened, no matter how. If you can not think of anything to the current day, reflect on the day or even a week earlier. Or maybe there is an exciting event, you are looking forward to what can focus on.
The point here is that you must have something positive that you are ready to shift your attention when your thoughts become negative. The first step has stripped the power of negative thoughts separating facts from fiction. The second step is to replace the negative with a positive. Once you have identified a positive thinking, draw your attention to this thought every time we are living in the negative. If this is difficult, you can repeat the process of writing negative thoughts to discredit its validity, and allow you to freely enjoy positive thoughts.
3. Cultivate an attitude of gratitude
Take time to contemplate what is grateful not only the “right” thing to do; reduces stress hormone cortisol by 23 percent. Research conducted at the University of California, Davis, found that people who have worked every day to cultivate an attitude of gratitude experienced an improvement in mood, energy, and significantly less anxiety because cortisol levels lower.
Cultivate an attitude of gratitude for taking time each day to focus on the positive. Whenever you have negative or pessimistic thoughts, using it as a signal to shift gears and think of something positive. Over time, a positive attitude will become a lifestyle.
I am aware of these three tips sound incredibly basic, but have enormous power because train your brain to have a positive orientation. break old habits, if you are forced to use them. Given the natural tendency of the mind to wander toward negative thoughts, we can all use a little help to maintain a positive attitude. They join me to put these steps to use this year, and you will reap the benefits, mental and physical performance that come with a positive mindset.