50 plus Check-In 15th-18th January 2024
Greetings! community, we are back with an another Check-In
Three studies in peer reviewed journals found that positive thinking is good for the immune system, reduces anxiety, and increases positive emotions such as happiness. Positive thinking has been shown to be particularly beneficial when we are going ‘through the wire.’ When our lives feels completely out of control, this powerful habit can set into motion a chain of events over which we have complete and total control. For example, positive thinking triggers positive emotions such as joy, interest, contentment, pride, and love, better strategies to manage emotional well being.
Feel Free to Answer The Question Below-:
Q.What methods have you been using to maintain a positive mindset and emotional well-being in your daily life?
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@AutisticYouth
I really just want to say that I am so grateful to somehow be an optimist. I think I must have always been an optimist. I didn't realize it so much until I got older and realized that I simply view my predicaments as challenges that I'll get through and learn something in the end.
So I guess, the answer to the question: What do I use to maintain a positive mindset?
I know that I can somehow have the ability to turn everything, even challenges and struggles, into an experience that will give me insights that I might not otherwise have had. It's not fun, but there's no way around it, just gotta keep going through it and try to keep my chin above water.
I haven't made any conscious effort to have positive thinking. I hadn't thought about anything like that. It sounds difficult to do, aside from daydreaming. I do daydream, but that seems to be nonproductive thinking - a waste of time. My daydreams can't come true, so why have them all the time? I've wasted my life daydreaming.
I just read article explaining why daydreaming is good for your brain. So that is positive!
I haven't found anything yet. What can anyone recommend that is free?
@Tangodream Here are some I find useful
- Knowing the human mind is wired to detect danger, almost obsessively so. So when the alarms start going off I question my thoughts. For example, if my thoughts say “worry about A”, I respond, “well maybe B will happen instead.”
- Gratitude. When I start to feel bad it reminds me to stay in the present and be grateful for what I have right now.
- Mindfulness meditation. It’s about developing an awareness of the body and not “thinking” through everything. There is a lot of wisdom in the body that doesn’t require discursive thinking. And we usually think about what we are worried about over and over and over again throughout the day. Taking 10 minutes to ourselves to shut off that cycle is positive.
- If I’ve recently consumed negative information (e.g. the news) it can be good to be aware that I might be ruminating on it under the surface and focus on something else.
The closest I come to "positive thinking" is trying to see the other side of whatever bad situation I happen to be in. I consider much of today's positive thinking an avoidance of reality &/or building castles in the air, tbf. Also, it can be toxic at times, such as when people go by credos such as "no bad vibes allowed" & not listening to any opinion that differs from their own because of that. I try always to come as close as I can to an objective view of this world as it is...quite often, that doesn't leave much room for optimism.
@slowdecline48
I hear you! Life is not only about one side and it's not healthy to see only the positive side whilst ignoring that something is not okay and that there are negative situations as well. We need to see all but I can keep my focus on the positive. In a negative situation I would focus on gratitude for example, see the things that are there for me in life or look for ways to find acceptance and possible solutions.
Positive thinking has been oversold as the tool of manifestation. Just think it and it will become true. You have to believe at least in the plausibility of what your trying to tell your brain or else your brain quite rightly will react saying 🐂💩
The problem with the positivity study cited is they don’t say how to be positive. For most of us looking in the mirror with our Pom poms and jumping up and down shouting go team me works too well. At least it didn’t for me.
But the thoughts I have do color my outlook. My strategy is to be aware of my thoughts and be grateful when I notice I’m starting to feel bad. To stay in today. To remember I’m not a good fortune teller when I start to have a fearful thoughts about the future. These my mind can believe and that’s why it works for me. I don’t typically walk around on cloud 9 beaming with positivity. But I don’t sink into despair. And I’m more productive and successful because when a challenge comes along, Im more likely to say to myself, “ok, well relax and just try step one, or guess at step one.” So positivity does result in success but it hasn’t made me rich or famous, but I’ll settle for a tad bit happier.
@FlatenedByLife
Thank you for sharing your point of view with us! Learning positive self-talk takes practice. It does not help when you tell yourself positive things and your mind tells you "I do not believe what you say", so I hear your point.
@AutisticYouth
What methods have you been using to maintain a positive mindset and emotional well-being in your daily life?
I have a self care routine which I follow daily (exercise, meditation, affirmations) and in addition to this I do things which give me fun like doing something creative. When we have time to enjoy ourselves our minds can relax very well.
I focus a lot on what I want - dreams I have that will make me happy. If that dream is what I want, and that's what makes me happy, then why am I not keeping it in front of me at all times? Why am I letting those negative thoughts interfere with what I want?
It's that old phrase, "keep your eyes on the prize."
I don't have a "vision board" - I'm not into that, but I do surround myself with things that remind me of my dream. There was a commercial I saw recently for Siggi yogurt and this woman is in the kitchen and goes to put another sticky note on the fridge that is covered with all these other notes "things to do" and whatnot. That last note is the last straw on the pile and it causes everything to fall off the fridge. Underneath all the notes was a post card of a trip she and her husband wanted to make to the Redwoods. She shows it to him and they decide to go.
It's that idea that our happiness gets buried under everything else we're doing and we have to remember to always keep it on top.
Anyway, that's one of the things I'm doing. :)
@thoughtfulmomma
Thank you for this reminder to always keep our happiness on top and not let it get buried!
I'm interested to know what these studies were, in order to determine what they define as positive thinking, in order to replicate it for myself.
