Why Positive Thinking is Important

Story: The Black Dot (Source: Internet)

One day, a professor entered the classroom and announced a surprise test. Hearing this, all students got anxious and started thinking about what would come up in the test. The professor distributed the question paper, with the front side facing down. After handing over the papers to all the students, he asked them to turn the page and start the test. To everyone’s surprise, there were no questions on the test paper. There was just a black dot in the center of the page. Everyone was startled and looked at the professor in awe. The professor told the students:

“I want you to write a few lines about what you see on the paper.”

All the students were stupefied but since they didn’t have a choice, they started writing the answer.

Once everyone was through with the test, the professor collected all the answer sheets and started reading out each answer aloud in front of the whole class. Without an exception, all the students had written about the black dot, mentioning its position, size etc. After reading out all the answers, the professor addressed the students and told them:

“None of you will be graded on this test. I just wanted you to ponder over something. All of you wrote about the black dot. No one wrote about the white part of the paper. The same thing happens in our lives too. We all have a white paper to observe and learn from, yet we always focus on the dark spots. We have so many reasons to celebrate – our parents, co-workers, friends, good health, a satisfactory job, a child’s smile, the miracles we witness every day, and so on.

However, we simply limit our horizons by focusing on just the dark spots – our disappointments, our frustrations, our fears and anxieties, things that bother us, people that wronged us, etc. In our day-to-day lives, we tend to take so many good things for granted and focus our energy on insignificant dot-like failures and disappointments.”

Though these dark spots are quite small compared to the good things that we have in our lives, they perturb our minds and do not let us think positively.

Take your eyes away from the black dots of your life. Try and focus on the brighter side of life and let positivity govern your thoughts.

What is Positive and Negative Thinking

In general, the mind is capable of producing two major types of thoughts: good and bad. These thoughts sendoff signals to human emotions manipulating how they should feel. Good thoughts generate good feelings while negative feelings are a product of bad or negative thoughts.

Positive thinking, or an optimistic attitude, is the practice of focusing on the good in any given situation. It can have a big impact on your physical and mental health. That doesn’t mean you ignore reality or make light of problems. It simply means you approach the good and the bad in life with the expectation that things will go well.

The baby mosquito came back after its first flying… His Dad asked him, “How did U feel ?”

He replied “It was wonderful Daddy… All humans clapped hands for me!”

Moral:- Life is too Beautiful, it depends on our way of thinking

Negative thinking is a mental attitude of anticipating the worst possible outcomes of situations, events, and circumstances. It is the ability of the mind to produce thoughts that are not deemed favourable to what the person wants. Whenever a challenge arises, a person with negative thinking pre-empts a negative outcome before it has even occurred or is being acted upon. Pessimism is synonymous with negative thinking. The act of pessimism is also a state of mind that lets the individual view life in a negative manner.

Example:

You are infected with COVID. There are two ways to deal with it. Either you can become terrorized by it and start shivering from the fear of death or there can be another option to face it boldly, see what best you can do, take it as a challenge and put your best. In one way, 10 days of isolation can make you mad or you can consider it as an opportunity to spend more time with yourself, read some book, complete some long pending work, self-analyze- why you are running so fast, is it on the right path, should you slow down your speed, etc.

What is Right? Positive or Negative Thinking

Positive thinking allows you to do everything better than negative thinking will. Negative thinking contributes to defeat, indecision, and lack of enthusiasm or passion to chase your goals.

The important truth behind it is that neither positive thinking nor negative thinking is more real or true than the other because it is all matter of perception. If you believe that either thought is true, then it will take form within your mind (think about the glass half full or empty example).

What this means is that your thoughts created your reality. That which you believe in your mind WILL manifest in your emotions, attitudes and eventually even your reality. Because it also means that we have the power to shape our reality by cultivating a powerful, healthy and positive mind. Thus, our goal each day should be to fill our minds with more positivity and happiness!

Is Positive Thinking Considered a Weakness?

Many times, it is said, we should face the reality! If something is not going in our favour, what is wrong with saying the truth? Why should we always see from the lens of positivity when things are out of control? Unless we face the harsh reality, we can never improve!

While it is true that we must face hard facts but what we are going to do next? In the majority of the cases, we spend too much time finding the faults and stating the reason, why something is not possible or difficult that we lose the mojo of challenging ourselves and finding possible solutions to come out of the problem.

Example: I was supposed to complete an article by yesterday, but I did not. I am blaming myself and feeling down. My inner dialogue sounds something like that: “I am a loser. I did not keep my word of submitting that article on time because I felt that I could not write anything original. I am not good at writing anything…”As a result of this negative language, I am not progressing further on my article and making my delay even worse.

If you start off thinking you will mess up a task, the chances are that you may not try hard enough to succeed, you won’t attract support from other people, and you may not perceive any results as good enough.

How to Change from Negative to Positive Thinking

Our brains are created in a way that the more we do something, the more we are programmed to act in that manner automatically. This is how habits and limiting thoughts are formed. We all have good days, but we also have days (or weeks or months) where negative thoughts constantly outweigh positive thoughts.

The good news is it doesn’t need to be this way. Everything is programmed into our minds we can simply reframe our mindset so that negative thoughts become positive thoughts. This is based on habits.

The possible solution is to start by catching the negative thoughts as soon as they happen. Look for negative trigger words, such as can’t, bad, ugly, or negative feelings, such as worry, anxiety, criticism or guilt.

How can you rephrase the same thought in a positive way?

Practice Mindfulness

Mindfulness is the practice of being more in touch with your thoughts, emotions and feelings at the moment. The more in touch you are with how your mind is working in the present, the easier it is to identify negative thoughts and change them to more positive ones. Meditation is one of the most powerful tools to be mindful.