What Is The
Power Of Positive
Thinking?

What Is The Power Of Positive Thinking?

Does It Really Work?

The Power Of Negativity

Have you ever met someone really negative? You know, the sort of person that people really just want to keep away from because they make you feel bad and unhappy being near them.

It seems that whatever we dwell on can become a self-fulfilling prophecy - Good or bad, so I decided to take a look at the power of positive thinking and see what the science says about biohacking a positive mindset and if it really can work.

Mind control

To a degree, you could literally call it mind control but the reality is pretty simple, the cognizant actions you take to think in a way that is conducive to good mental health can absolutely change your whole life.

Boosting Your Happiness

A Biohacked Mindset

What Is The Power Of Positive Thinking About Then?

Let's Get Real

Your reality

Positive thinking is about making a conscious effort to be happy, in a good mood, and moving forward with an affirmative mindset.

The idea behind this is that in many ways we do create our own realities (the psychology of that is below) and this notion we have of ourselves and the world around us often is confirmed by our own bias.

In other words, we kinda see what we want to see, at least in many ways.

One of the fundamentals of what biohacking is all about is changing ourselves to optimize our life and lead a better, happier lifestyle. Positive psychological actions can work wonders when done correctly.

What Is Positive Thinking About?

Making A Conscious Choice To Be Happy

By making a conscious effort to see the good in life and to remain positive, you create an environment to deal with negative situations in a manner that is not only more healthy but also more constructive.

If you wake up in the morning convinced today is going to be a great day, then you may see every little gratifying thing as a positive reinforcement of your idea about the day, confirming it and making it better.

What Is Positive Thinking About? Happiness
Many people make a pretty solid argument the secret of life is happiness, after all, what is better than happiness to a sentient being?

Being positive about things creates an affirmative feedback loop. The more you attempt to see the good in your day, the more this is affirmed in the good things you see, creating a cycle of positivity that may increase your happiness.

What Is Positive Thinking About? Improved Health
When you look at your life through a positive lens, you may find yourself aiming to set goals and really achieve things in order to make yourself happy.

You may find yourself looking to get in better shape or to eat healthier or maybe you'll just take a more healthy, wholesome approach to food.

Many positive people improve their diet choices as they meet goals, and find themselves accomplishing these sorts of task with greater ease as they remove the sort of negativity that held them back.

Psychology Of Positive Thinking & Optimism

What Studies Show Us

Your mind and attitude

Psychology is the study of the human mind and this pertains to its role in behavior too.

By understanding the role we play in our own psychological traits, we can further manipulate things that are almost unconscious to us.

How does positivity affect human psychology?
Optimism affects your actions, reactions, relationships, and even your health.

Pessimism does the same thing.

A lot of this revolves around cognitive bias which is the process of ostensibly making decisions based on your subjective reality. In other words, you might fashion your perception to fit your world view and this can quite clearly be used to your advantage if you're positive and very much to your detriment if you are negative.

Positive psychology
A relatively recent branch of psychology has been something called positive psychology which aims to look at how positivity affects experiences, individual traits in people, and the very systemic environments we habituate.

A look at the Penn State positive psychology center page describes the goal of understanding the relationship between positivity and people, and their communities. (1)

It all makes for an interesting idea that the way we think affects us and our environment. There's nothing really controversial there, sure, but the fact that we kind of know this and don't implement it well, means there are definitely grounds to study and focus on this idea.

Optimism's role in health & happiness
Optimists benefit from some wonderful attributes that play a role in maintaining a healthy and happy lifestyle.

Someone with an optimistic worldview is more likely to look a the bright side of a situation that has a huge flow-on effect because a single day can have several circumstances of adversity and how you deal with weeks or months of day-in and day-out problems affects your mental health.

Better mental health outcomes
Positive people have a reduced risk of suicide as their mental health faces problems much stronger than someone who too readily sees the negativity in a given circumstance. (2)

Many of these same studies that show the effects of optimism on mental health being beneficial display similar results in relation to physical health as positive people are more likely to keep fit and eat healthily.

Positivity can play a role in promoting anti-aging and longevity with people who take positive mental steps potentially having a long lifespan

Keeping fit and eating good, healthy food also has a great effect on mental health, meaning this is a positive cycle.

What Is Negative Thinking?

Mental Malady

Getting nowhere

Complaining about a problem doesn't make it go away. Negative thinking is a habit that's easy to get stuck in if there's no conscious effort made to escape.

It's really quite easy to complain and that's not always a bad thing as there are often very real situations in life that require a resolution that can only occur if a complaint is made, but this isn't the type of negativity we're talking about.

A negative thinker is pretty easy to spot, and the chances are you most likely know someone who takes every opportunity to see the bad in things.

The dangers of pessimism
Just as optimism increases good mental and physical health, pessimism can have the opposite effect. After all, why would a pessimist go to the gym or eat right when "you're just going to get old and fat anyway"? You can see the problem here.

A negative attitude can make an individual ignore good things as they simply dwell on the bad. This makes them difficult to be around and at times insufferable. Anyone with a large family may experience family dinners where someone like that is present.

The malignancy of negativity
One of the real problems with negativity is its ability to spread and change the mood of whatever environment it is allowed to infiltrate. This is why optimistic thinking requires more effort than pessimism.

There are no doubt sayings like "misery loves company", come from experience and if you get trapped around miserable, negative people it can affect YOU.

There are theories that we become more like the people we spend the most time with. If this is really true, then knowing the relationship between optimism and mental and physical health means negative people can be harmful to your health.

How To Stop Negative Thinking

Actionable Steps

Taking the reigns

It's really a pattern of behavior and like anything, it needs to become a new pattern. If you are the sort of person who dwells on every little problem, seeks out drama, creates drama, or just enjoys conflict, then you may have a long way to go, but the optimistic thing to note here is that it can happen.

People really can change. According to neuroscience, our brain can not only change its level of acuity (neuroplasticity) it can be coached into new behavior and attitudes. (3)

In biohacking circles, we talk a lot about neuroplasticity because it's exciting to know that you can develop your brain at any age. Biohacks can legitimately make you smarter, sharper, and even help with your mindset/attitude.

Changing patterns
The key here is behavioral patterns. We become very much what we act like.
Eliminating negative thinking begins as a conscious effort, where being cognizant of pessimistic behavior allows a person to avoid that behavior.

After a while, this becomes a habit, and once this happens, it's a genuine change in personality that can have immensely beneficial results.

Patience, persistence, productivity
It can take some time to go from a negative pessimist to a worldly optimist, but the rewarding benefits are well worth the effort.

With a little effort, a given mindset can be changed considerably. It really can happen.

How To Be Positive

Actionable Steps

Creating the RIGHT habits

The very same habitual behavior that can help to eliminate negative traits can be employed to become a more positive and happier person. That's actually very encouraging. This idea is that if we're the product of our behavioral patterns then switching behaviors could hold an important key to biohacking our minds.

Self-Evaluation
People can become so busy in life in their daily routines that existentialism and self-reflection are a distant memory of something they used to do. At this point in time, a person has developed into who they are, but not necessarily who they want to be.

Evaluating oneself requires an honest, objective look at whom a person has become and if that person is exactly what an individual hoped to be.

Choices
This isn't about whether you become a rock star or a billionaire, it's about whether or not your attitude and the way you treat people and behave is what you want for yourself.

Once someone makes the discernable choice to employ positive thinking, they can then create a pattern of behavior that will reinforce their optimism.

Rose-colored lenses
When someone looks favorably at something, people sometimes use the phrase "rose-colored lenses" to describe their attitude toward whatever or whomever it was they were looking so favorably at.

Optimism is a bit like that.

If you want to know how to be positive, you need to employ rose-colored lenses a little more often, but in a general sense - You need to go looking.

Conscious control
You have to make an effort to conscientiously find things to be happy. This means a person needs to become more reflective on the positive things in their life and be on the lookout for everything that makes them happy.
Celebrating small victories, enjoying little things.

When you appreciate the things that make you happy, you can not only enjoy them more, but you can be in a better mood that lets you discover new experiences, people, and things to enjoy.

It's all about the positive cycle and after all, happy people live longer. (4)

Positive Thinking Tips

What You Can Do

Positive Thinking Tips
These positive thinking tips can help you to build a framework around so you can see the things that make you happy and learn to value things you may not already appreciate.

1. Look at all the great things in your life.
By appreciating what we have, we can instantly find positives, and being that this is what we're trying to reinforce, having gratitude for things that make us happy is a great start.

One of the things I talk about (a lot) in biohacking is keeping a gratitude journal. Taking regular action to dwell on positive thoughts is extremely powerful. It's also super easy for anyone to do.

2. Value people
The people you love, the people that help you, the people that make a positive impact on your life are worthy of your time and that makes them valuable.

Human beings are wired to connect with each other. It makes our lives more fulfilling and is beneficial to all areas of our lives. (5)
Value this and think positively about how good these people in your life make you feel.

3. Look Forward To Little Things
A Hawaiian vacation is nice, but to most people, it's not a daily thing to reflect upon.

Little things are little victories. Look to something small to be positive about. It might be tonight's dinner or it may be your favorite show on TV. It could be anything, just think about it and focus on it.

Two or three things in the process of a day can make a huge difference to how we act and looking forward to something can create optimism and happiness.

4. Rest, Relax, & Recover
Enjoy your downtime, however much that may be. If you have an hour to yourself and you have the opportunity to read a book or take a bath, enjoy it and relish how wonderful it is.

Get adequate rest. Your sleep affects your hormones, attitude, and health. It's much easier to be positive when you know how to get to sleep than it is when you wake up feeling like a truck hit you.

Rest when you can and relax.

5. Be Generous
When you're generous, you make the world a better place and you feel better about your existence in it.
Science has shown that generosity has huge positive effects and that it's actually kind of contagious too. (6)

Give what you can whether it's time or money. Volunteer work is a great way to meet good people who are like-minded.

By employing these powerful positive thinking tips you make yourself more aware of the things in your life that can make you optimistic and happy.

6. Lower Your Stress Levels

It's a lot easier to be positive, feel good, and have a peachy outlook when you have no stress but that's just not realistic. Life can be very stressful, so, finding a way to manage your stress (especially using anti-stress biohacks) can be a huge boon in helping you harness the power of positive thinking.

What Is The Power Of Positive Thinking?

Summary

Recap

In the section "what is positive thinking about", we discovered the benefits of making a conscientious effort to remain optimistic and learned how this has a very real effect on mental and physical health.

We talked about how to stop negative thinking by creating a behavioral pattern that according to neuroscience, can be developed into a beneficial habit.

Optimism
There was a segment on how to be positive that showed that the benefits of optimism may actually include a longer life and we discussed some positive thinking tips that can help to harness the power of positive thinking.

Mind biohacks

The importance of just how much you can control your mind and exactly how beneficial doing so, can not be understated here. Small daily actions can turn into measurable results if you are diligent enough.

I really hope you enjoyed the article "What Is The Power Of Positive Thinking? ", please feel free to discuss the article and leave a comment further down below.

What Is The Power Of Positive Thinking?

Conclusion

The final verdict

The way you think matters. It's clear that it can affect your happiness, your health, and maybe even your wealth.

There is no doubt negative people are off-putting and at times downright odious. At some point, it's very healthy to take a really deep inward look to see which type of person we really are.

Are you positive or negative?

Now that's it's firmly established (with scientific studies, no less) that you can benefit from taking steps to be more positive and harness the power of positive thinking, the real question is, what are you going to do to make your life better?

Last word

Like anything worthwhile, thinking positively with an optimistic mindset requires effort.

I think the answer to the question (what is the power of positive thinking) is pretty simple - It's the ability to make your life significantly better by having a more positive attitude. A heartening thought, indeed.

Disclaimer:

The information contained in this article is offered for informational purposes only. This information is not intended for the purpose of diagnosing or treating ailments and should you wish to seek such advice, please contact an appropriate medical professional.