How to Turn your Negative thoughts into Positive Opportunities and Personal Growth

Thoughts are powerful things; whatever you put your focus on will grow. Imagine that your mind is a garden. You can fill your mind with beautiful flowers or let it become overgrown and out of control with weeds. What is it to be? We can't have two opposing thoughts at the same time! If you want a flourishing garden; out must come the weeds. Positive thinking leads to a positive attitude. Maintaining a positive attitude is really a decision to be happy, it's your choice. Buddha summarized how to remain happy no matter how bad things may seem when he said, " Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn't learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn't learn a little, at least we didn't get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn't die; so, let us be thankful. Positive thinking is not easy to achieve as we are geared from a young age to think the worst of most situations. Look at the daily news headlines, its all doom and gloom. Positive thinking is something we can all profit from and we need to be reminded of this often. It might be reading a quote every morning or getting up each morning and saying,"Today I will think positively". Positive thinking is quite literally just that. Replace thinking about the things that could or have gone amiss, with the things that you have executed well or those things that have worked out as you anticipated or better. It will become an actual lifestyle that is the basis for everything that you do. Positive thinking is like a pair of eyeglasses. Having the right pair can make all the difference. There is a technique called reframing. I guess it is taking that pair of glasses off and putting on another pair. Reframing would be choosing to interpret the situation in a positive way which you would previously be looked at in a negative way. Reframing is an excellent way to break the negative attention cycle, and it helps prevent you from getting pulled into the negative downward spiral. Once it becomes a habit, the whole world and everyone in it are seen in terms of "what is right" rather than "what is wrong". It is a way of presenting old situations in another frame. It is seeing the glass half full; not half empty. This requires practice! That right its a practice! This type of thinking is incredibly powerful. You don't want to live next to an abbatoir? It could be worse, it could be an ammunitions factory run by psyco"s. It's a paradigm shift. It's looking at life and events in life in a new context. It's like looking at a painting - you can choose where to focus your attention and from there base what you will feel. Its a powerful stratagem. It changes our perceptions about the situation, and will therefore effect our actions. In fact research makes it clear that positive thinking and attitude is more important than any other factor when it comes to ensuring success. Negative emotions may suppress the immune system for up to 6 hours following the negative emotional experience. Positive thinking should be the mechanism we use to support good outcome in our lives. It will maximize positive emotions and therefore productiveness and therefore a better quality of life. Lynn Zingel is the author and editor of www.icando.co.nz. Here you will find words of encouragement, inspiration, and challenge to changewhatever you focus your mind upon.