When you hear the words positive thinking, what comes to mind? Do you ever wonder if positive thinking actually works or is it more like wishful thinking? Our brain has a tendency to catch the things that are going wrong instead of the things that are going right.  For example, we concentrate on the negative comments that someone might give us instead of focusing on the positive comments even if they outnumber the bad ones.  Almost like one bad comment is more important than a hundred good ones. Why is that?   

The truth is that our brain is wired to see the bad instead of the good.  We tend to ruminate about the negative things that happen day in and day out instead of highlighting the things that went right that make us feel good inside. Is it that we prefer to feel bad instead of good? No, not really. We get so many thoughts daily and it feels like a lot of them are negative. We have to be intentional and redirect our attention to the positive if we hope to feel better. We can’t control the thoughts that come our way, but we can control what happens afterwards. We can either continue the negative spiral where one negative thought leads to another one and so on. Or we can dismiss that first negative and focus our attention on something more positive. Often times, it feels like we hang on to the thoughts that worry us or cause us some type of grief. Being aware is the first step to making a change. Attitude makes a big difference when dealing with the bad things that happen in life. Like our thoughts, we can’t control everything that happens to us. However, we can control how we react to the situation. Perception can help you see things in a different light where it is helpful for you instead of detrimental.   

Positive thinking can be so helpful and be used in many situations. This will also help you become more resilient to the world. When something bad happens, your initial thought might be negative. You might start feeling kind of sad when someone says something unpleasant or disrespectful. However, what happens next is what matters. We can’t control other people; we can only control ourselves. We can’t control every situation that comes our way. However, we can use positive thinking to see the good, even when the situation looks really bad. It is important to keep yourself from going into a negative mindset that will just end up leaving you feeling even worse. Instead try asking yourself, what lesson can I learn from the situation that just happened? Or maybe you can pick a mantra like no pain lasts forever. This too will end someday, and I will feel better soon. Things have power because we allow them to have power. We can even think about the story of the two wolves, and we can make one the negative wolf and the other one the positive wolf. In a battle, which one will win? Without a doubt, the one that you feed.