Do you feel that you are a positive person? Maybe you find it hard to keep a positive mindset? Would you say that you are quite a negative thinker? If so, there are ways that you can develop a positive attitude easily and effectively.
Maybe you’ve heard of the saying ‘half full or half empty’, well if you always say the latter, you might need to change your way of thinking. Having a positive attitude can provide many benefits and actually improve your overall well-being.
Before we discuss the ways to develop a positive attitude, let’s look at the many benefits you can experience from becoming a positive thinker.
Benefits Of Having A Positive Attitude
You may think that being positive doesn't really do much for anyone - but there are many benefits that you can experience once you develop a positive attitude. You may feel that staying positive is quite a hard thing for you to do, but these benefits should help you to see why it’s worth trying to challenge your negative thinking.
- Reduces stress. - Positive thinking helps to reduce stress and anxiety as you are less likely to dwell on stressful situation and worry about us. A positive thinker will make a plan and a solution to get the situation resolved.
- Become more resilient. - Just like how they handle stress, positive thinkers are very resilient and are able to face crisis or trauma with strength. Again, they try to provide solutions rather than give up.
- Better health. - Positive thinkers tend to see improvements in their overall well-being. Research has even shown that positive thinkers could experience increased lifespan and less depression too.
- More confidence. - When you think positively, it can help to improve your confidence and belief in yourself. This can help you to feel motivated to keep going and reach your goals.
Now that you know the benefits of having a positive attitude, let’s take a look at the ways you can develop one.
The best Ways To Build A Positive Attitude
There are many simple changes that you can make in order to develop a positive attitude. It’s not always easy to think positively, especially when you are faced with negative or difficult situations, but if you can learn some techniques to help you, it should really benefit you.
There are going to be times where you can’t stay positive for certain reasons, and that is fine, however, over time, a positive attitude could help you deal with these situations in a more effective way.
Here are 6 ways to develop a positive attitude.
1. Use A Positive Vocabulary
One small change that a lot of us could benefit from making, is to start using more positive vocabulary. If you notice that you automatically think negatively, no matter the situation, then you might be bringing yourself down - more than you are aware of.
Maybe you constantly use words such as: I can’t, I will fail, it won’t work, etc. All of these are negative phrases. Instead, try to replace your vocabulary with a positive one. Instead of those negative phrases, you could say: I will try my best, failure is just a lesson, or I will make it work.
This is just a little thing to change, but it can have the biggest impact on your mental wellbeing. If you are constantly putting yourself down, it can be hard to come back up from it and feel positive again. So recognize when you are using negative vocabulary and try to replace it with positive thinking.
2. Keep A Gratitude Journal
Having a gratitude journal can help you to highlight the positive things that are happening in your life. To express gratitude, write down things that you are thankful for in your life - this will help you to start seeing the many good things that are happening to you.
We so often focus on the negative things that are happening around us or if something has upset us that day, but we don’t tend to focus on the good stuff as much. This is why gratitude journals are so effective, they make you think of the positive things that are happening to you, and the more you think about them, the more positive you should start to feel.
Doing this exercise should help you to look out for the positives of each day, meaning that you should be developing your positive attitude. You can then begin to focus on things from a more positive perspective.
3. Quieten Your Inner Critic
Do you have an inner critic? You know, that voice in your head that might tell you that you aren’t good enough or that you might fail at something, etc. We all have one, but we don’t always have to listen to it - no matter how convincing it can be sometimes.
Try to recognize when your inner critic is appearing and challenge what is being said. For example, if you are trying to finish a project, your inner critic may tell you to ‘stop bothering, because you will just fail.’ You can recognize this and replace it with a more positive sentence, such as ‘I am going to keep going and if I fail, there will be a lesson for me so that I can improve myself next time.’
If you can understand that your inner critic is not always right and can often bring you down, you are more likely to start ignoring it and replacing the harsh words with more positive ones.
4. Stop Comparing Yourself To Others
When you compare yourself to others, you often compare people’s positive traits with your own negative traits. This is why comparing yourself to others does not help you in any way. When you compare yourself, you tend to make yourself feel worse and maybe even jealous of that person.
All comparisons do is point out what others have that you might not. It can also cause your inner critic to re-appear too, and bring you down. To develop a positive attitude, you need to stop comparing yourself to others.
Try and list the traits that you do like about yourself, and remind yourself of this if you begin to compare yourself to others. This can help you keep a positive mindset and focus on the things you do like about yourself.
5. Self-Hypnosis
The best place to start when it comes to developing a positive attitude is with the way you think. One of the best tools you can use to do this is self-hypnosis. Self-hypnosis tracks can help to rewire your subconscious and change the limiting beliefs you may have, with positive ones.
Listening to a self-hypnosis track, like our ‘Developing A Positive Attitude’ track, can help to build on the positive thoughts you have and use them to replace any negative and limiting beliefs you have. When this begins to happen, it can help you to develop a positive attitude overall.
This can also help with your self-confidence and motivation too. If you want to find out more about the ‘Developing A Positive Attitude’ hypnosis track, then click here.
6. Surround Yourself With Positive People
You may be surprised with just how much the people you surround yourself with can affect you and your overall wellbeing. Think about when you meet up with friends or walk into work and someone starts to complain about something to you, chances are you may start to join in and feel yourself slip into a negative attitude too.
When you surround yourself with people who are bringing you down, always complaining, and are generally negative to you and others, it is very likely that you will develop a negative attitude over time. This is why you should try and surround yourself with like-minded, positive people.
If you have friends that can cheer you up when you’re down and help you to look on the bright side of things (and vice versa), this can really help you to develop a positive attitude.
Develop A Positive Attitude With Self-Hypnosis
If you are ready to start developing a positive attitude that can help to improve your wellbeing, health, and stress levels, then try and practice some of these tips today. As mentioned, there are many benefits of having a positive mindset and the changes that need to be made are simple.
Although it may take some time to fully start to develop your positive attitude, self-hypnosis can help speed things up by rewiring your subconscious and replacing your limiting beliefs. To find out more about our ‘Developing A Positive Attitude’ self-hypnosis track, click here.
