Have you ever harnessed the power of positive thinking? Some weeks are tough. Life doesn’t always flow easily. Days can be hard.
Your brain, your thought processes and your reality are all interconnected. And this is a topic that I personally feel curious about. How can you turn those days of dread into something different. How can you harness the skill of positive thinking to change your internal experiences?
Research has shown that we have between 60 000 to 70 000 thoughts per day AND 90% of these are the same thoughts that we had yesterday. We also know that these thoughts lead to the same choices, behaviours and eventually feelings EVERY time we have them. So, what does this all mean?
What if you could break these automatic cycles? What if you could actively choose to think in a way that opened up the possibility for a new behaviour, a new feeling, a new outcome? Maybe those days of dread would feel a little lighter, you might feel a little more able to conquer that hour that lay before you, you might even tackle something that you had been avoiding.
What I believe is that it cannot hurt to try to expand our thinking. It cannot hurt to talk to a friend with the intent of receiving a new way of looking at a difficulty. It cannot hurt for each of us to support each other to break the cycle that these automatic processes have in our lives.
Below I’ve listed 3 key techniques for you to try as an opportunity to harness the power of positive thinking:
1. Three good things exercise
Research suggests that thinking of and listing three good things each day can contribute to increased happiness in the short term and longer term (Seligman, Steen, Park, & Peterson, 2005).
Even better, this exercise is simple to do. Just spend a few minutes each evening reflecting on the day until you think of three good things.
2. Best possible future exercise
One study showed that imagining and writing about your best possible future increases positive emotions (Sheldon & Lyubomirsky, 2006). To do this exercise, set aside 15 minutes to write about what your best potential future could look like. Try not to focus on what could go wrong, and just think about what could go right.
3. Cognitive reappraisal exercise
Cognitive reappraisal is the act of reframing a situation to see it in a more positive light. You can practice cognitive reappraisal in a few different ways. One is to watch a movie or TV show. Practice finding the good in the difficult scenarios or think about the advice that you would give the characters to make themselves feel better.
After practicing this for a while, try to use this same strategy in your life by thinking about how difficult situations actually can have benefits or teach you important lessons (Troy, Wilhelm, Shallcross, & Mauss, 2010).
The VOUS community is not just a place for fashion. It is a place where we can all support each other to feel empowered (either by ourselves or by others). It is a place to explore how to create ease, a place to explore how to feel fabulous in your skin and a place where the small details matter.
If you haven’t joined our email list, of follow us on Instagram or Facebook already consider joining our community where we talk fashion, beauty, sustainability and empowering YOU.