11 ways to make your thinking more positive

There’s no doubt that happy people think about the word in a different way.

There’s no doubt you can increase your chances of enjoying happiness if you think more helpful, realistic and positive thoughts.

So if you want more happiness, and if you’d like to think more positively, then check out these 11 great tips…

via Psychology Today by Tchiki Davis

When you harness the power of positivity, its amazing the impact it has on your life. It makes every moment worth experiencing and every goal worth shooting for. By thinking positive, you just can’t help but be optimistic, even when everyone around you is miserable. As a result, you are happier, less depressed, and more satisfied with your life. The benefits of positive thinking are vast. So how do you train your brain to think positive?

1. Ask yourself, “Do I think positively?”

Not sure whether you’re a negative nelly? Take this well-being quiz(link is external), which not only gives you a score on “positivity”, it can help you identify the other skills that can most help you improve your happiness and well-being. If you’re someone who needs to work on your positivity, keep reading.

2. Strengthen your memory for positive information.

Did you know that you may be able to increase your positivity just by memorizing lists of positive words? That’s right. It’s because when you force your brain to use positive words frequently, you make these words (and their basic meaning) more accessible, more connected, and more easily activated in your brain. So when go to retrieve a word or idea from your memory, positive ones can come to the top more easily.

Not sure which words are positive? Psychologists have painstakingly measured thousands of words(link is external) to determine how positive and negative they are. I’ve compiled only the most positive of the positive words into a positive word workbook for adults(link is external), and a positive word workbook for kids(link is external). If you’re struggling to think positive, try this strategy first. It can help develop your brain in ways that may make the other positive thinking strategies easier to implement.

3. Strengthen your brain’s ability to work with positive information.

Once your brain has built strong neural networks for positive words, try to extend these networks by asking your brain to use positive information in new ways. For example, you could memorize positive words and set an alarm that reminds you to recall these words, in reverse order, an hour later.

Or, you could print out these words on cards(link is external), cut them into 2 pieces, shuffle them all together and then find each card’s match. For example, the word “laughter” would be cut into “laug” and “hter”. To match the word pieces, your brain has to search through lots of positive information to find what it’s looking for. This positive memory recall task may make it easier when you try to think positive…

…keep reading the full & original article HERE