You may have heard the saying, "life is only as good as our mindset.” This is because positive thinking is a mindset and it is a way of looking at the world around us. Our mindset is a tool that lets us focus on the bright side of things. It’s a way of using our thoughts to help us move forward rather than letting them keep us feeling trapped and discouraged. A lot of people who don’t have adequate information believe positive thinking is something we do in order to get what we want. If you have the wrong idea about what positive thinking really is, then you can end up being very disappointed and thinking that nothing ever works for you. Positive thinking is more than just "being happy" or "looking on the bright side." Positive thinking is a decision that one makes to change the outcome of a particular situation and has physical and mental benefits.
People who don’t have an adequate knowledge about positive thinking usually define the term “positive thinking” in a wrong way because there isn’t a concrete definition for the word. But, the most common and correct definition is a mental attitude that expects a positive outcome and hopes for the better in every situation while doing all the necessary work. “A positive mind anticipates happiness, joy, health and a successful outcome of every situation and action. Whatever the mind expects, it finds.”(Sasson). Positive thinking is not hoping for the best and waiting for things to happen–it’s taking action and knowing that you’re improving with every step you take. This is when positive thinking works. It's a tool you use, not a magic wand. Positive thinking does work, you just have to know what it is and how to really use it. It is all about the mindset and how you react to different circumstances.(Sasson)
If something doesn’t work exactly as you wanted, that doesn’t mean that positive thinking doesn’t work. You need to take a look and see at what worked, what didn’t and then take different actions based on what you have learned. You never know, something that is much better than what you originally planned might happen. But if you think that you have to be in the exact situation you imagined you would be in, you end up being disappointed and believing that positive thinking doesn’t work. When you do a basic algebra problem, you might do all the steps correctly and still, you might end up with the wrong answer. This doesn’t mean that you did all the steps wrong, you just have to sit back and look for the mistake you might have made during your calculation. The mistake might be a minor change in the signs of the number (Negative and positive signs). You don’t have to destroy everything that you have made or started making just be open to change and never give up. (Clear)
Positive thinking is not a new phenomenon in the world. It has an ancient history. The philosopher Epictetus in the first century said that “The thing that upsets people is not so much what happens, but what they think about what happens”. (Diaz)
The New Thought movement, which is a mind-healing movement that originated around the 19th century in the United States, is another example of the origin of positive thinking. The New Thought movement fundamental teaching was that spirit is more real and powerful than matter and that the mind has the power to heal the body. The movement was based by Christianity.(New thought 2016). After the 19th century, the idea of positive thinking was not introduced again before the depression.
In modern society, the origin of positive thinking is placed on two books, How to win friends and influence people and Think and grow rich, published after the depression in 1929 by Dale Carnegie and Napoleon Hill. Napoleon Hill interviewed five hundred successful millionaires of his time and wrote about their secrets for success in his book Law of Success. (Diaz).
Our brain is evolved to promote survival. It saves happy chemicals in our brain like Dopamine and Serotonin for opportunities to meet survival needs and it also releases these chemicals in small amounts which they are quickly metabolized. This encourages us to keep taking steps to stimulate our happy chemicals.
Positive thinking changes our brain, it changes our brain in a physical way. Neuroplasticity is a branch of science that studies how our thoughts change the structure and the way our brains function. Neuroplasticity is an idea introduced by William James in 1890. The idea was rejected by a group of scientists who disagreed about the rewiring of the human brain by the process of thoughts, they thought the brain was rigidly mapped out and certain parts of the brain controlled certain functions. Now, Neuroplasticity has a wide acceptance among scientists proving that the brain is endlessly adaptable and dynamic. The brain has the power to change its own shape in relation to the thoughts that a person is thinking about whether it is in a positive or negative way. So, the question is what do all these have to do with positive thinking? The answer is if the brain rewires itself using our thoughts, having a repetitive positive thought and positive activity can rewire our brain and strengthen brain areas that stimulate positive feelings.(Davenport)
However, Fantasizing about a wonderful, happy future may actually make depression symptoms worse, in the long run, says psychologist Gabriele Oettingen and her colleagues. The psychologists researched on college students and schoolchildren. The psychologists asked the college students to imagine they wanted a time extension for their business project to a client and they surveyed them what they will do while they are waiting for the response. The survey was conducted on February and their response for that month was positive and that indicated low depression signs, but as time went by the next month, the response from the same students had a tremendous difference from the survey conducted last month. The new survey showed the student’s response was relatively depressed and with a negative attitude. (Collins)
Positive thinking is not about ignoring negative signals. Here is a short story to illustrate this concept that I remember my teacher in Ethiopia told us once. A few years ago, there was a wildlife organization out west that offered a bounty of $5000 for captured wolves. Two friends, Sam and Jed, decided to make their fortune. Day and night, they scoured the mountains and forests looking for their valuable prey. Exhausted one night, they kept searching for many days with no luck. They fell asleep dreaming of their potential fortune. Suddenly, Sam woke up a bit startled and saw that they were surrounded by a huge pack of nearly 70 wolves with searing black eyes, and bared teeth. Low growls rumbling from their throats. He slowly reached over and nudged his friend and said "Jed, wake up. I think we're rich!"
I hope that everyone who read my paper will shift their focus to the bright side of things and witness the power of positive thinking, even in life-threatening situations.
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