One small positive thought can change your whole day!!

Positive thinking is much more than being happy or wearing an upbeat attitude. Positive thoughts create real value in your life and help you build skills that last far longer than a smile. The impact on your work, your health and your life is well beyond what you would imagine.

Negative emotions do the reverse: they narrow your mind and limit your thinking. The brain responds to them by shutting out the outside world and reducing the options you can see.

For example, when you are in a fight with someone, the anger can consume you to the point where you cannot think about anything else. Negative emotions stop your brain from seeing the other choices sitting right there.

Why small is the right size

The title says one small positive thought, and the word that matters most in it is small.

People approach this the way they approach a new gym membership - an enormous change, sustained by enthusiasm, abandoned in three weeks. Then they conclude that positive thinking does not work for them, when what actually failed was the size of the attempt.

One thought is small enough to survive a bad morning. Noticing one thing that is fine before listing what isn’t. Choosing a slightly better interpretation of one ambiguous message. Those are so minor they feel like nothing, and that is exactly why they last - nothing that small requires motivation.

Days are built out of small things. So is a mood, and so, eventually, is a temperament.

Positive thinking is not just a soft feel-good term. Yes, it is good to be happy, but those moments of happiness are also critical for opening your mind to explore and build skills that become valuable everywhere else.

To put it simply: seek joy, play often, pursue adventure. Your brain will do the rest.

Attitude in chaos

A positive attitude is not about wearing a smile at all times. It is about keeping an optimistic mindset even when things are in complete chaos. Feed your mind with positive thoughts and you will see remarkable changes around you.

A positive attitude is closely linked to happiness - and happiness is a state of mind. It comes from within and does not depend on external circumstances. When you think positively, you are in harmony.

When you develop that attitude, you start feeling better about yourself. You treat yourself with more respect and love, which builds your confidence and inner strength. You take on new challenges and start stepping outside your self-limiting beliefs.

People with a positive attitude tend to be lively, energetic and healthy. Positive thinking brings emotional balance, which helps the brain function properly. You stay focused, and as a result you make better decisions in difficult moments.

The substitution habit

When something unpleasant happens, approach it with a positive mindset and try to pull an optimistic lesson out of it.

Remember, your thoughts determine your feelings and your actions. So whenever a negative thought arrives, replace it immediately with a positive one.

That word replace is doing important work. You cannot delete a thought - trying to not think about something is a guaranteed way to think about it. What you can do is give the space to something else. Not stop worrying about this, but think about that instead. Substitution succeeds precisely where suppression always fails.

Even in a genuinely difficult stretch, a positive mindset helps you get through the phase more easily.

Resolve to be cheerful regardless of the situation. If things are not going your way, then instead of fretting, work towards your goals with a positive attitude - and you will see remarkable results before long.

-Kashish