rewire your beliefs

Beyond Positive Thinking: How to Rewire Your Beliefs

How to Positively Rewire Your Beliefs

Do you sometimes find you have difficulty maintaining a positive outlook?

If you do, don’t worry — you’re not alone. It’s not always easy to practice positive thinking, and it’s something many struggle with on a day-to-day basis.

There are plenty of things people say and do to encourage positive thinking and an optimistic mindset. See if any of the following sound familiar:

  • Look on the bright side!
  • The cup is half full.
  • Every cloud has a silver lining.
  • If life gives you lemons, make lemonade.

These sentiments, while encouraging, are pretty worn out from overuse. And sadly, when most people hear them, they’re more inclined to roll their eyes than take the suggestion seriously.

But we should take positive thinking seriously! Why? Because positive thinking can have incredible benefits for both the body and the brain.

The Healing Benefits of Positive Thinking

What are the benefits of positive thinking? Well, cultivating a more optimistic outlook doesn’t just help you find the silver lining in the storm cloud.

Practicing optimism can shift the frequency of your energetic vibration into a whole new spectrum! Not only does positive thinking encourage like states such as empathy, gratitude, joy, contentment, love, and generosity, but it can also heal your body.

Here are some of the powerful benefits of positive thinking for the body:

● Decreased anxiety
● Decreased depression
● Decreased inflammation
● Decreased chronic pain
● Improved sleep
● Improve immune system function
● Improved cognitive function

Consciously guiding our thoughts, steering them free from pessimistic assumptions and negative beliefs, can change the way we see, feel, and interpret the world.

It’s certainly a worthwhile endeavor. But — how does it work? You can’t just snap your fingers and suddenly be filled with optimism, can you?

Well, no. It doesn’t quite work like that. But there are concrete, practical steps you can take to begin shifting the balance of your thoughts to begin nurturing a more positive, optimistic outlook.

6 Ways to Positively Rewire Your Beliefs

If you’re looking for a few practical, constructive methods to help you work towards positive thinking, we’ve got you covered!

Discover which of these suggestions might work best for you. You’ll be well on your way to rewiring your beliefs in no time.

1. Start a Gratitude Journal

Gratitude journals are a fun and engaging way to begin seeing the world through a different lens.

When we actively focus on the things in our lives we’re appreciative of and thankful for, we begin to interpret our surroundings in a different way.

We begin to notice more opportunities to be thankful. We become more open to expressing our thanks. And we come to realize that while things may not be easy, we still have much to be grateful for.

2. Challenge Yourself Not to Complain

It may sound simple and straightforward enough, but don’t let this one fool you! It’s more challenging than you’d think!

We often complain to others without realizing that we’re doing it! It becomes an automatic mechanism, and we don’t understand that we’re subtly reinforcing an energy of negativity when we complain to others.

Of course, now and again, a good ol’ venting session is actually quite healthy, so long as you’re expressing your grievances to a trusted friend in a safe environment. But to engage in frequent complaints, gripes, and grumbles, we are letting ourselves sink into a counterproductive routine of negativity.

Give yourself the challenge of not complaining for one day. The exercise will help you pinpoint where and when in your daily life you’re more often likely to engage in this pesky habit.

3. Challenge Negative Scripts to Encourage Positive Thinking

One of the biggest thieves of our joy, confidence, and sense of wellbeing is the inner critic. The judge within that tells us things like:

You can’t do that.
You’re not good enough.
You’re a failure.

These negative scripts are often present at the level of our subconscious, which means they can be difficult to pinpoint and target.

The voice of dissent can be so subtle and automatic that we don’t even realize it’s happening.

Keep your senses open and see if you can identify some of the negative scripts you possess. The next step is to replace the negative self-talk with positive affirmations.

Challenge the nature of the idea behind the negative script. When broken down and analyzed with a critical, objective eye, it often falls apart.

4. Always Do Your Best

Many times, a source of negativity in our lives stems from a sense of guilt or disappointment in ourselves.

When we hold ourselves to a certain standard and then fail to meet our ideals, we judge ourselves. We perceive our worth as lesser than, and compare ourselves to others we hold in higher esteem.

There’s a clever workaround here that can help you begin to acknowledge your own efforts and enrich your experience with a sense of satisfaction and wellbeing.

Simply put: do your best. Do the best that you can do. And know that on any given day, your best may look different than it did the day before.

We can’t perform the same level of activity when we’re sick as we normally would when we are healthy. In the same way that we might not feel up to a vigorous workout on a morning in which we had a poor night’s sleep the night before.

Do the best that you can do and you can avoid any sense of self-judgment, criticism or blame. How can you do better than the best that you can do? It’s simply not possible!

So, be kind and gentle with yourself. Do what you can, and once you’ve given it your all, walk away without the burden of self-criticism or doubt.

5. See Opportunities to Grow in Difficult Situations

This is a challenging one, but a powerful practice nonetheless.

We can’t control everything that happens in our lives. In fact, a lot of what happens to us is entirely outside the realm of our control.

When difficult and uncomfortable experiences invariably arise, it can be tempting to spiral into a whirlwind of negative thoughts and pessimistic scripts.

But in every situation (yes, even the painful ones!), there is an opportunity to learn something new. This lesson may be difficult to learn, it may be distressing and troublesome to experience, but there is a lesson present and you just might be liable to miss it if you’re not paying attention.

If you’re going through something tough, why not try to find a way to benefit from it? If you’ve little choice in the matter, why not see if you can find an asset that can be gained?

Challenging yourself to find an opportunity amid difficulty will help direct your thoughts from ideas of victimhood toward a sense of empowerment.

6. Try Guided Meditations for Positive Thinking

If you’re looking for a quick and efficient way to give your positivity a boost, why not try a positive thinking meditation?

You can access guided meditations online that will take you on a small internal journey toward better health, wellness, optimism, and positivity.

If you aren’t sure where to begin, check out this meditation on positive thinking and affirmations:

Do you think any of these strategies might work for you?

Which exercise would you like to try to bring about a more positive mindset?

Tell us what you think in the comments section below!

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Article Author

Mindvalley Academy

Mindvalley Academy

Founded in 2003 by Vishen Lakhiani, Mindvalley Academy is an online school for all the things regular schooling forget to teach you. We bring you world-class courses from the world's top personal growth authors and brands to allow you to create remarkable transformations in all areas of your life. We know that you are so much more extraordinary than you were made to believe. Go beyond just having a good career - lead a life that is extraordinary in all dimensions of being human, and beyond. Learn more at Mindvalley Academy.
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