The fourth week of “Let’s Eliminate Negative Thinking” brings us to Faking Positive Thinking.  A special thanks to Simone Blum who helped me decide on a slightly lighter topic for this week. She is a great person to follow on Twitter.

The past two weeks were some of the consequences of negative thinking. The making poor choices, falling into or back into addictions, and suicide are serious problems that negative thinking can bring.

You must make choices that better for you. Making changes for the world is too big. Think positive and light up YOUR WORLD.  But if you think about the people in your world, your family (not necessarily by blood), your friends, your acquaintances and the people whose lives you touch unknown by you, that IS YOUR WORLD.

By thinking negative, you effect not only yourself but everyone in your world. It is ripples in a pond. Ever walk down the street and someone gives you a big smile. Suddenly you find yourself smiling? Those are the ripples in the pond…. or the invisible threads of the spiderweb from last week’s blog.

It is not the big things that make or break the world, it is the small ones. You are having a bad day, everything seems to be going wrong. It is easy to drift into negative thoughts. But as difficult as it seems, that is the time to think positive. If you can’t think of anything to be positive about fake it.

Put on a friendly smile, wear it for a while. It seems the brain can not tell the difference a genuine and fake smile. Either case the brain releases endorphins, serotonin and natural painkillers which work to make you feel better. Turn on your MP3 player or favorite radio station to give your mood a further boost.

Some stresses in life are too big to stop your stress and worry with simple methods. The best solution is then to consciously distract your mind from the current situation. This can be done by watching a favorite happy movie, playing a video game, or breaking from normal routines to do something that keeps your mind active.

Changing your thoughts can give enough time or distance from a situation to either help you forget what caused the negative thoughts or help you see the more positive aspects. Either way you help your perspective and possibly help other people who’s lives you touch in big and small ways. So smile today, even if you don’t mean it. Find the flower growing in the sidewalk and rejoice in it. And “Let’s Eliminate Negative Thinking.”

Hugs,
MJ