Positive Thinking, Chin Up!!

Positive Thinking, Chin Up!!

Have you ever wondered why it’s so difficult to not have negative thoughts? Why do we always seem to revert back to negative thoughts, picking holes in things? Why are the lights always RED??? I bet it’s going to rain!!! Why is it that I never win anything??

Even when things are going well we still end up thinking things are never good enough. Things are always going to get bad. Thinking how we could have done things differently or better. Or wondering why we’re never good enough or thinking when will things go wrong??  Well there’s no need to beat ourselves up over this. The fact is, if we have any positive thoughts at all it is something of a miracle. That’s because we are basically programmed to be negative. Here’s why.

First of all we have a Fight or Flight Response. This is an in-built physiological response to danger. It doesn’t even have to be a real danger. If your mind thinks there’s a problem your body reacts. It prepares you to fight or flee. A million years ago this was a very handy response, especially if there was a sabre toothed tiger chasing you.

But today, when we don’t have to run for our lives, thankfully, it’s not so helpful. Fight or flight is basically a response to focus the mind on what is not right in the environment, looking for danger.  Sadly, there is always something that is not right in our world. So we more often than not are in this heighten state of alert, which makes us think things are going to be bad.  Sat in a traffic jam can cause stress, there’s stress at work, anything that heightens the adrenalin level has the same response as fight or flight. Even imagined problems can have the same effect!! And how often do we sit and imagine situations that raise our heightened state, thinking how bad things are going to be.

Another way we’ve been programmed is during our childhood. For the most part, it isn’t done on purpose.  Our parents trained us by telling us what not to do. When we did things right they were just accepted as the norm.  So we were trained to look for the bad so that we would not do it.  So it’s no wonder we subconsciously look for the bad things.

Then we have the law of entropy. Entropy says that everything is in a state of deterioration. Leave it alone it will rot or fall to pieces. What they mean is everything is transforming into something worse. Even when things are good and going well, we are just waiting for them to change for the worst. It can’t last can it?

Lastly, we have all the negativity in society in general.  Turn on the news, it’s bad. Read the newspaper there’s bad news cover to cover or negative gossip. 

In commercials, we are too fat, too thin. We’ve never got all the things we need to make our lives happy. Buy this, you need that, otherwise you ain’t going to be happy.  Society in general seems to complain constantly about anything and everything. We can quickly become members of the ‘Ain’t-It-Awful Club’. It’s easy to join but not so easy to leave.

So what does that mean?

All these things will naturally lead us to negative thoughts, but there is no reason to hold on to them. Just let them go.  The thing to be concerned about is where do you put your focus? You can have a both positive and negative thoughts but it’s the understanding that most of the negative thoughts are in response to perceived problems and dangers and are not actually real. They are a programmed response by the mind to environmental factors. Naturally, the more positive thoughts you have the more positive you’ll feel. So try and remain positive but when the negative thoughts come as they will, just remember that you are meant to have them, but just let them pass by like clouds in the wind!!!

I hope that was helpful. If you have any questions at all on what I have talked about, definitely reach out to me in the comments of this post and I will get back to you!  Chin Up !!