Positive Thoughts, Positive Life

Positive Mental Attitude.  One of the most sought after, and misunderstood states of mind.

Being positive and having a positive attitude is wonderful. Life is much happier, you keep the blues at bay and you are seemingly immune to depression!

I spent many years of my life suffering from depression, and it seemed to me that being positive was just impossible. It was something that other people achieved, but not me.

"Surely nobody can really be completely positive and happy all the time?" I thought,  " Your life would  have to be perfect first, and that's not going to happen!"

Despite that, many people unhelpfully kept telling me that I needed to stop being so negative, or that I needed to be positive.  That really didn't help much, because not one of them told me how!

I think they were just saying it because it's such a buzz-word. Most of them were pretty negative people themselves. The words pot, kettle and black sprang to mind - in no particular order...

I've always been fascinated by the human mind, and it's mysterious workings.  In my early twenties I was diagnosed with depression, and in the following years I made it my mission to find out exactly what caused it, and what could be done.

I simply couldn't accept the doctor's spiel about it being " a chemical unbalance", there had to be more to it than that. And so my journey began.

I read books about depression, mental illness, psychology, families (and how to survive them) and bit by bit I finally started to get it.

Depression may show up as an imbalance in the brain, but it's your thoughts that cause the imbalance  in the first place.

This ties in perfectly with the Law of Attraction - Thoughts Become Things. Yes they most certainly do! Negative thoughts become a chemical imbalance in the brain and become depression!

Change your thoughts, and you change your state of mind.

Beautifully simple, but not so easy to achieve.

It felt like a chicken & egg situation. How do I stop being depressed? By having positive thoughts. But I'm depressed because I don't have many positive thoughts so how do I suddenly start having them?!

Well, it's like this.  Sometimes you have to fake it until you make it.

Over  a period of years, I have retrained my brain.   

A real light-bulb moment came when I discovered this  second truth:

Your thoughts are not you. They're just thoughts!

Just because a negative thought crosses your mind, you don't have to agree with it. Your thoughts shouldn't  control you, that's like the tail wagging the dog!

For instance, you might drop a cup of tea on the carpet, and your mind goes "I'm such an idiot", well guess what. You're not an idiot and you can stop those negative thoughts.

Many of the thoughts we have, happen without us really thinking about them. (Read that again, yes thoughts without thinking!) and by that I mean they run on auto-pilot.

You drop something - auto thought kicks in with "You're an idiot!"

You get dumped by your boyfriend - auto thought kicks in with "I'm such a loser, who would possibly want me now?"

You fail an exam - auto thought kicks in with "I'll never amount to anything!"

And so on, and so on, and so on until you feel terrible about yourself.

Did you ever stop to think where these thoughts were coming from?

I'll tell you. They come from programming in your brain that you've picked up during your life. It will have started at childhood, and has probably continued for your whole life.

Your brain has hard wired itself to automatically produce thoughts in response to situations. That doesn't mean that those thoughts are yours, or that they're even any good for you. It's just what your brain has learned from influential people and situations in your life. That Is All.

Chances are you don't like or even agree with the thoughts, but because they're in your head, you think they're yours!

I suggest that you start to monitor your thoughts, and if you find yourself having one you don't like, throw it out and think a new one that you do.

It takes a little effort and practise, but I desperately wanted to knock depression on the head, so I persevered with it.

Positive affirmations are brilliant for this. Regular repetition of positive statements will eventually  rewire the brain, even if you don't believe them at first.

I'll start you off. Say aloud the following:

I am a loveable person. I deserve to be happy.

I am happy and relaxed.

I love myself.

If you don't believe these as you're saying them,  or you can't bring yourself to say them at all, you definitely need them!

All in all, I've learned that being positive doesn't mean that you're always happy or that everything is always perfect in your life.

It just means that you've taken control of your mind and your thoughts, and you're able to stay in a positive mind set, and stay happy and at peace within yourself, no matter what life throws at you.

I waved goodbye to depression a few years ago, and I won't be going there again. I am no longer plagued by thoughts that beat me up and make me feel bad. If one pops into my head, I just kick it into touch, and replace it with a better one.

 I am in control, I choose my thoughts and guess what - I choose good ones!

And so can YOU.