Happiness is something we are all longing for. I would even say that we all need it. But achieving it can be hard sometimes because there are so many obstacles that we have to face constantly. Those are not only the problems that the world has to deal with in general but also personal ones. This can really get to us. At least for me, it is incredibly difficult to eliminate negative thoughts and just concentrate on the positive and happy ones instead. It is way easier to be doubtful. But although positivity might take slightly more effort, it is definitely worth it and here is why…
“Positivity – The practice of being or tendency to be positive or optimistic in attitude.”
(Oxford Dictionary)
This is the general definition of positivity. For me, the keyword here is attitude. Having a bad attitude can make life extremely hard or at least make you think that it is. People receive you differently when you are constantly having pessimistic thoughts. What I found is that when you are thinking less negative, more positive things will happen to you instantly… and those were probably all of the things you missed out on before because you worried about how bad it could be.
Biological background
When you are worrying about something, your body responds to it in the same way that it would to physical danger. You get an adrenaline rush and your body gets ready to either run away or fight. But you cannot escape the problem, if it is manifested in your thoughts and not standing in front of you in form of a wild animal or some other human to harm you. So the body has all of this access energy and that is when you get anxiety – you have a bodily response to your thoughts.
Even when you are worrying about hypothetical problems, your body reacts with anxiety. Your brain is not able to determine whether it is necessary or not to actually cause a stressful reaction. As soon as you have negative thoughts about something, your brain tries to save you from danger. Consequently, trying to avoid negative thoughts about hypothetical problems can help to move around some stressful situations. Why should you worry about an upcoming date or a new teacher or professor, when everything could turn out even better than before? You never know what is going to happen. So relax and if everything goes south, there is still enough time to worry about it after it actually happened.
Your time is valuable. I know that that has been said so often, that it does not have an effect on you anymore, but it is a very important thing to remember. Spend your time the way you really want to and do not waste your time worrying. Rather spend it being as happy as humanly possible!
Just try!
I do not want you to think that I find it easy to be positive in any situation. I understand that this is something that one needs to work on constantly – I personally have to work on that every day. And there are many situations, in which it is impossible to be completely positive and that is okay. But I think that it is very important for all of us to try. Just try smiling more, try thinking less and try having faith that everything is going to turn out fine. There will be setbacks, but that does not matter because we live and we learn. And what I have learned is that positivity always pays off in the end!
