I want you to hold a string with a pencil tied to the end of it in your hand. Now, for the next minute, do not spin the string, but I continuously tell yourself, "Rotate string clockwise. Spin it around." Hopefully after this exercise, you noticed how hard it was to actually stop yourself from attempting to move the string in a circular pattern. Even though you knew prior to the exercise that you were not going to move the string, your brain kept telling you to do so, tricking your body into trying to betray the stillness.
This simple exercise proves how the mind is one of the most complex and powerful organs in our body. The thoughts you allow to enter your mind can completely alter a situation and subsequently, its outcome. What if we could increase our chances of experiencing positive outcomes in various situations in our everyday lives? How can we attempt to do that? It all starts with positive thinking.
Realistically, no one can ever be 100% joyous and cheerful all the time. It is okay- in fact, it is very normal and important that we all experience some sadness and feelings of discomfort/ anger in our lives. No one is telling you to embrace a 20 minute delayed NYC subway with a large smile on your face. But when these pessimistic feelings begin to take over our everyday lives, they begin to harm not only ourselves and our mental well being, but it affects the people around us. Negativity is not tangible, however, it is strongly felt in the atmosphere and feeds off of people exponentially fast. It is contagious and in order to avoid it "spreading", all we have to do is create a more positive environment for ourselves.
In essence, every person literally has the power to change the way they perceive their respective realities. Every thought that registers through your head is a choice you make- what we need to do is make better, more conscious decisions as to how we choose to think and evaluate certain issues. For example, if you go into a Monday with a pessimistic attitude, there is a high chance that the rest of the day will follow with internal reprimands, wishing that you had done x, y, and z differently (maybe that means getting to bed earlier, or, if you are a student, finishing your homework the night before) to somehow make your Monday a little more manageable. Starting the day off with this attitude allows your brain to begin to think of all the other things that will consequently go wrong throughout the course of your day.
Either way, the situation is unpleasant- but thinking more upsetting thoughts only reiterates a negative perspective and creates scenarios that unnecessarily add more stress. These ugly thoughts transition into a vicious cycle of more pessimistic remarks, which in turn perpetuate a "predetermined" negativity for the rest of the day, causing irritability and discouragement.
As we keep thinking these upsetting thoughts, we trick ourselves into believing they are true, only making the situation worse. We dig ourselves deeper into this black hole of negativity instead of attempting to create a more positive experience out of the situation. One may ask how we can redeem ourselves from this slump and already deeply dug-out hole- just like quicksand, the more negative thoughts you produce, the harder it is to climb out from them.
It is important to understand that the power lays within us- we have the ability to change the course of our thoughts and for every negative idea that pops into ours mind, we must counteract it with another happy one. Similar to the exercise I mentioned previously, if we train our mind to think happy thoughts, although we cannot necessarily turn the pessimism into complete positivity, we can learn to make the experience less negative and only better ourselves in the process. Why dwell on the distress when we have the capability to make our situation less upsetting?
This connects to one of Thoreau's most famous quotes, in which he says, "I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavor." What we must seek to do every day is train our minds to think better, happier, and more fulfilling thoughts. The more we think, the more we will do. What we perceive as our truth is one of the most crucial aspects in life and defines our character/ who we want to be as a person.
Of course, negativity comes in all shapes in sizes, and what one defines as a unfortunate situation varies. Even though athletes, for example, are faced with physical challenges every day, this doesn't mean that missing their bus or spilling a bit of coffee on themselves by accident isn't annoying or a challenge as well. But the negativity, whether it be self doubt, laziness, or just pure resentment towards a task that must be completed (i.e: a million hours of homework that is assigned per night) is so much easier to foster than positivity- this is why we must try to actively be aware of the impact of our thoughts and make the change to think in a more positive, self assuring way.
"This too shall pass." "If I do this, I will be this much stronger." Break the obstacles down for yourself in little, manageable chunks. Attack them one at a time. Focus on the end goal, whether it be performing well on an exam, or repairing a friendship. It's hard to find reward in challenges when negativity encompasses us- it holds us back and tells us that we can't, when all we need is for our mind to tell us that indeed, we can.
For more information on how you can lead a more positive life, check out "Positivity" by Barbara Fredrickson.
