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5 Daily Disciplines that Reprogram Your Mind to Stay Positive
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Did you know there are simple ways you can override default negative thoughts, essentially hypnotizing your mind to think positive?
There is no getting around the fact that negativity is all around us, and this has a significant impact on your mind. In fact, the brain is innately programmed with a “negativity bias” – the tendency for your brain to be more sensitive to unpleasant stimuli.
Scientists believe the tendency to react more strongly to negative input had a good reason – our distant ancestors had to constantly deal with danger; thus their survival relied on being able to detect and avoid dangerous situations. In short, the bias has evolutionary roots.
Then, there is the incomprehensible complexity of the human mind, with approximately 100 trillion neural connections. This unfathomable number of synapses explains our complex way of thinking. It also explains why we have negative thoughts that replay themselves over and over without us understanding why.
The good news is that you can control what your mind produces. While you may never be able to completely rid your brain of negative thoughts, you can drastically reduce them. With some patience and the willingness to discipline yourself, you can indeed reprogram your mind to stay positive.
Here are 5 daily disciplines that will help you reprogram your mind to positive…
1. Keep a gratitude journal
Research has shown that practicing gratitude regularly makes your brain healthier and happier. Some of the benefits of being grateful include more motivation, better sleep, and a better mood throughout the day.
One gratitude study involved assigning a group of young adults to keep a daily journal of things that they were grateful for. The other group was instructed to keep a daily journal of things that annoyed them or reasons why they were better off than other people. The group that kept the gratitude journal demonstrated greater increases in attention, determination, energy and enthusiasm.
This study demonstrated three important takeaways: (1) gratitude has great psychological benefits, (2) thinking that you are “better off” than another person is not gratitude, and (3) true appreciation is an important aspect of being grateful.
Gratitude is not a comparative practice. It is honing in on the positive aspects of your life that makes you more appreciative.
2. Repeat positive affirmations
In numerous studies, positive affirmations have been shown to effectively change the way that the brain is wired. This rewiring changes the way in which the brain filters incoming stimuli, effectively resulting in a more positive mood.
Dr. Mona Lisa Schultz, neuroscientist and author of various books on the subject of affirmations and the brain, explains:
“We can rewire the patterns in our brain with cognitive behavior therapy or affirmations. Affirmations change the way our brains are wired and the brain lights up differently. So it’s not just this flow, woo-woo stuff…(affirmations) have a bio-chemical, neuro-chemical, and neuropharmalogical affects just as effective, if not more effective, than Prozac, Zoloft, or whatever else you have.”
Here’s a quick 4-step method to create positive affirmations:
– Take some alone time to think about areas of your life you’d like to improve or how you’d like your life to be.
– Write down a list of the most important improvements that you’d like to make.
– Write down a few positive statements for each item on your list. Write them in the present tense, and make sure you focus on what you do want, not what you don’t.
– Post these affirmations around your home and read them frequently.
Source: http://truthisscary.com/2015/02/5-daily-disciplines-that-reprogram-your-mind-to-stay-positive/
