How do you usually see the glass; half full or half empty? Perhaps you have asked yourself this question many times, the answer you say will be directly related to the concept of positive thinking and whether you have a more positive or negative perspective on life in general. Positive thinking plays a central role in positive psychology, a subfield dedicated to the study of what makes people happy and satisfied.

There is research that makes it clear that positive thinking can help manage stress and is even important for people’s overall health and well-being.

What is positive thinking

According to Abraham Lincoln: “Most people are only as happy as they choose to be.” And this is a great truth! But then what exactly is positive thinking? Maybe you think it means seeing the world in pink and ignoring the grayer and darker things. But in reality, positive thinking means facing life’s problems but making the most of the opportunities they give you to grow and improve. Try to see the best in other people and yourself. It is also synonymous with being resilient.

Positive thinking is usually framed in terms of explanatory style. Depending on how your explanatory style is or how you explain how things happened to you. If you tend to have an optimistic explanatory style when good things happen to you, you will attribute it to internal factors and when bad things happen, to factors external to you. You know that things that are negative are temporary and do not comprise a normal part of your life.

On the other hand, if you have a pessimistic explanatory style, you will always blame yourself for the bad things that happen to you or that happen around you and when good things happen to you, you will attribute them to things external to you but never to your worth or good work. You think that bad things are things that always happen and that last a long time.

As you will know yourself to be guilty of things that are out of your control, it will not allow you to live life as you really deserve and the worst thing is that it will have a strong impact on your mood that even in the long run, can make you enter into depression. If, on the other hand, you are a positive thinker , you will have an optimistic thought, you will live your life in a real way and you will enjoy the things that happen to you.

Health benefits

There are benefits to having positive thoughts and they are linked to living with an optimistic attitude and much more. Some of these health benefits are: longer life expectancy, living with less stress, putting depression aside, not catching a cold so often, having better coping skills, better overall physical health, better overall psychological health.

Positive thinking vs. positive psychology

While the terms positive thinking and positive psychology are sometimes used interchangeably, it is important to understand that they are not the same. Positive thinking is a way of seeing things from a positive point of view and positive psychology tries to focus on optimism and understand that there are benefits of thinking positively because it is a real thought and more in line with life.

If you think that you are not a natural optimist, there are things you can do to start thinking positively and enjoying a much healthier life in all aspects. The first thing you have to do is maintain a daily self-conversation, you can do it in the form of meditation or writing a journal in a moment of solitude and intimacy. When you pay attention to how you speak, you can begin to modify the thought and turn it into positive thinking.