Does positive thinking change the outcome of situations?

People always say to think positive regarding situations as if positive thinking will actually change the outcome of the situation. I can’t remember a time where positive thinking alone did anything for me that I know of.

Thoughts?

Yes, I do. When I was 10 years old, my mother became an invalid from Multiple Sclerosis. When I was 16 years old, I was tired and irritable and when I went to get my mother up for the day, she was sunshine and good cheer.

When I snapped at her for always being cheerful and up, she sat there for a minute and said, "I am not always up. Most of the time I don’t feel well, but to whine, bitch and complain will simply make my life and the lives of everyone around me harder, it won’t fix, change or solve anything. So, I choose to face each day with good grace to inspire those I love to go forward with what you can fix or change or solve and don’t waste time making yourself and everyone around you miserable." I believe she changed the outcome of my life by showing me how to handle difficult situations with good grace. It has served me well in my life.

Have you ever met someone who inspired nothing but positive thinking?

yes i have been into a mental hospital

before and met those guys

Is positive thinking means you lying to yourself for feel better?

Is positive thinking means you lying to yourself for feel better?

No, it means that when we’re confronted with a CHOICE about how to view or handle an idea or a situation, we choose to be optimistic about it instead of pessimistic. Sometimes it takes an effort, but it’s not a lie to dwell on the positive instead of the negative, it’s a decision.

When to ask "why", when to ask "how"? Why is "positive thinking" good for us?

Because "positive thinking" provides you the "right exit" no matter how wrong your entrance might have been.
You ask the "why" with a sort of regret and/or remorse. You ask the "how" with a little self-doubt and a little fear. But "positive thinking" lends you a "flashlight" to usher your courage through all your dark ponders.

some positive thinking techniques for exams?

What are some ways in which someone can learn positive thinking techniques?
and also, what are some positive things they can say to themselves?

You can do a process called visualization. The night before the exam (or even minutes before the exam) close your eyes and visualize yourself effortlessly answering the exam. Visualize yourself being relaxed and happy. This way, your brain will know what you desire and then it will find ways on how to make this visualized image come true.

You can also say to yourself, "I am totally resourceful while answering this exam" or "I am intelligent" or "I am confident that I will score high on this exam" etc.

Hope this helps and good luck! =D

Don’t you think world desperately needs meditation , relaxation , positive thinking ?

Otherwise people would become drug addicts , psychic patients or they would have many psycho somatic problems ?

अवश्य ही… Meditation, relaxation, positive thinking.. These are most important needs to world.. Especially for our planet.. So many tension and stressfull life we are living in our planet..

Not only people would become drugs addicts, psychic patients, & psycho somatic problems….

We have to really go into the root cause of terrorism…

The first cause of terrorism is Tension & Stress…..

Stress and tension in the minds of men and women turn into violence and that violence then comes up in life as domestic violence, societal violence, then it becomes the violence between communities and countries.

So the Meditation, Relaxation, Positive thinking and also some kind of prayers are the only way to reduce the Tension & Stress and makes the human being calm and soft…

Reframing for positive thinking?

I feel like a phony when I try to re-frame negative situations as positive. For example, when you get stuck in a bad traffic jam and try to artificially thank the stars for having provided you the "opportunity" to have these moments of f"ree thinking" time, somewhere inside your heart you just know you are fooling yourself. You are forcing yourself to see a silver lining where none exists. How do you handle this ?

You’re just not re-framing that moment very well.
You need to find better examples of why you’re lucky to be in a traffic jam.
More realistic and concrete examples, and especially possibly ones that don’t actually include the word "thinking" because thinking is what you’re already actually doing at that moment and at that moment you’re not very happy so…you’re really just telling yourself ‘oh gee great…isn’t it wonderful that I’m stuck here in this traffic jam so I can have all this "free thinking" time to….think about it.

You see, with that kind of re-framing you’re not really taking your mind ‘someplace else’.
Someplace positive.
You need to think affirmatively and less lofty, you need to think more like "Well at least I have a car to get to where I’m going because somewhere in this world hundreds…maybe even thousands of people are STUCK ON A SMELLY OLD BUS WITH FREAKS AND WEIRDOS IN A TRAFFIC JAM RIGHT NOW…and… I even have a radio to listen to while I wait…oh and the AIR CONDITIONING….I can crank my air conditioning as much as I want while I SING OUT LOUD along with a rockin’ song on the radio….lemme recline my seat back a little and relax a little more. Heh, those people on the bus would kill for this….".
Get it?
You need more concrete, real life, positive IN THE MOMENT examples and less lofty ‘well I have plenty of time to think while I’m here…..think about how much I don’t want to be here….and all the other injustices in my life….’ moments.
Surely you can see how there’s no way you would feel like you were ever fooling yourself or forcing yourself to see that silver lining in the example I’ve given because they are all concrete facts…they all really do exists. They exist for you to experience RIGHT AT THAT MOMENT so they can and will take you out of the frame of mind that you don’t want to be in.
You really do have a silver lining in that situation, just ask the people who take the bus on a good day never mind during a traffic jam.
Well, you have a legitimate silver lining if your car has a radio, working air conditioning and a drivers seat that’s not broken – lol!

You’re not trying to trick of force your brain into thinking a bad situation is good, you’ll just be pointing out facts to yourself that what ever situation you’re in it’s not as bad as you think it is at that moment, it’s empowering, and you have things you can do to feel better about it and…you’ll simultaneously be reminding yourself, sometimes subconsciously even, that you have it better than many others and if you can do this frequently and consistently enough it’s inevitable that it will become automatic, you’ll become a more relaxed, optimistic, and likable person and thus will live longer, have more friends, and more money in your pocket than someone who doesn’t re-frame properly.

Does positive thinking ever work?

I have been advised to use positive thinking to help me with my depression.
I can see how it would work, as I am afraid to go out in the world and afraid I will fail, but I am not convinced. Any thoughts on this?

Sometimes it works, sometimes it don’t. If you feel more needs to be done, don’t feel bad if it comes down to medication. After SO many years of denying my problems, I did have to get put on meds, and they actually work. Thing is, you just have to find the right doctor who will actually listen to you and not twist your words around. After I was put on the right combo of medication I am so happy that I am not scared or ashamed to be MYSELF. But if you still don’t want to go the medication route, be sure to get PLENTY of sun. The sun puts off rays of light that actually WILL cheer you up. That is why they sell "sun lamps" in certain places. I hope you feel better. Good luck!

Do you believe in the power of positive thinking & the law of attraction & what’s your Moon sign?

You know, the book called The Secret… do you love it?

I have not read the secret, but yes I believe in positive thinking and the law of attraction work. BTW who is this book written by? I am interested in reading it. Thanks!!

Does positive thinking work?

Watched the movie The Secret on Tv and yeah I believe the whole background about its history was made up however I think this was to keep it more interesting. I was just wondering if positive thinking does work because it does make sense that all successful people in life are positive in the things they do.

if you apply positive thinking and dont put much meaning to it or believe it, nothing will, happen but if you think positive and believe you are capable, smart etc, then it will become a truth for you, and you will automatically try to find ways to relate to your thoughts.

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