Being a positive thinker can affect your life more than you realize. Practicing positive thinking may make you a healthier person.
- Lower rates of heart disease and mental illness are linked to positive thinking.
- Positive psychology is a new branch of psychology that’s about 15 years old. Specialists in positive psychology work to make normal life more fulfilling.
- Being a positive thinker is not necessarily an inborn trait. Positive thinking can be learned and practiced.
- You can use positive thinking to help you manage stressors in your life.
The human brain isn’t hard-wired to keep a person happy. Nope. It’s wired to keep you safe. It’s like a mother hen trying to keep her chicks away from the fox. Personal happiness and fulfillment aren’t her (or your brain’s) number one priority.
The good news is that what we repeat in life becomes a habit. With practice, you can train your brain to keep you safe and happy. Check out our 15 tips for stress reduction through positive thinking:
- Identify negative thinking. It’s common to magnify the negative aspects of a situation and ignore the positive ones. Step back and look for the positive in stressful situations.
- Turn negative thinking into positive thinking. It takes time and practice to create new habits and behave in a more positive way, but you can do it!
- Remember to smile. The brain doesn’t know the difference between a real and forced smile and will release the same ‘happy chemicals’ in both situations. So, even if you have to force it a bit to start with, smiling is great for positivity and stress reduction.
- Practice positive self-talk. Don’t say anything to yourself that you wouldn’t say to anyone else. Be encouraging with yourself. Be encouraging with others.
- Have a laugh. Look for the humor in stressful situations. Laughter relaxes muscles, lowers blood pressure and eases mental tension.
- Make realistic plans. Don’t make dinner plans across town for 6 p.m. when you know getting stuck in traffic always leaves you frazzled and stressed. Think ahead, and adjust your plans to try to avoid stress triggers.
- Claim some private time. At pre-school, they called it naptime. But adults need private time, too. Balance your family, social and work demands by reserving time for yourself. Go for a walk, soak in a hot bath, watch a sunset or listen to your favorite music.
- Breathe. Did you know that the way you breathe can influence your mind, your body and your mood? The mere act of focusing on your breathing is relaxing, even if you do nothing else. Focus on your breath any time you find yourself dwelling on upsetting thoughts.
- The pause that refreshes. Make mini-breaks as part of your daily routine. Sit down and get comfortable. Let your shoulder muscles droop. Take a deep breath, hold it, and then exhale slowly. Smile and think about something positive.
- Accept that nobody’s perfect. Don’t demand perfection of yourself. Set realistic and attainable goals. It’s true that there are areas of your life where you always want to measure up to high standards of performance. But it’s also a fact of life that sometimes we miss the mark.
- Get moving. Physical activity is a time-tested stress reliever. Just a brisk walk can reduce the level of stress hormones in your blood.
- Work with positive people. Stress is contagious. Spending too much time with worrywarts can make you worry too. You’ll be less anxious if you choose to work with calm, even-tempered colleagues.
- Curb tobacco use. Stimulants such as tobacco can rev up your nervous system. This can lead to stress.
- Practice acceptance. Learn to accept yourself and others. We often get stressed out about things that are beyond our control, such as someone else’s feelings or beliefs. You are much better off accepting these things and figuring out ways to work with them.
- Adopt healthy habits. Unhealthy habits often arise from being stressed out. When you are feeling the pressure, seek out positive health habits — add fruits and vegetables to your diet, take walks and commit to getting 8 hours of sleep.
Resource: American Psychological Association www.apa.org.
How Stress Gets Physical
Stress isn’t just in your head. During a nerve-wracking situation— say, a run-in with a co-worker or being stuck in traffic—your body tenses up and goes into high alert. Your endocrine system produces more stress hormones, such a adrenaline. Blood pressure and heart rate climb. After the stressful situation, your body gradually returns to a normal, balanced state. But when stress is chronic, your body regularly switches into the alert mode for prolonged periods of time. This can take a physical toll on your body.
Tuna, Bean and Roasted Pepper Salad Serves 2
Make a stress-free dinner tonight! This tasty meal requires only a little assembly – no actual cooking necessary.
Ingredient Note: Like all fish, canned tuna contains “good” fats believed to lower the risk of heart disease and diabetes. The American Heart Association recommends eating fish at last two times per week.
Nutritional info (per serving)
491 Calories
29 g Protein
11 g Fat
8 g Carbohydrate
3 g Saturated fat
19 g Fiber
0 g Trans fat
467 mg Sodium
Ingredients
12 oz. fresh baby spinach leaves
One 15-oz. can low-sodium beans (cannellini, great northern or garbanzos), rinsed and drained
2 roasted red peppers (from a jar), chopped
1 medium vine-ripened tomato, sliced
One 6-oz. can solid white albacore tuna packed in water, drained and flaked
1/4 cup chopped fresh Italian parsley
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons crumbled feta cheese
Directions
1. Spread out spinach leaves in a shallow serving dish.
2. In a mixing bowl, combine beans, red peppers, tomato, tuna and parsley. Mix balsamic vinegar, olive oil and 1 tablespoon liquid from pepper jar; add to tuna-bean mixture.
3. Mound the tuna salad on the spinach. Sprinkle with feta cheese.
Serve with whole-grain rolls and sliced Honeycrisp or other favorite apples.
