POSITIVE THINKING!!!
A pretty clever guy said this once: "whether you think you can, or you think you can't, you're right" (Henry Ford). Basically, what that means is that the outcomes of our actions essentially come down to the way that we think about them.
The way we think about ourselves and the world around us has a huge impact on how we end up feeling, and what we end up doing with our time. The hard part is that often, what we think is so cemented in our heads that regardless of whether it's actually accurate, it feels true. In a world driven by achievement in all areas: study, work, appearance, relationships - it can be easy to feel like we don't quite measure up. The danger with thinking that way is that if we get stuck in the cycle of thinking negatively about ourselves and the world, it can get in the way of doing the things we want to do.
Learning to challenge our negative thoughts and think about ourselves and the world more positively has a huge range of benefits: we feel better, our hopes feel more possible, and the world feels a bit more bearable.
So how can we learn to think more positively about ourselves and the world? That's what we'll be discussing with you guys this Monday (11th November) during the Getting Real session on the forums from 8pm AEST. Whether you struggle with negative thinking or you're a pro at challenging yourself to see things positively - come share your experiences!
So it sounds like all of us have experienced negative thinking at some point, which leads nicely into our next question...
Have you overcome your negative thinking? If you have, how did you do this?
In my opinion, the best way is to keep yourself busy and not to have time to think at all. As someone said (or rather posted on Favebook 
) "Brain + Time = depression".
Another way is to learn to make positive chioces in whatever you are doing. Carefully choose what music you are listening, whit what kind of people you surround yourself, how you deal with conflict etc.
Usually my negative thinking resolves around worry, so I would usually try to calm myself down by reading a book, playing a game, or something like that, and then trying to reason with myself with a calmer mindset and change my thinking.
Hi @Rhelna - thanks for joining the conversation 🙂 It sounds like uni/exams are kind of similar between a few of us... I know I definitely struggle more with my thinking during exams or around assessments. That's interesting that negative thinking led to uni not working out so well for you at first - the way we think about things can have huge impacts on how our life goes...
@gail , yeah once I started thinking that I couldn't do it, I just stopped trying.
Luckily the university took pity on me and allowed me to transfer into a different course.
I am very grateful for that. Even though that failed semester cost me time, stress, tears and money, I think that it was a lesson that I had to learn.
@Rhelna it's amazing the amount of power that our thoughts have over what we achieve. And yep, sometimes we have to struggle to learn essential lessons...
Have you overcome your negative thinking? If you have, how did you do this?
I started to believe in myself, I used to stress and get angry and unhappy when the overall outcome was great so believing in myself and that gave me confidence and started developing some positive self-talk.
@ruenhonx that's awesome 🙂 Could you explain what self-talk is, for anyone who hasn't heard of it before?
Well basically there is positive self talk and negative self talk.
Negative self talk are the things you say to yourself that make you feel like crap. I tend to say things like " You are an idiot" or "You wont pass this one"
Whereas positive self talk is the opposite, things you NEED to say to yourself that give you a good feeling. Like "I am capable" "I can do this" "I am beautiful"
Can you think of an example or time in your life where you struggled with negative thinking?
I tend to struggle with negative thinking a bit uni. I always think my work is not right or not good enough, or that I haven't spent enough time on it, even when I've put the work in. It's definitely something I'd like to improve because it tends to stress me out a bit.
Hey @delicatedreamer 🙂 Thanks for joining and don't worry if you need to pop in and out! Negative thinking can definitely be stressful - uni is a good (and I think pretty common) example!
ruenhonx wrote:
Can you think of an example or time in your life where you struggled with negative thinking?
Definitely. I really struggled with negative thinking through most of high school and my first couple of years out of school. In my head I was constantly criticising everything about myself - my actions, my appearance, my decisions... it was exhausting, and it never solved anything.
