Benefits of Positive Thinking

Thinking positive throughout your life predicts that you’ll have more positive life outcomes during your older years. That’s the conclusion of researchers who studied data accumulated from over fifty years of data.

In the 1980′s, positive psychology researchers poured through written data of a continuously running research group started at Harvard in the 1930′s. What the researches wanted to find was captured best in essays a group of men had written about their experiences during World War II. In these essays, where each man recounted his endurance of war’s most trying experiences, researchers were able to determine if that person had an optimistic or pessimistic view about life through how they wrote about their wartime experiences.

Using this as basis, researchers then looked at how each man’s life unfolded to see if they could spot whether an optimistic point of view affected a man’s life’s outcome. The results were powerful, and consistently showed that an optimistic or positive point of view predicted positive outcomes in life’s later years.

Does Positive Thinking Really Work

Studies in psychology are usually mired in statistics and probabilities, but then again, life itself is about statistics and probabilities. How you end up living a year from now is a probability that’s related to what you’re doing today. Not that you can cause meaningful change in life in one day, you do that by making small, constructive daily changes.

How you think is a simple change, and it is powerful in scope. The Harvard study, statistically driven as it may be, shows you that positive thinking has a predictive effect for life. It predicts that you’ll be healthier and happier in your later years if you think more positive than negative. Positive thinking looks to be an indicator of happy living. That just makes sense on some level, doesn’t it?

But there’s more to it all than just positive thinking. There’s also positive doing.

What the Harvard study misses is any indication of how the healthier, positive thinkers spend their time. It’s safe to assume, however, that they don’t sit around moping about negative outcomes. That’s contrary to positive thinking. Instead, these positive thinkers most likely lead positive lives, filled with positive activities. Activities first envisioned through a positive outlook.

You see, positive thinking does work. But you have to work at it. Any thought, positive or not, remains unfulfilled until it’s acted upon. So to say simply “think positive” misses an important point. You have to act positive too. Any counselor or therapist will tell you that you must put changed behaviors in place to make change in life. That’s because behaviors and thoughts are tightly linked. You behave the way you think, and you think about how you behave.

The Power of Positive Thinking

The power of positive thinking is that it’s a great enabler, and as the Harvard study shows, it promotes positive living. This enabling aspect of positive thinking is its cornerstone concept. But positive thinking means much more than putting a bright outlook on trying situations. It means to be proactive in choosing a positive direction for your life. To do well!

Many of us want to cause some sort of change in our life. It may be in improving our body, our mind or a relationship where we seek change, but whatever the reason, the first step is to envision the change we want, and then set the goal of accomplishing the tasks involved. The true power of positive thinking comes to play in striving towards your goals.

Put in your mind the positive image of you accomplishing desired change. Actually see yourself completing the tasks in your mind, and see yourself finishing the goal line. Then, every day, wake up and do something towards your goal. Little by little you’ll change your life into what you envision if you do this – positive thinking, positive behavior, positive steps.

Positive Thinking Works

Positive thinking is a powerful tool. With it, you can accomplish most anything you set your mind to. But thinking must be accompanied by doing. You must have positive, enabling behaviors that are linked to worthwhile goals that get fueled by the positive thoughts you put in your mind. And all the while, you are putting into your life the probability that you will live a happier, healthier life. Is there anything at all wrong with that?

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