Mansi Mundhra
Rahul and Rohan, students of 5th class, got a group project, for which they prepared a blue print and set a time frame so as to finish their work within the time limit given. But something went wrong and their plan didn’t work out.
Now, Rahul thinks they won’t be able to submit the project on time. Rohan, on the other hand, is trying to figure out other alternatives for completing the project.
This was a small illustration to show how positive attitude works. Each one of us wants to live a happy life. In the process of growing up, we gain lots of experience and form our attitude towards various things, persons or situations.
What is Attitude?
Attitude refers to the way we think or behave towards the object. For instance, one might feel proud towards their nation. This is their attitude for their nation.
An attitude can be positive, negative or neutral. In the case of Rohan and Rahul, we see that Rahul has a negative attitude towards his capabilities while Rohan has a positive attitude.
When we say “positive thinking would lead to positive outcome”, we’re displaying a positive attitude. Saying that “it’s not possible” is a negative outlook. When the object isn’t that important for someone, they usually hold a neutral attitude towards the situation.
For example, people may have neutral attitude towards political parties. Negative attitude reflects negative feelings and thoughts which are required at times but not always. Positive outlook helps one to be optimistic and hope for good outcomes.
All of us are familiar with this example taught to us in childhood. It explains the importance of having a positive attitude in simple words. The glass contains same amount of water. The way you look at it makes the whole difference. If you call it half-filled, you show positive outlook towards situations. If you call it half-empty, you don’t show a negative outlook but seeing it other way round just makes you satisfied.
Everyone wants to be successful in their lives. Having a positive outlook helps to see the upcoming opportunities in one’s way, instead of crying over the opportunities missed out. Now that we’ve got a fair idea about what it means by positive attitude, we can look at some of the following-
Traits of people having positive attitude:
Optimism: Positive attitude enables one to look at the world as a place with lots of good opportunities and believe that tomorrow will be a better day. This hope encourages one to make more efforts to achieve their goals and doesn’t let one to stop and give up. It doesn’t means that one has to be hopeful in unfruitful conditions but be able to move out of such conditions and live your life your way.
Acceptance: An individual who’s able to accept oneself is capable enough to accept others as well. We often expect a lot from oneself and others. It’s a basic human tendency and nothing to worry about. But we need to modify ourselves in such a way so as to accept the situations and henceforth enjoy the life.
Resilience: The ability to recover from a trauma or manage an adverse condition. This ability enables an individual to maintain their mental health. The person tries to gather all resources required to deal with an adverse situation like connections, sleep, exercise, etc.
Gratitude: The ability to be thankful to others. An individual who has a positive outlook is grateful towards other individuals, nature and life as a whole. They feel that they’re blessed.
You may want to know why being positive is emphasized. This is to promote a healthy living. Stress is our body’s reaction to a stimulus. To an optimal level, stress increases the performance of an individual.
But on exceeding, when the body resources get exhausted, it causes wear and tear of the body as well as mind. It’s not possible to eradicate all stressors from one’s life, so it becomes important for us to manage this stress appropriately.
Enhancing positive thinking skills allows us to manage the stress well, be hopeful for a better future and a healthier and happier life ahead.
Some simple steps may help one to enhance their positive thinking:
1) Be around positive people: Birds of same feather flock together. It means the companions you choose to be with define your personality. They also modify and embrace your personality. Positive input leads to positive mindset so, be around people with positive mindset and develop the same.
2) Keep a check on your language: The words in our thoughts and those spoken represent our perception. The way we perceive the world influences our behaviour towards oneself and others. So a careful usage of words can flourish one’s positive outlook.
3) Follow a routine: Having a routine is beneficial in every aspect- health, work, free time to relax, eat properly, spend quality time with oneself and loved ones, etc. It doesn’t mean you need to have fixed time slots but rather a planned day ahead. This helps to maintain a calm and therefore positive mindset.
4) Be nice to others: Being kind to others generates the feelings of generosity and happiness in oneself. These positive feelings motivate us to be more kind to others and hence, stay positive.
5) Be prepared for future problems: No one likes to have problems in their life. But that doesn’t mean there’ll be no problem. So hope that there’ll be no problem but in case anything happens, you need to be prepared already to be able to. Handle it well. Before action, your mindset prepares you and this is how you bring positive attitude in application.
6) Resist from complaining: Complaining is again a basic human tendency. But one needs to remind oneself that no one owes you anything. Neither would blaming others or oneself would help you to get out of any situation. Sooner or later, you would start taking everything as negative. So we need to stop ourselves right here. Set realistic goals, expect least from others and accept everyone and everything including oneself.
Laughter is a good therapy. It activates our body cells, enhances our mood and fills the mind with positive energy.
