SELF IMPROVEMENT
How I Rebooted My Brain
And I obtained a different perspective of thinking
I love the topic of positive thinking and I love that there are more and more people embracing the aspect that a positive attitude is so important for our mental and physical health.
I wasn’t always like that. I used to be stressed about the slightest insignificant things, blaming everyone but myself for my bad luck, judging everyone around me and the beginning of each day was full of negative thoughts. Constant anxiety was the way of my life. I was drowning in a sea of pessimism.
Until the day I saw a video on youtube that slapped me for good. It took me a while to recover from shock, but deep inside me, I knew that the time for a brain reboot had come. I couldn’t stop but keep watching this video over and over again… The truth is that I kept watching it every single day for a long time after. Why? Because every time I watched it, it reminded me how grateful should I be for whatever I already had, how beautiful it would be to start and live my every day with a positive perspective of life no matter what.
I’m talking about Nick Vujicic’s motivational video about attitude, gratefulness, love, and courage. If you don’t know him, Nick Vujicic is the man without limbs! He’s the most representative expression of human will and hope, of positiveness and gratefulness! This man deserves millions, billions, trillions of claps for whatever has achieved in his life! If you haven’t already watched his video, you should. But if you have already, you should watch it again… and again… and again…, as I did…
So I did it! I rebooted my brain!
Nothing was easy. During my journey to the new way of thinking, I end up to the conclusion that positive thinking is closely related to terms such as awareness, self-reflection, self-perception, and the perception of others, to name just the most important ones. Trying to give these terms a heading, I end up with the term “mindfulness”.
“Mindfulness is the awareness that comes from giving one’s full attention, intentionally and nonjudgmentally, to the experience unfolding from moment to moment.”
These experiences include both our sensory perceptions — that is, what we perceive from the outside — and our own thoughts and feelings — that is, what we perceive from the inside.
Mindfulness aims to improve our ability to focus on each moment, on the “here and now”. While mindfulness training, I practiced letting planning, reflecting, and analyzing rest for a moment and being in the present with all my senses. In that way, I strengthened the connection to my inner world and regained access to my feelings and needs, but also to my intuition, the gut feeling.
While resetting my brain from negative thoughts, I realized that a positive attitude could help me deal with stress and grief, it would be better for my relationships and could discourage me from judging other people.
What I particularly liked during this procedure was that the right attitude strengthened me to resist the urge to gossip about others.
Being negative, worrying, and living by the “what ifs” and “should have’s” philosophies, was far more draining for me. By no means, thinking positively wasn’t so easy, because it had a lot to do with analyzing myself in a hard way. To be able to exemplify a positive attitude, I had to start by recognizing my weaknesses and standing against them. That was a task that required a lot of overcoming and even more courage.
Wonderful side effects of this technique were inner peace and serenity and the ability to savor beautiful moments in all their fullness. I began feeling more self-confident and emotionally balanced, less anxious, less stressed. My ability to concentrate, as also my immune system was significantly much better.
So, today I would like to share with you the key principles of positive thinking I adhered to, and I hope they’ll help you too as much as they helped me.
Attitude is everything
Attitude is the lens through which you look at reality. It shapes your life. Take a close, honest look at your own attitude.
- Are you a pessimistic person?
- Do you cloak everything in fear or indifference?
- Is your everyday life marked by envy, ridicule, gossip, and contempt?
Then you clearly have the wrong attitude towards life!
“Envy aims at belittling others in the hope of elevating oneself.”
-Plato
How do you think your life will change if you change your attitude?
Treating people with kindness and respect
Every single person you meet should be valued and treated with courtesy. You have to acknowledge that they all have feelings and their perspective on life.
While this may be different from yours, it is equally valid. Showing respect for other people also has a positive effect on your self-esteem.
Avoiding comparisons
Avoid nonsense comparisons with people regardless of whether you have more skills or strength from them or admire them because they are more experienced or have achieved more than you. Constantly comparing yourself to others shifts your focus to them instead of what you can do, what you want, and what you are good at.
Also avoid comparing your friends, children, etc. to others. If you want to improve something, you have to start from within yourself and focus only on yourself. What others do or don’t do shouldn't be your concern — at least at the beginning. Don’t allow actions that you can’t control to affect you.
Taking responsibility for my work, my actions, and my life
Don’t shift your responsibilities and don’t make cheap excuses. On the contrary, take responsibility for everything you can control, recognize and admit your mistakes, fix them and learn from them. Don’t beat yourself up over a mistake and don’t hold on to the past. What is done has been done and nothing can change it. Live today, live now, live your every nanosecond!
It’s normal to feel bad or be in pain. Physically as well as mentally. Try to see this as a direction indicator, as a signal. As a positive, important function of your body and mind to protect your true self.
Saying more often: “Not with me!”
There had been countless times that I felt depressed and helpless because of my unexcused tolerance for belittling behaviors. Keep this in mind when someone wants to belittle you or to push your boundaries.
Your worth is determined by yourself, of your essence, your true self.
No one can change your inner worth unless you consciously allow it. Make it clear that no one has any power over you unless you give them that power. Keep your limits and move forward.
Respecting other people’s time and boundaries
If you’re having a bad day, feeling stuck, or just feeling insecure and hesitant, make sure you don’t use this as an excuse to waste other people’s time or push their boundaries.
Time is the most valuable possession we have and deserves our respect. If you feel like wasting your time, it’s ok. But please, don’t waste other people’s time.
Keeping a “What I’ve Accomplished” list
Far too often I used to create long to-do lists and beat myself up when I had only completed a few of my tasks on the list. Awful! Don’t you ever do that! Instead, keep your main list of tasks you want to do so you don’t forget important things, but also keep a second list that you can update daily.
Each day, make a detailed list of all the things you did and write down how much time you spent on each item on the list. This way you can see where your time has gone, you can feel good about what you’ve accomplished, and you’ll see what you need to focus on to get what’s most important to you.
Becoming aware of the people around me
Not just your friends, children, parents, but also employees, customers, clients, suppliers, and other people you come into contact with daily. Show them your gratitude, give them credits for their contribution, and don’t take them for granted.
Thank them for shopping with you, for their help, for their valuable business relationship with you, and their well-done job. Just compliment them every once in a while. You’ll be surprised how people can be happy with such a small gesture.
Being happy about my small successes of the day
Do you remember the compliment you received from someone about your idea? Or the smile a customer gave you when picking up their order? How did you feel? Recognizing your accomplishments, even if they may seem small or ordinary, will help you acknowledge that you’ve done a good job.
From a positive attitude and outlook, you will feel more in control
Treat every job and every interaction as a great accomplishment instead of just dismissing it as a part of your day. Over time, you will become more aware of the personal impact you have and the benefits others derive from it.
You will attract people’s attention. They will notice how well you get things done and they will really appreciate you. They will be infected by your positive nature.
What I couldn’t change, accepted it patiently
Whatever had happened in the past belonged to the past and was no longer tangible. It couldn’t be changed. I couldn’t change it. It was giving me nothing but sorrow and worries. To escape my past, I stopped using phrases like “I should have” or “I wouldn’t be”. I accepted that, forgot about that, took a big breath, and made my next step forward.
If you want to reset your brain, think of what you can learn from your mistakes and what you can do from now on. If you’re already thinking, think ahead!
Believing in my abilities and paying attention to my needs
Find your inner voice and express it, even if it doesn’t make sense to others. Follow your instinct! Show off your skills to the world, only then will you one day find your true calling.
Respond quickly to your emotional, mental, spiritual, and physical needs. Inner balance is the foundation for your personal success.
Recognizing myself
Self-knowledge is the acquisition of knowledge about one’s psychological abilities, possibilities, and realities. It is the correct assessment of your qualities, strengths, values, and personal attitude, and thus a prerequisite for self-realization and positive thinking.
Conclusion
Deep moments of happiness generate reserves of energy and stamina. In this way, the positive effects can make us resilient and strengthen us in the long term, without any coercion or pressure. Positive thinking has many benefits for your health and your life such as:
- Focusing on the good things makes you happy.
- Whoever sees only negative things, dangers, and failures soon becomes paralyzed. Positive thinking keeps you empowered and ensures that you can always get up and keep going.
- Thinking positively makes you healthier. Having faith and thinking positively, you have a much higher chance of overcoming even serious illnesses.
- Optimism is an important prerequisite for your career and personal success.
- When you practice mindfulness for yourself in the context of positive thinking, you learn how to be the master or mistress of your thoughts, you can decide for yourself what you think up to a point. This opens up a lot of new possibilities!
- A positive view of yourself and your successes strengthens self-confidence and self-esteem.
- Positive thinking makes you open to new things and helps you to broaden your horizons.
So, what are you waiting for? Get practiced, add more positive thoughts to your life, give yourself that present, and enjoy the benefits that come with an optimistic attitude.
Reboot your brain!
Here is a beautiful and much-needed message from Sally Prag on how one can bring value to others through gratitude and positive thinking.
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