How to Grow Your Happiness Using Positive Intention
You can train your brain to be happier, more positive, and more content
I woke up with a heavy heart one morning not too long ago. I rarely watch violent television or movies. But a few months back, I caught an episode or two of a popular drama with some especially vicious scenes.
Now, months later, a savage character from the show appeared in my dream, triggering a raging heartbeat and automatic muscle constriction.
It took awhile to fall back to sleep. When I woke in the morning, these negative thoughts arose:
- “This world is hopeless.”
- “Why do we allow writers, producers, and advertisers to imagine such a grotesque world and undesirable future?”
- “Why do people find violence entertaining, so much so they’re willing to spend millions of dollars to watch it?”
I felt pervaded by negativity. I need to shift out of that space. Instead of focusing on negative, I told myself, I could imagine:
- A happy world
- A peaceful world
- A beautiful world
- A bountiful world
- A nourished world
- A world without violence
We need to consciously decide to pay attention to the positive because our brain has a negativity bias. Negative experiences stand out more and stick with us longer too—sometimes overshadowing the good in our life.
Fortunately, the brain is malleable. You can train it to be more positive, happy, and grateful. Positive thinking even reduces stress according to the Mayo Clinic.
“Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions.”—the Dalai Lama
The Quality of Our Mind Determines the Quality of Our Experience
If you want to be happy consider these famous lines from the Buddha in the Dhammapada (Gil Fronsdal translation). The Buddha knew all about the power of mind:
“All experience is preceded by mind, Led by mind, Made by mind. Speak or act with a corrupted mind, And suffering follows As the wagon wheel follows the hoof of the ox.
All experience is preceded by mind, Led by mind, Made by mind. Speak or act with a peaceful mind, And happiness follows Like a never-departing shadow.”
If you want to be happy, learn to speak and act with a peaceful mind and heart. This begins with your intentions.
5 Simple Ways to Be Positively Intentional
Here are some simple ways to shake off the habit of negative thinking:
- At the start of each day, set a positive intention.
- At the start of each new action, set a positive intention.
- Examine your intention or any action for its potential impact. Will it help on the short and long run or will it bring harm in any way?
- Check in briefly throughout the day to see if you’re on track with your positive intention.
- Review your day before falling asleep. Did you stay true to your intention? If you’ve done well by your intention, congratulate yourself. If it was rocky, don’t be hard on yourself. Just set an intention to do better tomorrow.
Direct Your Intentions for the Greatest Good
Intentions can be practical and encompass anything from losing weight to running a marathon to getting a degree. In fact, many people promote “intentional living” as the best way to create your very own perfect life.
Until it falls apart for one reason or another. I don’t mean to be negative in an article about positivity. But the truth of impermanence always prevails. Everything that comes together eventually falls apart.
There’s nothing wrong with the practical use of positive intention to create a happier and healthier life. But let’s direct our positive intentions for the good of others as well and even for the good of all.
Here are a few positive intentions you could try out for a day, a week, or a month — one at a time. Make an intention to be:
- Patient
- Generous
- Kind
- Friendly
- Helpful
- Consoling
- Thoughtful
- Forgiving
- Affirming
What do these positive intentions have in common?
They’re other-directed.
The simple act of decreasing attention on the self can put your own woes in perspective and by doing so, free you, at least for a while, from your own concerns. Focusing on others also opens your heart and cultivates a sense of connection, joy, and fulfillment.
As you can tell from the aftermath of my dream, I sometimes feel hopeless and negative myself. But I know the problem isn’t with what arises in the mind, but rather whether I jump onboard the negativity train or refrain.
It takes practice to be positively intentional in all that you think, say, and do. But slowly, slowly, if you begin, you’ll succeed. And as the Buddha promised, “Happiness will follow you, like a never-departing shadow.”
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