Positivity is the difference between seeing the glass as half full or half empty but its impact goes much further than that. Having a positive or negative attitude affects our lives on a much deeper level. Positive people lead much happier lives than negative people; they tend to live longer, are less susceptible to illness and nurture more fulfilling relationships with those around them.
Often, what we imagine to be 'reality', becomes our reality, purely because we expect it to be so. If you have an optimistic outlook on life it is probable that your experiences throughout the course of your life have taught you that you can expect good things to happen. Likewise, a negative disposition often links back to a catalogue of disappointments.
Negativity isn't always a bad thing, in fact, it is part of our survival mechanism. If a hungry wild animal had you in his sights, blind optimism that all you needed to do was send 'love' to that animal, wouldn't save you! As with most things in life, balance is the key and the trick is to learn how to separate what our BASIC instincts tell us, from what our LEARNED instincts tell us.
Basic instincts are the product of evolution. Human beings are born with instincts that are designed to ensure their survival and protect them throughout life. If another human being intended to do you harm, your basic instincts may well pick up on this and endeavour to make you aware of the threat. What happens next is down to whether you trust your inner wisdom, or whether you give priority to politeness, for example, (a learned behaviour), instead. Our basic instincts can always be trusted, the problems start, when we confuse basic instincts with learned instincts.
Learned instincts are the product of past experience and expectation. The expectation of failure can prevent us from striving into unfamiliar territory. The expectation of being rejected can deter us from getting to know people who could make our lives richer on an emotional level. Learned instincts are important but we need to be willing to scrutinise them and question their validity if we are not to be bound by faulty perception.
In order to escape the trap of limiting our lives by confusing the two types of instinct, we first have to accept that the difference exists. ALL instincts are designed to protect us, but some learned instincts are based on erroneous beliefs. The good news is that we can work to bring more positivity into our lives by introducing self-awareness into our world.
Are there any situations that you avoid because they take you out of your comfort zone? How much of your 'self-talk' is critical or defeatist? How would you describe your friends and family? Although it is often said that opposities attract, when it comes to outlook, like tends to attract like. Positive people prefer the company of other positive people because they find negativity draining. Likewise, negative people tend to mingle with other negative people because they can 'feed' off each other and their mutual negativity can actually help them to validate each other, (a positive consequence!). If you see the world as a scary, evil or dangerous place, having people around you who share your view of the world can be comfort, but it will still drag you down unless you muster the courage to challenge that which you take as given. Past performance is not a guarantee of future outcomes. Being open to this reality and willing to question assumptions can set you on your way to a more positive future.
Hypnotherapy can assist you in gaining understanding of those behaviours that hold you back. If you want to consult a hypnotherapist in Nottingham, Renew Hypnotherapy can help. see our website for further information.
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