Your thoughts have power
Positive thinking sounds like the perfect way to live your life (after all most of us would rather be positive than negative), but this powerful concept has suffered in the past from being a bit mysterious and not easily understood. However, recent years have seen many studies looking at the effectiveness of positive thinking, showing clear links between a positive mindset and success in life. A recent Harvard study showed that having an optimistic outlook on life could help people live longer.
Positive thoughts can manifest in many ways, through your posture, body language and the beliefs you hold to the way you express yourself, communicate with yourself, deep down and communicate with others through the language you use.
The role of the mind and emotions in your state of health is vitally important and part of the healing process. Your body hears every thought you have and every word you say. In fact, it probably knows you better than you know yourself. By understanding this relationship, you can claim a greater role in your own wellbeing.
“The mind is everything, what we think, we become.” - Buddha.
Your thoughts determine your feelings, which in turn determine your actions, and your actions determine the results you get. But if only it was this easy, at the thought level, you can have positive and negative thoughts as well as conscious and unconscious thoughts. And, a lot of what you may have learned can be unconscious.
Positive thoughts and making the right choices, stimulate the correct balance of chemical secretions, which result in a healthy body, calm emotions and clear mind. With this positive chain reaction, you can improve your well-being. But more than that, the far-reaching benefits extend to the way you communicate with others, relationships (personal and professional), confidence, self-esteem and moving towards things you want in life.
Try it out for yourself:
1. Think a positive thought.
2. Notice what you feel, because of the thought.
3. Then, think about what you will do because of that feeling.
4. And finally, what could happen in connection with that action.
You could repeat this exercise using a negative thought and compare the difference. It could be important for you to notice, if you are prone to negative thinking or positive thinking, how this affects you and if you know what the triggers are.
Changing the structure of thinking from a negative/fearful/worrying thought to a more positive place is often part of the structure for some NLP interventions, which can help shift behaviours to more resourceful ones. People that are more resilient can look at things from different perspectives and use their minds in a more positive way.
Working with an NLP coach can help you to understand more about, the role and power of positive (and negative) thoughts, the unconscious mind, positive intention, the power of beliefs and how to communicate with your body and symptoms. Combining these insights with powerful NLP techniques can equip you with a greater understanding of how your thoughts affect your health and well-being and how you can empower yourself to better manage your own health.