We tend to overlook the benefits of positive thinking and the impact of negative thinking on beliefs and values. Developing healthy mindset habits is more important than ever. Find out how to do it.
Thoughts become our reality. Every modern advance advancement in science and technology started as an idea, a thought. So, it makes good sense to cultivate a positive mindset. Do you know how to do it?
The brain is where the body and mind intersect. It is the most complex computer in the Universe, transmitting and modulating energy and chemicals that control every aspect of our bodies.
Creating a Healthy Mindset
To create a healthy mindset, we need to understand how the mind works. Then, we can learn how to take more control of its functions. It’s all about chemicals.
Serotonin and dopamine are brain chemicals that affect attitude. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter that transmits signals to other molecules. Dopamine is an amino acid made by combining two amino acids, tyrosine and L-dopa. When the brain makes an abundance of both, you feel great. (1) These hormone levels are associated with our attitude but are not necessarily the cause of it. It’s the chicken and egg dilemma.
A chemical imbalance can cause emotional distress, or cognitive distortions can cause a chemical imbalance. One thing is sure; it is possible to change our mindset by adjusting either the chemical or the attitude. In other words, healthy mindset habits have a positive impact on our health.
What this means is you can be sad and depressed for no reason. You suffer when the brain doesn’t make the right chemicals. The mind listens to the body.
“The cells in your body react to everything your mind says. Negativity brings your immune system down.” — Christina Sagadraca
It’s good to know that the cells in your body react to everything the mind says to some extent. This finding means clinical therapy can help balance the brain’s chemicals. The best outcomes come from a combination of therapy and pharmaceuticals. Creating a healthy mindset is something most people can accomplish.
The Impact of Negative Thinking on Health
Negative thinking releases cortisol and adrenaline, which place us in a state of readiness. However, it can be harmful if our bodies stay in this state for long periods. Negative thinking also blocks positive chemicals. It is this slippery slope that leads to depression.
Positive thinking releases positive chemicals like dopamine, serotonin, opiates, and oxytocin. These chemicals help build the immune system as they suppress the negative ones. Your thoughts also affect the world. People with negative thoughts engage in harmful behaviors, whereas positive thinking benefits the world.
To understand this relationship, you can conduct a simple experiment by watching a video or movie that makes you laugh. When you do this, dopamine and serotonin levels increase.
Conversely, people can take supplements that may increase these levels, which improve their mood. The trick is finding the right supplement your body can metabolize.
Learning to “think positive” is good for our health and wellness. Another way of saying this is that our mindset changes our biology. Now, you begin to see the impact of negative thinking on health.
Identifying Cognitive Distortions
Cognitive distortions are negative thinking patterns. They happen to everyone, but most people recognize they are negative and unhealthy, so they stop or change them. Instinctively, most people know positive thoughts are better than negative ones. If we are not aware of our thinking or the effects of negative thoughts, it becomes easy to get caught up in unhealthy thinking.
Identifying cognitive distortions benefits from having a partner or therapist involved. A trained counselor can help you work through the issues that arise when confronting toxic core beliefs.
Dwelling on negative thought distortions can spiral into unhealthy behaviors. The earlier you intervene in the thought process, the easier it is to change their trajectory. Many people who have mental health issues are caught on a mental treadmill recycling negative scenarios.
We recommend using inner work tools to aid in identifying cognitive distortions. The Enneagram is one tool that helps us identify the thought patterns for each personality type, which indicates disintegration into unhealthy thinking. The Repetitive Question Exercise is another tool that can help us find negative thought patterns, beliefs, and values.
Confronting Toxic Core Beliefs in Religion
Organized religion is the home of all toxic beliefs. Sectarian ideologies contain many distortions and unhealthy values. They are responsible for wars, genocide, prejudice, and discrimination. We struggle as a modern society to allow this kind of mass mind-control to be accepted as a legitimate mindset.
Regardless of what happens, what we think determines our reality. Suppose we have a mental illness and cognitive distortions from religion. In that case, it’s best to get professional help that uses a combination of therapy and mood-altering substances to regain emotional equilibrium. Those who have chronic conditions may need ongoing treatment for the rest of their lives.
Modern therapy techniques work on the conscious level of thinking, so the greater the mental capacity, the more successful you will be in applying conscious solutions. There are other ways to address this issue. Pharmaceuticals are effective when used properly, and Freudian techniques deal with dreams and the subconscious mind. The Bottom Line: it’s important to develop and maintain a healthy mind in order to think more clearly and make better decisions.
The culture we live in has a significant impact on how we perceive things.
Positive Thinking Benefits Our Beliefs and Values
When you look on the positive side, it doesn’t mean you ignore problems. A positive mindset helps you to see options and solutions. It’s smart to be realistic, especially in these trying times.
The ongoing pandemic and political turmoil raise stress and make it easier to slip into negative thinking. However, we know a positive attitude is more likely to find the best solutions because a positive mindset is less stressful. (2) Still, we think more clearly when we can reduce stress. One of the quickest ways to reduce stress is by meditating.
Remember, the Universe is listening. Your thoughts become your reality. It’s a reminder that the cells in your body react to everything your mind says. Take a few minutes once a week to learn some basic techniques to make your mind healthier. These are essential for overall health and well-being. The health of our psyche reflects our attitude, and we have the control to change this.
Healthy Mindset Habits — Maintaining a Healthy Mindset
1. Use A Dream Journal
Our subconscious mind is most accessible when we dream. So, one form of self-therapy is to keep a journal, documenting dreams or fragments of dreams. Look for themes and patterns and find clues to the subconscious mind’s content. Listen to the content of what you are thinking.
2. Learn to Monitor Your Self-talk
Before you can effect a lasting change in your attitude, you need to monitor your self-talk. Sit and listen to what’s going on inside your head. Are you caught up in negative scenarios or conspiracy theories? If so, it’s time to review the content of those thoughts.
Maintaining a healthy mindset needs to be a priority. Most people don’t even have this on their to-do list. Take time for journaling, contemplation, and meditation. Get in touch with your inner world.
3. Confronting Toxic Core Beliefs and Values
This is the step where you remove, repair, and replace negative self-talk scripts. It’s best to have a partner or group when you are dealing with these powerful thought scripts.
Use a journal to document the negative self-talk scripts. We want to find out where these scripts originate. Are they a part of the negative side of your personality, or are they something you got from the cultural narrative?
The Enneagram can help us sort out the programming of the mind. It can help us determine whether unhealthy thoughts are products of an unhealthy personality or programming from the cultural narrative.
The Repetitive Question Exercise helps us examine our core beliefs and values. It’s a simple process of repeating the same question and searching for a new answer. Your partner asks the question, you search for a new answer and write it down, and they ask it again. You keep searching for a new answer each time.
Examples of questions to identify values and beliefs are: What is a belief that affects my behavior? Tell me a way my beliefs affect my thinking and behavior.
The process of confronting toxic core beliefs is highly emotional. Unhealthy beliefs are often ingrained and reinforced by social constructs. So, take breaks or emotional check-ins to keep from getting overwhelmed. Toxic and unhealthy beliefs are often based on religious bias and prejudice. The belief in an imaginary friend is a slippery slope to other ideological distortions.
Identifying cognitive distortions related to religion can be unsettling, as these beliefs are often passed down through family and influential social institutions. All sectarian religious beliefs are unhealthy.
If the thought script being repeated by your inner critic isn’t from your personality, then it’s something you’ve learned. Finding the source of the negative scripts is essential. You need to know the cause to effect the proper remedy to remove it or heal it.
As you repair the mind, you will begin to think positive thoughts even before using affirmations.
4. Replace Unhealthy Negative Thinking with Positive
Before adding positive affirmations, make sure you’ve dealt with the negative. Otherwise, you are wasting your time trying to cover up negative scripts with positive ones. Negative thought patterns are powerful. Unless you remove them, they will negate any positive thinking benefits.
Once you are ready to replace it, go back to your journal and note the negative scripts. Then, write the positive phrase you’d like to replace it with and start reprogramming your mind. Using positive affirmations, sutras, and mantras reinforces a healthy mindset, which protects us against the onslaught of negative social media.
5. Practice Meditation Regularly
The proper meditation technique is the reset button for the mind. You need to silence the inner critic and shut off the internal dialogue. When you can do this, you will bathe the mind in pure awareness.
The recommended technique to reach this place of tranquility is called Japa Meditation (3) or the more widely known version of Transcendental Meditation (TM). (4)
You can start your mediation journey by learning a simple two-step method. It’s easy but powerful, and it is the foundation of the more advanced Japa and TM techniques.
6. Use Sound and Music to Alter Your Mood
Music, sound, and vibration are the most used tools to alter mood and attitude. Make sure you feed your soul and not the ego in your choices. If you are depressed, don’t listen to emo music, even if it’s your favorite, because it will reinforce your depression. Many people get caught in this trap because it feeds the control of the ego. It is an unhealthy zone that is addictive.
Instead, decide what mood you want your music to produce. If you are looking for something that will ground you and stay out of the way, listen to something like Nada Brahma Schumann’s Resonance. This is a sound frequency of 7.83 Hz. It is the same as the Earth. It produces a low resonance sound that you can barely hear, so it stays in the background. Just because you can’t hear it doesn’t mean it’s not influencing your nervous system. Listening to this frequency will calm you by aligning your subconscious with the natural frequency of our planet. Try it yourself and see.
If you want to increase your energy, listen to songs that make you want to dance. The key here is to find music that is neutral or positive. If you like German Metal, be sure you use it when it supports the mood you want to produce.
7. Regular Physical Exercise
Regular exercise does not need to be extreme to affect the mind, body, and spirit positively. It produces endorphins that reinforce a positive outlook.
8. Demonstrate Kindness and Compassion
Give of yourself to others in need and become a champion of kindness. Helping other people is a time-proven way to promote a healthy, positive attitude. Giving of yourself in service to others impacts others and yourself directly. Remember, your thoughts create your reality, and it’s a power you can use to make a positive impact in the lives of others.
9. Spend Time in Nature
Above all, we must realize we are part of a larger whole. Spend time in nature. The Earth has a vibrational signature when we are in sync with this frequency when we become grounded. We feel better. You probably feel a connection to certain places. Or you may have felt specific locations seem to emit either positive or negative energy.
The natural emotional response is to think positive thoughts and have positive feelings when you connect with a living thing. We naturally feel better when we are in harmony with our environment.
10. Regular Self-Care
Practice healthy self-care. Taking care of yourself isn’t selfish; it’s necessary to maintain a healthy mind and body. Make sure the self-care isn’t buying things to feed the ego. Do things that make you feel better but have no adverse side effects.
In Conclusion
Remember, the cells in your body react to everything your mind says, and positive thinking benefits you and the world. Creating a healthy mindset is based on healthy mindset habits.
Maintaining a healthy mindset needs to be a priority. If you have other ways to improve your attitude, please share, and don’t hesitate to contact us. If you are looking for a way to show kindness, why not consider donating to support our mission?
References
(1) Happiness & Health: The Biological Factors: National Library of Medicine
(2) Positive thinking: Stop negative self-talk to reduce stress: mayoclinic.org
(3) Japa Meditation Technique: Wikipedia.
(4) The Transcendental Meditation Technique: Wikipedia.