Many books on self-improvement, spirituality and health support claim that having a positive attitude can improve the quality of your life. Before you dismiss positive thinking as hype that is used to sell books and promote seminars, consider the fact that professional researchers have validated the the effectiveness of a positive attitude and its beneficial affects on human behavior. This means that positive thinking sells ... and works.
Identification
Identifying cognitive distortions, or irrational thoughts, can lay the foundation to creating a positive attitude. Replacing cognitive distortions with positive self-talk can improve your emotional health. For example, psychiatrist David D. Burns, a professor at Stanford University and author of "Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy," defines excessive worry about the future as "the fortune teller error." If you fear that the worst-case scenario will happen, realize that you are probably overestimating its probability and replace the negative thought with a more realistic view.
Function
A positive attitude can also help you overcome the mental habit of "awfulizing," a term coined by the late Albert Ellis, founder of Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy. When you awfulize, you exaggerate the unpleasantness of a negative situation and you convince yourself that the situation is unbearable. Thinking about the situation from a more rational point of view can strengthen your resilience or your ability to cope with the undesirable situation.
Expert Insight
Dr. Albert Bandura, professor of psychology at Stanford University, defines perceived self-efficacy as "people's beliefs about their capabilities to produce designated levels of performance that exercise influence over events that affect their lives." Self-efficacy can powerfully influence your motivation and willingness to make efforts to achieve your goals. Bandura states that there is "a growing body of evidence that human accomplishments and positive well-being require an optimistic sense of personal efficacy."
Benefits
The belief that mental well-being affects physical health has gained more acceptance within the mainstream medical community over the years. Cardiologist Herbert Benson, founding president of the Mind/Body Medical Institute in Boston, told USA Today that mind-body medicine has been scientifically proven. Benson said, "There are literally thousands of articles on how the mind and brain affect the body." Psychologist Carol Ryff, professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said that a positive mental attitude has linkages to what's going on in the brain and body.
Considerations
If you fear that adopting a positive attitude could lead to a greater level of disappointment when you do not succeed, consider the fact that a positive attitude could also help you cope with failures more effectively. Positive thinking could prevent you from awfulizing the experience. For example, you could remind yourself that achievements often require more than one effort. Resilience, self-efficacy, and a positive attitude could eventually lead you to the outcome you desire.
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