I have studied the research on the positive effects of being positive and the negative effects of being negative. The research is clear. It really does pay to be positive, and the benefits are numerous. The ancient yogis have been teaching this for thousands of years. Sutra 1.3 is translated as:
“Yoga frees you from the drama, the tragedy, the saga your mind creates and allows you to experience your True Joyful Self”
We have a choice to be positive. For every minute we are angry, we lose sixty seconds of happiness. We must recognize, as John Lembo says, “Every waking moment we talk to ourselves about the things we experience. Our self-talk, the thoughts we communicate to ourselves, in turn control the way we feel and act.” Therefore, the first step is to be aware of your mental habits. So often we don’t even realize we habitually catastrophize and trigger a stress response as a result.
We have the power to consciously develop a habit of looking for the good. A habit where you can expect people to treat you in a positive way. Why? Because through the way we think and act, we teach other people how to treat us in return.
Jen Gray Blackburn writes, “You will find life a whole lot easier if you can keep in mind that most people are just trying to do the best they can.” As yogis, it is our responsibility to decrease suffering and promote positivity, which is expressed through love and compassion. This in turn strengthens our personal experience of universal joy and happiness.
Here are five key benefits to inspire you to practice being positive. Love yourself, love your day, love your life! Silvia
Five Benefits of Being Positive:
- Stress Reduction: Positive thoughts counter the negative effects of stress. For example, you can’t be thankful and stressed at the same time. (Several Studies)
- Social Interaction: Positive people have more friends, which is a key factor of happiness. (Robert D. Putnam)
- Love: Marriages are much more likely to succeed when the couple experiences a 5 to 1 ratio of positive to negative interactions, whereas when the ratio approaches 1 to 1, marriages are more likely to end in divorce. (John Gottman)
- Performance at Work: Positive people are able to see the big picture, which helps them identify solutions. Negative people maintain a narrower perspective and tend to focus on problems. (Barbara Fredrickson) Positive work environments outperform negative work environments. (Daniel Goleman) In the workplace, positive people are more likely to receive greater support from their colleagues and as a result receive pay raises and promotions more frequently. (Several Studies)
- Life Expectancy: Positive people live longer. (A Primer in Positive Psychology, Christopher Petersen, PhD)
[Photo by Mikael Korhonen – CC BY]
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