“The greatest discovery of all time is that a person can change his future by merely changing his attitude.”
—Oprah Winfrey
Positive Thinking Day occurs every year on the 13th of September and is a day solely dedicated to positive thinking and its impact on an individual. It is a particular day to educate the masses regarding the importance of positive thinking and how they can implement positive thoughts in their everyday life, work, and relationships. It is a day when caretakers, writers, and scholars from all around the world, gather and celebrate those individuals who have overcome their negative thoughts through dedication, commitment, and hard work. This year, on the Positive Thinking Day 2020, you can shift your thinking and view your life’s circumstances through a positive perspective.
History of Positive Thinking Day The history of positive thinking day is very intriguing. An American Entrepreneur initiated positive thinking day in 2003. It is a day that encourages individuals to carry a positive attitude. As its name denotes, this day celebrates the importance of positivity. It was commemorated to educate the Americans regarding the importance of thinking positively.
If You Think It, You Can Do It
Human beings function in a way their feelings often portray in the actions that they do. If depression has consumed your heart and all you feel are negative thoughts, you will likely portray those emotions through the actions that you’d do. However, if you shift your mind into thinking positive thoughts, it is likely to influence your everyday life positively.
When you think positive, you attract positive. That is the law of the universe. Human feelings are uncanny, we tend to overthink a situation, letting it overwhelm us, and then we tend to stress over the thoughts in our mind, thoughts that haven’t even come true.
Positive Thinking Everyday
If we’re so fast at losing hope, why can’t we use that time to be more hopeful? Why can’t we use that time to comfort ourselves? Why can’t we treat ourselves the way we treat those around us?
A negative mind-set would never be able to achieve positive results. Positive thoughts will cause positive actions, and positive actions will attain positive results. If all you think are negative thoughts, all you’d attract would be negative people and negative energies into your life. What you feel is what you do; what you think is what you attract. To have negative thoughts is easy, but have you ever thought how easy your life would be if you tried thinking more positively?
Four Activities for Positive Thinking Day There are many positive thinking day activities you can do to celebrate the 13th of September, on the positive thinking day 2020.
1. Self-Love
The journey towards self-love and self-discovery is one of the stepping stones to thinking positively. Ask yourself this question, how many times a day do you tell yourself, “I don’t deserve success,” “I don’t deserve to be loved.” How many times have you looked at your reflection and not liked what you saw? How many times have you compared your social status, career, and education to those around you? How many times have you sat in a group and felt inferior, just because they were more affluent and better looking than you?
When you stare at yourself in the mirror today, look into your eyes, and say these words “I am capable of making my dreams come true,” “I am deserving of love,” “I might be broken, but my scars make me who I am, they make me beautiful,” “I possess a strong soul,” “I’ve overcome difficulties before, I can easily overcome them again,” and most of all, say these words to yourself aloud “I am good enough.”
2. Spend Time With Yourself
Spending quality time with yourself is one of the excellent ways to initiate positive thoughts. No matter how many difficulties you’ve been through in life, there is a way for you to be happy again. If you ever feel like you aren’t good enough, try meditating or reading because words and ideas hold the power to change someone’s perspective on life. The feeling of not being good enough is one of the worst feelings that could ever consume someone’s heart. You must realize that self-doubt is poisonous. Once it enters your mind, it spreads throughout like a virus, infecting every aspect of your heart and mind. And that self-doubt turns into a belief. You start believing that you’re not good enough, nor for success, neither for love.
3. Erase the Painful Memories
One of the many reasons people go through self-doubt is that they were told cruel words that still haven’t been erased from the closet of their memories at one point in their lives. As human beings, we must be careful with the words that we speak. And one of the worst feelings that a human being could feel is to dwell on his past.
We often find ourselves reminiscing the days that have passed away and feel anger at what happened to us. However, thinking about your past won’t change what happened to you. You no longer remain in the same situation, but the feelings still cause you sorrow from time to time. Try to forgive those who have hurt you, and focus on your present. The more you think about your past, the more it will make you suffer. You can’t change the moments that have passed away, but what you can do is fix your present and learn from the moments that have gone away.
4. Celebrate Yourself, Celebrate Life
One of the best ways to have a positive attitude is to celebrate your accomplishments, no matter how minor they might be. Take out a few minutes from your day and write down the things you’ve achieved in the past few years. Write them down, no matter how minor those accomplishments might be. Perhaps your article got published in the daily newspaper, or you found the courage in yourself to complete all of your house chores during the weekend. Recognize the little things, and for you to be grateful for an accomplishment, it shouldn’t be a mountainous achievement. And most of all, be easy on yourself. The way you belittle yourself is also self-harm.
Positive Thinking Techniques
You can use various techniques for shifting your mindset from negative to positive, and there are many effective ways for you to think positively. It is true, thinking positive all the time can often be impossible. It is easier said than done to think only positive. But one thing you can do is to reframe your thoughts and tell yourself, no matter how hard it might be right now, there is always something good hidden in the bad things that happen to you. Take your pain as a source of teaching yourself the art of compassion. Take your heartbreak as a lesson of teaching yourself the art of forgiveness. Nothing in life comes easy. But when you find yourself drowned in the dark turmoil of life, always remind yourself that if the good days have gone away, so will the bad ones.
Why can’t you believe in yourself? The way you believe in others?
Try changing your perspective towards something when you find yourself having an adverse reaction. To think positively is not about suppressing your emotions, nor is it about being ultimately optimistic. It is impossible to remain entirely positive when grief has consumed your heart or when you go through a loss in your life. However, what you can do is to give yourself a gentle reminder that things will get okay soon, and your heart will heal. Because time heals all
emotional scars. Remind yourself; you have a right to feel anger and anguish too. But do not let those feelings consume you. Remember to breathe, and remind yourself, it is a bad day, not a bad life.
Positive Thinking Importance
Positive thinking will let you do all those things you could not do with negative thoughts running through your mind. Positive thinking helps manage stress and is also known to improve the overall health of an individual. There are also various health benefits of positive thinking. Some of those health benefits include:
- There will be lesser chances of you being depressed.
- It decreases the extent of sorrow or grief that you might feel.
- It develops resilience in you, to go through periods of hardships.
- It gives you the strength to overcome life's obstacles.
- You will attain a better health-related to cardiovascular problems.
- An excellent psychological and social well-being.
Books for Positive Thinking Day
Books are one of the best ways to initiate positive thoughts. That is why we have compiled a list of some of the best books for you to read on Positive Thinking Day 2020.
- Positive Thinking Every Day, by Norman Vincent Peale.
- A Daybook of Positive Thinking: Daily Affirmations of Gratitude and Happiness by Patricia Wayant.
- Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude.
- Napoleon Hill and W. Clement Stone.
- Rethinking Positive Thinking: Inside the New Science of Motivation by Gabriele Oettingen.
- The Magic of Thinking Big by David J. Schwartz
- Authentic Happiness by Martin Seligman
Alvis is a nonprofit human services agency with over 50 years of experience. We believe in the power of second chances and coming together as one community to affect change. With our reentry, behavioral health, developmental disabilities, workforce development, family and children's services, and the community, we can make a lasting 180 impact. Learn more about Alvis and how you can get involved at alvis180.org.