Positive Mental Attitude

Despite living in a world full of fantastic people and great opportunities, we often become accustomed to assuming the worst in every given situation. Whether it be someone gazing at us for a little too long on the train and making the assumption that they’re staring to be hostile, or experiencing the sinking feeling in our stomach when someone tells us ‘we need to talk’, we are all too negative for our own good.

I remember when I used to take the train to my old job, I came across people from all walks of life. One particularly miserable day I caught a girl around my age staring at me persistently. I started to feel my guard coming up and instinctively felt as though she was looking at me for a negative reason. But just seconds after catching her gaze, she smiled at me and said “sorry, I don’t mean to stare, it was only because I thought you were really pretty”. One of the cuff comment that filled me with joy, planting a permanent smile on my face for the rest of that day. From that day on I told myself that I would stop assuming the worst and adopt a more positive attitude in such situations.

I recall a time when my boss had asked me to make time for a meeting on the Friday, because he needed to review my work ethic. I felt flushed and worrisome and the next few days were spent overanalysing my upcoming review, assuming that he was unhappy with my behaviour at work, even though I had done nothing wrong. When the day finally came, I was welcomed by a warm face and nothing but kind words. The meeting was actually the opposite to what my thoughts had manifested and my boss spent the meeting praising me for my hard work and dedication to the job. This was just another situation that reminded me of my accidental negative assumptions in life.

My experiences are just two examples of how our thoughts are often consumed with assumed negativity instead of simply seeing the situation in a positive light. The thoughts in our head are courtesy of our subconscious mind, and this has been programmed ever since we were born. But maybe it’s time we put our subconscious mind aside and make our own reality. Every time a thought produces a negative emotion, we should contemplate the origin of this thought and question the validity of it. We should believe in ourselves and our importance in this life; rid ourselves of negative thoughts for a healthier, happier mind.