In Your First Aid Kit: Survival Positive Thinking
Survival positive thinking: when extreme conditions require extreme measures
Tough situations? Emotions running high? Feeling out of hope?
Throughout my life I have experienced different situations of intense painful feelings.
I'm talking about those times when you feel you've tried everything, you've done everything to achieve a goal, yet you have failed or you're stuck, and you even feel out of hope, tired and worn out.
The goal may be getting a new job, making a relationship work, losing weight...
How to change these painful feelings when things don't seem to go?
At those times I propose you open your survival positive thinking kit, and think about the following:
- It can't get worst; it can only get better. If you have given up hope and think that it can't get worst, then it follows that it can only get better from where you are.
Instead of dwelling on how bad your state is, find relief in the fact that it can only get better. You happened to get there for a reason; now you can just learn the lesson and go on. - You are alive. It is never the end, until you die (and even this is argued depending on different belief systems).
You're reading this, therefore you are alive, therefore you are all right.
Nothing is ever so drastic, because it's never the end. Besides, you can at any point choose to think about your circumstances in a different way.
Instead of thinking of your situation as a dead-end one, think it as the beginning of something new, with infinite possibilities.
Turn it around, think it different. Watch for the good surprises coming your way. - A big setback can be telling you that you need a different strategy. Rarely do we question the way we do things, and sometimes our "how to" is what we need to change to achieve what we want.
If you are trying to pursue a goal and you don't see things working, you may need to change your tactic. What other ways to go about getting what you want can you think of?
Most of the times we make situations worst than they actually are because we label them as negative without much questioning.
Take the time to take your own thought filters out of whatever you're looking at. Use Byron Katie's method of inquiry 'Is it true?' to deal with any thought that bothers you - this is a way to peace.
Through trial and error you can also test what techniques work for you to bring you to a more positive state of mind. Keep those techniques to create your own survival positive thinking kit.
"Our attitude toward life determines life's attitude towards us."
Earl Nightingale