If someone really did die, then I am so sorry because that is really devastating.īut if they didn't then things just might not be so bad. This next game asks you to ask you if anybody died. Now it's time to start putting things in perspective. This meditation will then help you carry over this positivity into your nonjournal-writing day. What are you grateful for? What's fantastic about the people you know? In order to start thinking more positively, I think it's important to keep a tally of all the positive things you've got going for you. But it's really just another name for a gratitude journal. The next of my positive thinking exercises is called The Good Book. To start your day primed for positivity, just look into the mirror and start telling yourself all the amazing things about.you.Ĭompliment the hell out of yourself, but you need to really mean it. RuPaul says, "If you can't love yourself, how the hell are you gonna love someone else?" and I think that says it all about this first positive thinking game. Some of these games are designed to help people get and stay more positive. I've spent a decade researching and writing about improvisation, play, and the brain, and I've developed over 100 games to help people become more mindful, relaxed, connected, and confident. Once we get a handle on why we're negative and then how rational and based-in-reality that negativity is, then we can start getting more positive about things that actually do have a silver lining. She might be mad at someone or something else.
If your boss looks angry, that is not rationally negative. How rational or irrational is your negative thinking?įor example, if your boss tells you that you are fired and that you are just generally awful, that is rationally negative. So the idea behind my brand of positive thinking is to get a handle on our cognitive distortions. When you assume what someone else is thinking, you're definitely mind reading. This is when your brain goes to the absolute apocalypse instead of taking things as they come.įor example, if your boss frowns as she's walking past and you think you are going to be fired and never get another job and end up homeless and die alone on the streets, you are catastrophizing.Īnother negative thinking cognitive distortion is mind reading. There are a bunch of ways that your brain tricks you into not seeing things how things really are. In other words, do some soul searching and reflection, so you know which sucky things suck, and which awesome things rock.īefore I get to the 6 positive thinking exercises, let's talk about cognitive distortions that might be preventing you from thinking more positively.Ĭognitive distortions are irrational thoughts. My version of getting and staying positive is about figuring out when your negativity is rational and when it's a cognitive distortion. Someone you love is ill or dead? There is no sugar coating how awful that is.Īnyone that tells you to look on the bright side of everything did not get the whole memo.
When I talk about being more positive, I'm not talking about being positive about everything. Now, I know a lot of you might be saying, "There's nothing wrong with negativity." Or "Oh no, is this another one of those mindless look-on-the-bright-side posts?" So I created some positive thinking exercises to get my thinking back on track. Other times, and I'm much less proud of this, I think negative things about others. Sometimes I think negative things about myself. I catch myself being negative all the time.
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