The Power of Positives. We all have positive experiences, events, and thoughts but so often we forget to harness their power. What do I mean by this? Read on and learn more.
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What Are Positives?
Our lives are crammed full of positive experiences, events, thoughts, and feelings but if we fail to notice them we will only see negatives. Have you looked at a battery recently? Batteries are clearly marked with a negative end and a positive end. If you insert a battery the wrong way round, or try to jump-start a car with the connections reversed, it will not work.
When you look at that battery what do you think? I visualise the power as being at the positive end with the negative being where all power drains away. Not correct if I was studying Physics but clear enough to me.
Some people think that for every positive there is, inevitably, a negative. This may be true for batteries but it is not so in life.
Every day we are confronted with a string of positives and negatives. Some positives are obvious, such as “I got the job I wanted”, but many are easy to overlook, eg the Daffodils. This is because we can easily take positives for granted – we stop seeing them for what they are.
It is also perfectly possible to turn a negative into a positive, just by the way we think and react. Let me give you an example.
Last Thursday
Last Thursday was a busy day for me. I had an early morning appointment followed by a train journey to reach a second, lunchtime, appointment. The lunchtime meeting over-ran and I had missed the train I had planned to catch to reach my next meeting, about two miles away. (NEGATIVE alert – I’d missed my train).
As I stood there realising my problem it was a warm, sunny afternoon and, despite the traffic, I could hear birdsong. (POSITIVE). I decided to walk into town, it would take 40 minutes or so and the weather was nice. Off I went; I must admit with a spring in my step.
En route I was able to admire the view over the City (Liverpool for anyone who doesn’t know). I encountered children happily playing in the street (It was Half Term). I not only saw swathes of Daffodils, but many other Spring flowers. The birds were still singing, and the sun was warm on my back. All thoughts of a missed train had gone, I was enjoying the moment.
About 15 minutes into my walk I bumped into an acquaintance I had not seen for some time. A quick catch up delayed me by a few minutes but a chat, laugh and smiles had joined my positives.
As I was approaching my destination I witnessed a film crew working on a TV production, and I stopped to watch for a minute or two. There was an elderly lady watching the filming and I smiled at her, commenting on the beautiful weather. She returned my smile with a scowl and “It’ll rain later”. How sad that she wasn’t enjoying a positive moment because she was focusing on a negative. It did rain about 5 hours later so she really was ruining a lovely afternoon anticipating something she couldn’t control and was hours away!
This Morning
It’s Monday. I never used to like Mondays – what could be good about a Monday? Thankfully I have learned to focus on positives and let negatives go. This morning I awoke to a clear blue sky, bright sunshine, and little (if any) wind. I have no aches or pains, no snuffles, no runny nose and I feel physically good. (I am no athlete , and I’m in my 60s so I won’t be running any marathons today!) The important thing is that my Monday morning feels positive in every way.
But I wasn’t always like this. Life seemed grey, threatening, and relentlessly negative to me, simply because I had developed the habit of thinking that way.
Thriving
I learnt about the Power of Positives when I undertook The Thrive Programme. Until then I focused on the negatives, I actually thought that was the best thing to do. After all, expect the worse and I couldn’t be disappointed could I? Trouble was I missed the positives and ruined all the good experiences I could have enjoyed. I missed out on life.
The Thrive Programme taught me what I was doing to myself and how easy it is to be far happier, positive, and thriving. I then trained to be a Licensed Thrive Programme Consultant and now one of my biggest positives is helping clients learn what I did.
The Thrive Programme teaches people to change their lives. Processing your Positives is a powerful exercise within the Programme but there is much more.
To learn more about how Thrive can help you contact me and we’ll meet for a coffee and chat. Your life can improve as mine did and I will show you how with The Thrive Programme.
Ian Crosswell
I’m Ian and I’m a qualified Thrive Programme Consultant. Using the professionally developed Thrive Programme – a proven, evidence based, positive psychology training programme – I work with people from all walks of life, providing the insights and skills they need to change their lives for the better.