5 Daily Disciplines that Reprogram Your Mind to Stay Positive

Did you know there are simple ways you can override default negative thoughts,
essentially hypnotizing your mind to think positive?
There is no getting around the fact that negativity is all around us, and this has a
significant impact on your mind. In fact, the brain is innately programmed with a
“negativity bias” – the tendency for your brain to be more sensitive to unpleasant
stimuli.
Scientists believe the tendency to react more strongly to negative input had a good
reason – our distant ancestors had to constantly deal with danger; thus their survival
relied on being able to detect and avoid dangerous situations. In short, the bias has
evolutionary roots.
Then, there is the incomprehensible complexity of the human mind, with approximately
100 trillion neural connections. This unfathomable number of synapses explains our
complex way of thinking. It also explains why we have negative thoughts that replay
themselves over and over without us understanding why.
The good news is that you can control what your mind produces. While you may
never be able to completely rid your brain of negative thoughts, you can drastically
reduce them. With some patience and the willingness to discipline yourself, you can
indeed reprogram your mind to stay positive.

HERE ARE 5 DAILY DISCIPLINES THAT WILL HELP YOU REPROGRAM YOUR
MIND TO POSITIVE…

1. KEEP A GRATITUDE JOURNAL

Research has shown that practicing gratitude regularly makes your brain healthier and
happier. Some of the benefits of being grateful include more motivation, better sleep,
and a better mood throughout the day.
One gratitude study involved assigning a group of young adults to keep a daily journal
of things that they were grateful for. The other group was instructed to keep a daily
journal of things that annoyed them or reasons why they were better off than other
people. The group that kept the gratitude journal demonstrated greater increases in
attention, determination, energy and enthusiasm.
This study demonstrated three important takeaways: (1) gratitude has great
psychological benefits, (2) thinking that you are “better off” than another person is not
gratitude, and (3) true appreciation is an important aspect of being grateful.
Gratitude is not a comparative practice. It is honing in on the positive aspects of your
life that makes you more appreciative.

2. REPEAT POSITIVE AFFIRMATIONS

In numerous studies, positive affirmations have been shown to effectively change the
way that the brain is wired. This rewiring changes the way in which the brain filters
incoming stimuli, effectively resulting in a more positive mood.
Dr. Mona Lisa Schultz, neuroscientist, and author of various books on the subject of
affirmations and the brain explains:
“We can rewire the patterns in our brain with cognitive behavior therapy or affirmations.
Affirmations change the way our brains are wired and the brain lights up differently.
So it’s not just this flow, woo-woo stuff…(affirmations) have a bio-chemical, neuro-
chemical, and neuropharmacological affects just as effective, if not more effective,
than Prozac, Zoloft, or whatever else you have.”

Here’s a quick 4-step method to create positive affirmations:

 Take some alone time to think about areas of your life you’d like to improve or how
you’d like your life to be.
 Write down a list of the most important improvements that you’d like to make.
 Write down a few positive statements for each item on your list. Jot them down in
the present tense, and make sure you focus on what you do want, not what
you don’t.
 Post these affirmations around your home and read them frequently.

3. ASSOCIATE AND SURROUND YOURSELF WITH SUPPORTIVE PEOPLE

Positive people have a positive effect on your thinking. Embrace the company of
individuals who display a positive mindset. Doing so will inspire, empower, and
motivate you to be your best.
As mentioned earlier, the brain has a default setting that remembers and holds onto
negative events. People that are negative are no different. They will alter your way of
thinking and you will, consciously or unconsciously, begin to mirror their behaviors,
words, and thoughts. This makes it all the more important to mind the company that
you keep.
Refuse the company of negative people by keeping in mind your end goal – developing
habits that allow your brain to stay positive. Your mindset is more important than
accommodating people that negatively affect your brain and slow your progress.

4. IGNORE NEGATIVE THOUGHTS

Remember this: you are not your negative thoughts, period. Our negativity bias makes
it probable that negative thoughts will surface at times throughout the day.
Negative thinking is simply tabloid material for the mind. There is no substance to
tabloid material…it’s literally designed to attract the curious shopper into paying for
useless and intellectually dishonest information. Publishers of tabloids rely on the
impulses and misguided curiosity of people who see them.
The brain is the same way. It may be clever in how it presents the information, but in
the end it’s void of anything that represents the facts. The facts are these: you are a
person dedicated to improvement, you are positive in your outlook, and you innately
know that you are a positive person.
When negative thoughts present themselves, don’t acknowledge them. Don’t wage a
thought war by attempting to rationalize with them. You observe them, sure, that’s
natural. Observation doesn’t indicate acknowledgment.
When you don’t engage negative thoughts, they fade away, in the same way, the
desire to buy that tabloid magazine diminishes when you leave the store…and you’re
better off as a result.

5. STAY ACTIVE
Idleness gives provides ample time for the brain to overanalyse and overthink. The
easiest solution is to simply recognize when your brain is taking you down this road
and divert the course.
There are many ways to become active, but the best (by far) is exercise. Exercise
releases endorphins, the hormones that are responsible for feelings of euphoria. It’s a
natural antidepressant that far exceeds the capabilities of any prescription drug. Its
positive effects are also long-lasting, remaining with you throughout the day.
Other benefits of exercise on the brain include:
 Oxygenizes the brain, improving its function
 Releases a plethora of hormones, aiding and providing nourishment for brain cells
 Stimulates brain plasticity by stimulating the growth in critical areas of the brain
 Improves learning and memory
 Reduces the risk of brain-related illness such as Alzheimer’s and dementia.