The Power of Positive Thinking

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my little daily reminder to believe in myself :-)

I slap a smile on my face all day every day whether I'm feeling it or not (not that I don't ever cry or get sad of course!) but even if you have to fake it at first at some point it becomes your reality. If you send out positive energy into the universe, positive energy will come back to you.

I'm sending positive vibes to all my mfp friends!

50 things I like about myself (which should help my self-esteem and my weight-loss fitness-gain journey):
01. I made the very important decision to give MFP a second try (yay!!!).
02. I realize the importance of reading the food labels on products (I'm from Canada and most all grocery products have labels).
03. I like the "skinny" me that's inside and who really just wants to be free to emerge like a flower that blooms.
04. Even though I once had social-anxiety (which lasted about 17 years) because of my obesity, I am now feeling freer and more out-going with people and talkative when I go shopping or working with the public.
05. I am not well-liked by some people in my community but I am slowly realizing that that's okay - it's like "meh, whatever - you're not no prize yourself" (lol)
06. I find myself laughing more often and not so serious anymore .... not sure how to explain that one, or even if I want to try (hehe).
07. Even though I can't think of 50 things I like about myself, I like that I made the attempt.

Just want to say thanks for posting the original "Positive Thinking" thread - if I hadn't seen it, I would never have even thought to think about things I like about myself. Right on!!!

I'm a firm believer that we have (in the absence of real mental disease) the ability to control our thoughts and our moods. Positive self-affirmation may sound like unicorns and rainbows and new age silliness but it works.

Tell somebody they're worthless long enough and they'll believe it (and people often do it to themselves), tell yourself that you're strong and capable and you become it. Without going into too many details quite a few years ago my life was in a downward spiral; I took control of the messages I gave myself and completely rebuilt my life.

You are absolutely right, the mind is such a powerful thing, it's really quite awesome. I'm in awe the more I read about it.

I've been reading about neuroplasticity. This is absolutely fascinating stuff. Do you know that your brain physically changes based on what you do or don't do (habits?). It rewires itself to make the things you do often easier, I'm sure that's a really simplified version of it but I had no idea!

If you were to do something every morning, eventually your brain would remap itself PHYSICALLY to make doing that thing automatic, to make it easier. To make it something you do without thought. This is habit. If you tried to stop doing that thing, your brain would resist that change, because your neurons have wired together to make this a thing you do. Good or bad, this can be a great tool.

I also found a study that showed that just VISUALIZING something could make things happen for you. They did a study where a group of people just visualized themselves doing a specific exercise, and at the end of the study they had strength gains, just through visualizing it... crazy!

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?db=pubmed&uid=14998709&cmd=showdetailview&indexed=google

So what this means... if your brain can physically change and rewire itself based on what you do or don't do, if THINKING about things can change your outcomes, what am I doing to myself when I think things like "this is too hard!" or "I will never be able to do this!" or "I hate exercise!". I'm just making those things reality on some level. Much better to visualize good things... fake it till it's true, smile while doing the exercise and think "wheeeee this is great!" instead of "ugh, how much longer..."

Adding cognitive therapy into that is really helping me too. Talking to myself when I have an urge to do something that isn't planned... Tell myself "If I eat this slice of cake, i'm strengthening my "give in" habit, if I don't eat it I'm strengthening my "resistance" habit.

And really I just tell myself to do today what I want to be able to effortlessly accomplish in a year from now.

If your mind can Conceive it, you can Achieve it!

Day after day I see people in the forums stating that they 'can't do this by myself' 'am finding it so hard' 'I'm so gross and disgusting' and the profiles I see are worse!

Words are powerful. If you tell yourself you can't do something, or that it is too hard then it will become true. If you think of yourself in negative ways, why would you then turn around and treat yourself in a positive way?

Even on my own profile I call my body horrible.

LOVE yourself. Who cares if you get slightly conceited. To me it's better to say 'Yes I'm awesome' then to say 'I'm so gross and disgusting' Tell yourself every day you can do this. That you can achieve what you put your mind to. You don't need anyone to help you, to motivate you, you can do it all by yourself.

So very very true!!

It's not that I don't think the power of positive thinking has it's uses, because it does. But it has its limitations, too. If you believe otherwise, I'll sing for you, and then when your ears stop bleeding, you can tell me that with enough positive thinking and proper visualization, I'll be singing for millions of adoring fans around the world.

Ain't gonna happen. Reality is a female dog. With rabies.

No one is saying that if you try to think positively about being a blonde, your brown hair will suddenly get lighter. Or that if you aren't able to sing at all (some people just don't have a good singing voice) that thinking positively will suddenly give you talent. But I do believe you DO need to think in positive thoughts. For example, your subconscious doesn't understand negatives (don't think about a pink elephant), so when you say things like "Don't eat crap" on some level you're really telling yourself to eat crap. Instead say, I will eat healthy choices. If you tell yourself "I don't like to exercise", then you won't like to exercise. If instead you tell yourself "I love it!" and smile while you do it...