How to Cultivate a Positive Mindset

“Positive emotions also help us recover faster from negative ones; you may remember a time when you found something funny in the middle of a heated argument with the result that the tension immediately evaporated.”

—Sadhguru

Aristotle taught us that virtues are indeed habits; his hypothesis is that the mind is a tabula rasa, or blank slate, when we are born and our living and social conditions shape our characters for better or worse.This theory remained buried for many years, until John Locke, the seventeeth-century philosopher and enlightened thinker known as the 'father of liberalism,' revived it. Since then, the idea has met with much opposition and to this day the 'nature versus nurture' debate rages on. However, there is growing empirical evidence to suggest that the mind is indeed largely shaped by our environment and most positive psychology scientists takte the view that we have 40 per cent control over our own happiness, with 50 per cent the result of genetics over which we have little control, and the remaining 10 per cent coming from the life circumstances you were born into. The empowering news is that habits are malleable and once learned they become automatic and reliable. This is something that is highly evident to positive people.

In this chapter, we will examine the science of neuroplasticity (the flexible, plastic nature of the brain) and also the three components of habit which will allow you to identify your own habit loops. You will create your very own personal trigger list to help dispel old, negative habits of behaviour.

Read the full article on The Positive Habit: Six Steps for Transforming Negative Thoughts into Positive Emotions.

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