You’ve heard that positive thinking is crucial for your happiness and can even change the circumstances of your life, but where exactly does that stem from? Positive thinking is being studied by many esteemed scientists and psychologists, including a woman named Barbara Fredrickson. Let’s take a deeper look into her studies to better understand the scientifically factual benefits of positive thinking and how it can change your life.

Your mind and negative emotions:
Human beings  developed negative thoughts as a means for survival. For example, we needed to be capable of worry and fear in order to effectively escape predators. In order to survive, our brains are designed to go into “narrow-focus” mode when we’re in a state of worry. If a predator is stalking us, we have to focus on getting away, and nothing else. Any other thought would get in the way of our escape. The problem is that now, when we’re worried about something that may or may not happen tomorrow, our brains narrow down to focus on the fear and block out every single other thought that might pop in, especially the positive ones. When you’re in a state of fear or worry, your brain dwells on it, thinking it’s not safe to think about anything else, and before you know it you’re trapped in a cocoon of anxious, agitated thoughts and feelings, believing that there is nothing good in the world.

Your mind and positive emotions:
Barbara Fredrickson conducted an experiment to test the effects of positive thinking on the brain. She divided participants into groups and showed each group a video. Some groups watched a video depicting upsetting scenes of fear and anger, while others watched a video designed to create feelings of joy and satisfaction. Of course, one control group watched an emotionally neutral video. The participants were then asked to write about what they would do in the situations they just watched using sentences beginning with “I would like to…”. Those who watched negative content wrote the fewest responses, those who watched neutral content wrote a little bit more, while those who watched positive content wrote down a significantly higher amount of responses.

The takeaway from all of this is that when we fill our minds with positive imagery and ideas, our minds expand and we see more possibilities for ourselves. The tunnel vision of negative thinking disappears.

Activities proven to generate positive thoughts and feelings:
There are endless ways to encourage your mind to think positively, but here are three simple ideas to get started.

• Think about what you love and what you’re grateful for
  When you’re intentionally filling your head up with love and gratitude, there becomes less and less room for negativity. For example: if you’re daydreaming about an upcoming vacation, you literally won’t be able to have negative thoughts. Positive and negative thoughts can’t exist together in the same moment, so any time you choose to think about something that makes you feel good, bad feelings won’t have space in your mind.

• Write
  Recent studies show that writing about an intensely positive experience for three days in a row can lead to months of improved happiness and physical health!

• Have fun
  Why do we schedule time for meetings and chores and work of all kinds, but don’t schedule time for pure, unadulterated fun? Perhaps it’s because we don’t think having fun is a productive use of our time. Well, as you now know, that isn’t true! It goes without saying that when you’re truly having fun you’re thinking exclusively good thoughts, so make time for it as often as possible!???????

Thanks to Barbara Fredrickson and other psychological pioneers of today, we now know that positive thinking isn’t something you just have to try and hope it works. It does work, and science is proving it, discovering more on the subject all the time. Consider these suggestions, and notice how practicing them consistently changes your life for good.