Capture your inner child

A guide to positive thinking

Positive thinking can have a huge impact on your state of mind and improve your overall life, but many people find it very hard to stop dwelling on problems that they have had in their past.<o :p></o>

Perhaps we should all stop and look at children for guidance on this, seriously.<o :p></o>

Children are the ultimate positive thinkers, they have not yet learnt that life can throw curve balls and that there are challenges around every corner. They look at life as one big adventure. <o :p></o>

Maybe we should all adopt that way of thinking.<o :p></o>

If you think about the way that children behave, they do not seem to fear new things, they are willing to try anything once. Children love exploring the world and finding out what life has to offer. They love life, they are optimistic and happy, and they are willing to challenge themselves.<o :p></o>

This is how they learn, how they develop their identity.<o :p></o>

Children do not jump on the negative side of life, they believe that there is good out there. They are not aware of the bad things that the world can hold because you shelter them from that.<o :p></o>

You should re-develop that child-like faith, stop dwelling on the bad things in your life and start looking for the positives instead, you might be surprised by how much of a change it makes.<o :p></o>

Slow down and take some time to enjoy life, ‘stop and smell the roses’. A child in a florists shop or in a garden will smell the flowers, but when was the last time that you did? You would probably think of yourself as ‘too busy’ for that. Take the time to slow down, change your attitude, get positive.

Stop filling your days with ‘to do’s’. Enjoy life and you will soon find it is easy to embrace the positive.

If you want some examples of things that children do that you have probably lost touch with:

1. Exploring new things. When you are faced with the unknown, do not walk away, walk towards it. Children are excited by exploring, it is how they learn new things in their life. Let yourself start exploring again, see if you can’t learn a few new things too.
2. Don’t walk away from a challenge. When children are faced with a new challenge, they get excited and look at it as a game, something to enjoy. Let yourself accept new challenges instead of walking away.
3. Learn to make a mess. Children are naturally messy. They love to make a mess. This can drive you mad, but they are usually learning something in the process, and they simply do not care if they are getting a little messy whilst doing so. They are also often at their happiest whilst making all of this mess. You should follow their example, make a bit of a mess, you might find your happiness increasing, your and tension decreasing and you never know, you might learn something new too.
4. Challenge the rules. Children are always ignoring or pushing the rules. It sometimes gets them into trouble. Challenging authority can be fun though, children pushing the limits are usually smiling, simply because they are doing something they were specifically told not to do. It can be seen as an adrenaline rush. Now I’m not suggesting that you get yourself into trouble, but try to push or even break a few rules now and then, let yourself feel like a kid again, enjoy the adrenaline rush.
5. Learn to pretend again. A big part of being a child is learning to ‘make believe’. Almost everything that they do in play revolves around their imaginations and pretending. Your imagination is a wonderful thing, you should start to use it again. Think of an imaginary place where you can go, or pretend that you are someone else in another place, allow yourself some time away from your normal life and you could find yourself with new ideas, new goals, maybe even becoming more relaxed. Have some fun with this one, you never know where it could take you.

These are just a few examples of children having a positive attitude in their lives. If you want to find some more, just watch children play. See what they do and take note of how different their attitudes are to life and to each other.

How do they get through the day without getting stressed?

You might say ‘but they have no responsibility’, I will reply ‘why does that hold you back from being positive?’. It is just an excuse. Excuses can kill the positive attitude that you need to build to improve your mind.

Just let yourself be child-like, let yourself be free, learn to love life again.