Creative and Positive Thinking

Creative and Positive Thinking helps you Think Outside the Box

Creative Thinking is important because it helps you think outside the box and find solutions that aren’t obvious. Combining positive and creative thinking will have a huge, positive impact on your life at home, at work, and in general.

We like to think of our mind and the thinking we do as something isolated and separate from our body and our environment. After all, what could our thoughts have to do with our overall health or how well we do in school or at work? How could our private thoughts impact our relationships with loved ones? They are just thoughts. As long as we don’t voice them, they shouldn’t have an impact on anything at all, right? Wrong.

What you think has big effects on your body, your environment, and those around you.

You actually know this. When you watch a sad movie or recall a sad memory, you start to cry. Your thoughts affect your emotions and your body. When you think about the huge amount of work that’s piling up on your desk or the meeting you have with the new boss in the morning, your heart rate speeds up and you may even feel a little sick to your stomach. You can’t sleep well and, as a result, feel groggy the next day.

When your thoughts are going in a negative direction for a while, you may find yourself getting depressed and suffering from all the physical symptoms that go along with it. Thankfully, the opposite is also true. You can lift your mood by thinking positive thoughts. Study after study shows that positive thinking helps our bodies heal faster. Think about the famous placebo effect. By thinking you’re getting a pill that will fix you up, your physical symptoms improve. I could go on and on. The point is that our thoughts have a direct impact on our bodies. And it doesn’t stop there…

How you think and what you think also affects those around you. Think back on a time when you had a boss who was always in a good mood and had nothing but positive things to say. Then think about one that was always focusing on the negative and maybe even seemed depressed. This person can “infect” and influence an entire team. Are you starting to see why how and what you think is important and the true impact it has?

Cultivating A Creative & Positive Thinking Climate Around You

We are affected by our environment. The space we’re in, the sounds we hear, the scents we smell, and the people we surround ourselves with all have an impact on how we feel, act, and think. If you want to get better at creative and positive thinking, you should make sure you create and cultivate an environment and climate that promotes and fosters just that.

Let’s look at Google as an example.

They have some of the most creative and upbeat teams on the planet. Google comes up with ideas and concepts no one else has even thought of, and they do so consistently and continually. They do it by creating a corporate culture and climate that makes it fun and easy to come up with creative and crazy ideas no one else has thought of.

While you don’t have to go as far as Google has gone, you should give some serious thought to your environment and the climate you create around you. This could apply to your surroundings, your workspace, your home, and even the people around you including team members, employees, and family.

Start with the things that put you in a good mood. Maybe it’s a nice sunny room or a dark office with no distractions. Suppose it’s a plant on your desk or a fun poster on the wall. Maybe it’s sitting in a recliner instead of at a desk or being able to hop on the treadmill throughout your day to get the blood pumping and the endorphins going.

Then, think about what helps you think. Maybe it’s having something to fidget with. Maybe it’s going for a walk outside or listening to a particular type of music. You know yourself and what works for you. What does it take to get you into the zone where work becomes easy and you have your best ideas? What puts you in a good mood? Those are the things you want to surround yourself with.

Start small and keep adding to it.

Keep working on it and encourage the people around you to do the same. Slowly but surely, you’ll change the climate of your office, your home, or wherever you are into a most positive and creative one.

Before long, you’ll start to notice a change in yourself and those around you. The nice thing is that this type of change is contagious. The creativity and positivity will bounce from you to the people around you and back. Before you know it, positive and creative thinking will be the new norm, and there’s no telling where that will take you.

Surround Yourself with Inspiration

Our brains are complex and complicated devices. There’s still a lot to learn about how they work and what influences them. One thing we do know is that outside cues can and will influence how we think and feel. That’s why it can be helpful to surround yourself with inspiration.

Becoming a more positive thinker isn’t always easy. We start that way as children, but for one reason or another, life teaches us that it isn’t all sunshine and roses. Sometimes, the experiences we go through have a way of cutting the joy and positivity right out of our thoughts. We get in the habit of focusing on the negative, the bad stuff. That’s a bad habit to get into and like any bad habit; it can be hard to break it.

Forming a new habit requires you to make the decision to do something different over and over again. For that to happen, you need reminders. You need reasons to change. That’s why inspiration is so important. Things, people, and ideas that inspire and remind us to try harder do better, and keep pushing until these new habits are firmly established.

Your first step is to find out what inspires and motivates you. Maybe it’s an inspirational quote or it’s having a goal in front of you and tracking your progress. Maybe it’s pictures of your family. Find out what inspires you; then, start to surround yourself with it.

Let’s say quotes and affirmations are what inspire you. Your next job is to surround yourself by them. Have your favorite quotes and affirmations printed up, and hang them on the walls of your home and office. Get crafty and come up with your own pieces of art that incorporate the quotes.

Write down your affirmations, and stick them to your bathroom mirror, fridge, or computer monitor.

Put them in places where you’ll see them and read them multiple times per day. Order a mug with your favorite word or quote on it and use it every morning. If you’re so inclined, get a tattoo with your favorite quote, affirmation, or power word. Do what you can to surround yourself with inspiration.

Use it as a reminder and motivator and use it because it makes you happy and puts you in a good mood. Use it to start creating those positive thinking habits until they become completely natural and an integral part of who and what you are.

Inspiration is your friend.

It’s also ever-changing. Let’s go back to the quotes and affirmations example. Those will work great for a while. Then you will start to go blind to all those visual reminders of thinking positive and creative thought. They will blur into the background, and you will stop being able to use them as constant positive reinforcement. That’s why it’s important to change things up and find new inspiration on a regular basis. Keep an eye out for it, and you will find it.