Happiness is experienced by those who want it and that want begins as a floating thought. A positive thought. It is your job to embrace that thought and allow it to fill your life and transform it. Happiness begins with your thoughts. How would you describe your thoughts: Positive? Negative? What color are your thoughts: Light? Dark? If you are plagued with negative thoughts then continue reading...

Negative thoughts attract negative things. It's like driving a car. If you are looking at the line in the middle of the road while driving you will veer towards it increasing the chance of a tragic accident. This is the same with your thoughts. Thinking negative thoughts will veer you towards negative experiences and negative people. So stop thinking negative thoughts!

But how?

The first step to cultivating positive thoughts is to accept that happiness is rightly yours. Happiness is all around you but you have to change your perspective to see it. Just as with driving you have to drive towards it. Happiness must be your goal.

Now just because you have decided that you want to be happy doesn't mean every little negative thought will be immediately replaced by buzzing positive thoughts. But it does face you in the right direction and with some effort you will reap the rewards. It is only human to have negative thoughts because there is opposition in all things; black/white, tall/small, loud/quiet, sour/sweet, hard/soft, fat/thin, happy/sad so of course negative/positive? The key is to transform or replace or forget negative thoughts. It is unhealthy to pretend that nothing bad or negative ever happens because that would lead to disappointment. But rather than focusing on the negative aspects of life magnify the positive elements and allow them to take the lead.

Magnifying the Positive

To magnify means to enlarge in volume, size or significance. Choose an aspect of your life and dissect the positive parts. For example; a young mother is potty training her young son. There are lots of accidents and one success. If the mother focuses on the one success by praising her son and showing him that going toilet in the toilet makes her happy then he will want to try to have more successes and his self esteem will increase. On the other hand if the young mother allows the accidents to irritate her she will become quick tempered with her son which will destroy his self esteem and desire to try harder and increase her chances of giving up. Can you see how magnifying the positive creates promising and rewarding benefits?

When you magnify the positive it doesn't deny the negative rather it overpowers it. A life powered by positive thoughts is a happy life.

Acceptance

Often people wallow in negative thoughts because of what they don't have or what they have lost. Living in the past will only bring misery and tare away at your self esteem and ability to be great. For example; a middle aged man who lost a leg due to an unfortunate accident will gain no good from dwelling on what might have been or how things used to be before the accident. The fact is he doesn't have two working legs anymore so by focusing on what he used to have he will be filled with sadness and sorrow. To find happiness this man must accept that his life is different due to an accident but it is not destroyed. By accepting his loss and looking forward and advancing toward new goals will provide him with confidence, self assurance and most importantly happiness.

Everyone has heard a story of a person who has been through awful stuff and yet they radiate light and happiness. This is no coincidence. These people all have something in common they made a decision to look forward and seize thier happiness. 

Sharing

Do you remember show and tell time as a kid? Do you remember a kid bringing something to show and tell that he loved dearly? Do you remember going home and wanting whatever it was that that kid had because it was so cool and it made him so happy? The fact is if you share you positive thoughts and optimism with friends, family and strangers it will solidify your own positive thoughts and spread the desire for happiness. Those around you will want to be happy as you are. Share your happiness with others and allow others to share it with you because it will enrich your life and add to your happiness.