Lesson 2. Positive thinking as the basis of a sense of humor

Many people ask how to learn to think positively?

Today I will tell you the whole truth about positive thinking. But most importantly, you will understand how to actually think positively in order to change your life for the better and that for this you first need to achieve peace of mind.

Now it has become fashionable to talk about positive thinking; everyone has probably heard about Louise Hay and her methods. Indeed, such a correct approach to life improves our mood, makes us happy and healthy. And bad mood, constant depression, lack of positivity lead to illness and worsen the quality of life. And here positive advice from Louise Hay or other promoters of a positive attitude towards the world comes to the rescue. People read them, try to apply their advice, try to smile through their strength, but for some reason the positive never comes. Or it comes, but not for everyone and not for long. Regular stress and troubles in life unsettle us, and in difficult situations we don’t even remember about positive thinking. What is the matter, why do people know that they need to smile often, be cheerful, but nothing happens. It turns out that life is not so simple. If it were so easy, then everyone would be happy after reading Louise Hay's books. But this doesn't happen. Today you will understand why this happens.

The essence of positive thinking

Positive thinking is comparable to a certain stage of development of the thought process, which is based on the fact that a person perceives the world around him in a way that is more beneficial to him. Entering this stage allows a person to experiment more (in the global sense of the word), discover new facets of being, find opportunities for personal growth, remain a winner even in moments of failure, find a way out where it would seem impossible to find one.

Well, naturally, without positive thinking there can be no sensible humor, because negative thinking, like positive thinking, is an indicator of the level of brain potential, but in this case it is low. People who think negatively accumulate negative emotions, bring gloomy colors into their lives, perceive only disgusting, gray everyday life, and concentrate on the negative.

Negative thinking person:

Looks for the negative in everything
Reluctant to accept change
Does not want to gain new knowledge and learn
Often falls into depression and succumbs to nostalgic moods
Living in anticipation of hard times
Doesn't want to do anything, while at the same time wanting to have everything he wants
Has a negative attitude towards others
Can't think positively

Imagine a person who has the above qualities. Do you think it’s easy for him to joke? How developed is his sense of humor? What is it like to be in the company of such a person? The answer, it seems to us, is obvious.

No, of course, such a person can joke, and tell something funny, and be perky. But by and large, all this will be rather an exception to the rule, because with negative thinking it is extremely difficult to use a sense of humor. That’s why, when talking about developing a sense of humor, first of all you need to pay attention to your way of thinking, your inclinations in thinking, its direction. And if there is evidence that you are driven by negative thinking, you need to work on this issue as soon as possible. So let's not put things off for a long time and move on to the practice of developing positive thinking (by the way, you can find useful information on this topic here).

How to learn to think positively

Before you begin to change your way of thinking, you should first understand what psychological type you belong to:

Introvert - individuals are closed in their own self. Their emotional background is smooth and has no changes. These people will never look for noisy companies. Loneliness is a familiar and favorite environment for them. A positive attitude is an elusive goal for such people.
Extroverts are open, communication-loving people. In most cases, this personality type is characteristic of people who tend to view life’s difficulties as a way to improve themselves. Extroverts rarely face the question of how to set themselves up for positivity. Usually these are the people who charge those around them with their love of life.

Features of extroverts

The power of positive thinking is fully revealed in a number of traits inherent in extroverts:

Interest in exploring new unexplored boundaries, thirst for knowledge;
The desire to make your life better;
Planning your actions;
Ability to work in order to achieve set goals;
Positive or neutral attitude towards others;
A careful analysis of the lives of successful people. Taking into account their knowledge and experience in their activities;
An even attitude towards your victories;
Reasonable attitude towards material values;
Emotional generosity within reason.

Conventionally, we can combine the concepts of extrovert and positive thinking, and introvert with negative thinking. However, this classification is very simplified. It is not necessary to say that a certain type of character has exclusively positive or negative traits.

Developing Positive Thinking: Techniques

Developing positive thinking is a full-fledged work on oneself, and the work is very painstaking, but very interesting. You can develop this quality in yourself through affirmations and banal communication with positively minded people, but there are also several effective techniques. The only condition for each of them is regularity of implementation - by practicing daily, very soon (perhaps even in a couple of weeks) you will begin to notice changes in yourself and your thoughts.

Substitution

It is not always possible to be positive, especially when life gets in the way and a person faces obstacles along the way. The difference between people in such situations is that some know how to adapt to the positive, while others do not know how to do this, or simply do not want to do it.

In any situation when it is necessary to overcome some kind of obstacle at the mental level, it is initially necessary to determine the cause of its occurrence and the time during which it haunts. It is also recommended (not mandatory, but it will not be superfluous) to understand how other people react to similar circumstances: whether, in their opinion, the problem can be resolved, what will be suitable for resolving it, whether it will arise again, etc.

Once this kind of preparation has been carried out, you can proceed to the technique itself:

Find a comfortable position and close your eyes
Imagine that you are looking at a fire, from which a pleasant warmth emanates
Imagine your problems falling into a flame and melting in it
Think about how everything bad that is now in your life suddenly becomes good and useful.
Imagine that the fire is changing: the color of the fire changes from orange to blue, and the flame itself begins to pass through the spine and spread throughout the body, covering all vital areas and organs

Do the exercise for at least 5-10 minutes. After completing it, you will notice that your attitude towards problems has changed - it has become more “lighter”, and your mood has become better.

Liquidation

A technique borrowed from the book of Christopher Hansard, a doctor of Tibetan medicine and author of several best-selling books on healthy living and spirituality. It is designed to redirect you to positivity. Oddly enough, it is recommended to start doing it early on Thursday morning, because... It is precisely this time, according to spiritual rules, that is considered the best for removing obstacles. The technique is performed within 24 minutes.

The technique algorithm is as follows:

Take a comfortable position
Imagine that you are “diving” into a problem or difficult situation
Imagine that the moment your body comes into contact with the problem, it evaporates, burns, or crumbles
If negative thoughts arise, do not suppress them. On the contrary, continue to think in this way, but at the same time think that all negative energy comes out, where it is instantly neutralized

Once the exercise is completed, you should relax for a few minutes. Remember that the duration of the technique directly affects the intensity of the subsequent positive attitude.

Luck

This practice helps not only to tune in to the positive, but also to attract positive events and people, success, luck and well-being into your life. But before you do it, you must honestly answer the question: will you use positive thinking only for your own benefit, or will you apply it to those around you. Truly positive thinkers are more selfless, and their positive energy extends to everything or anyone they interact with.

The essence of the technique is this:

Find a comfortable position and take a deep breath
Think about a person you would like to help
Mentally send positive thoughts towards that person.
Imagine how this person's situation is resolved successfully

After completing the exercise, clap your hands 7 times loudly to stimulate the pressure points on your hands and also as a sign that you have completed the exercise.

The power of thought

Surely you have read or heard more than once that a person’s thoughts shape his personal reality. In other words, what a person thinks about most of the time has a huge chance of happening. Moreover, it does not play a big role here whether a person is trying to avoid something or, on the contrary, trying to attract something. The mental charge itself is of primary importance.

Take this idea and follow these steps:

Try to ensure that your thoughts and speech contain predominantly affirmative words and expressions, for example: “I have”, “I have”, “victory”, “I win”, etc. Try to use the particle “not” as little as possible.
Cultivate faith in success by thinking about the successful outcome of any endeavor. Thanks to this attitude, sometimes things that were initially doomed to failure are realized.
Be open to change. A huge number of people are afraid of changes in life, changes in work, life, and personal sphere. Sometimes this fear becomes the cause of chronic phobias. Staying positive in such situations is quite challenging. Avoid concentrating on incomprehensible, inexplicable, uncontrollable and unknown fears. If changes suddenly loom on the horizon, focus on new opportunities, expanding boundaries, the benefits of leaving your comfort zone and other positive components of change.
Make it a habit to smile as soon as you open your eyes in the morning after waking up, enjoy the contemplation of the morning light and savor the upcoming events.

As a result of this practice, a positive attitude and good mood will accompany you every day from morning until evening, and the world around you will begin to transform, acquiring bright and beautiful colors.

Self-irony

Self-irony is one of the foundations of positive thinking, as well as the most important indicator of a mature personality. You can successfully laugh at other people and life situations, but if a person is not able to laugh at himself, there can be no question of full-fledged positive thinking, as well as a sense of humor.

Any positive-thinking person and any comedian will tell you that you should not take yourself too seriously - this makes a person’s psyche inflexible and unyielding, makes it difficult to perceive what is happening in a positive light and causes uncomfortable situations and unnecessary anxiety. It is best to learn to laugh at yourself, both in difficult life situations and in awkward moments of everyday life.

Training the skill of laughing at yourself can happen in a variety of ways:

If you find yourself in a tricky situation (for example, you stood in a long line at a store, and right in front of you the cashier left for lunch, or you began to forcefully open the automatic door in a minibus, and everyone began to look at you, etc.), look at yourself from the outside or imagine another person in your place.
If you find yourself in an uncomfortable position (for example, you slipped or tripped out of the blue, hiccupped loudly when everyone was silent, crashed into the transparent glass of a store door without noticing it, etc.), try to imagine your facial expression, voice, or behavioral characteristics.
If some serious event occurs that does not please you, look for positive aspects in it (it is best if they are funny). For example, if your girlfriend or boyfriend left you, think like this: “Did I really have a girlfriend/boyfriend?!”, “Lord, how good my soul felt,” “I’ll finally be able to watch my favorite football/series without gundezh,” “It’s good that the wife/husband doesn’t know,” etc. In every negative situation, give yourself the mindset to look for at least 10 positive aspects in it. By the way, there is an excellent video on this topic from the famous Russian comedian Pavel Volya (you can watch it at this link).

Having learned to laugh at yourself and have a humorous attitude towards what happens to you, you will feel the real magic of positive thinking, and favorable changes in life will not be long in coming.

Almost all of the techniques we presented for developing positive thinking may seem somewhat unusual and have nothing to do with a sense of humor, because... they talk about the power of thought, energy and other similar things. But it is in their unusualness that their strength lies. They have shown their effectiveness in practice for a huge number of people, and they themselves were taken from the everyday life of the monks of Tibet, who knew firsthand about the power of positive thoughts and were confident that reality is formed under the influence of mental energy.

Now we want to bring to your attention a number of tips and recommendations for developing positive thinking. They are not as unusual as the techniques we have named, but this in no way detracts from their importance. In fact, they should become rules for every day - the foundation of a life based on positive thoughts and optimism.

How to create a positive mindset

How to set yourself up for positivity when there are too many problems and difficulties around, people seem callous, work is boring, and there are constant quarrels in the family?

Psychologists recommend looking for something useful in every situation, even the most difficult. Positive thinking is achieved through long-term work on oneself. What is it?

Positive thinking develops if you repeat positive attitudes to yourself every day and communicate only with optimistic people. It is extremely difficult for a modern person to acquire such an approach to life, since his upbringing, unfortunately, does not allow him to do this.

What is a positive outlook on problems is an open question for most. From early childhood, negative attitudes are imposed on children, which not everyone is able to get rid of later.

That is why, in order for the younger generation to have positive thinking, you should talk to children as often as possible, explain to them that they should not be afraid, they need to believe in themselves and strive for success.

Developing Positive Thinking: Tips and Tricks

Positive thinking, whether it is related to the development of a sense of humor or not, should be cultivated by following a number of tips and recommendations. We will look at ten of them in total.

Healthy attitude towards problems

Many people, seeing some kind of problem, trouble or difficulty, instantly turn this small fly into a huge elephant, which not only does not allow them to think constructively, but also makes it much more difficult to get out of the situation. And there’s nothing to talk about jokes and fun here. If you want to become a positive thinker, don't let troubles make your life hell. Problems require solutions, not suffering.

Correct use of experience

What is done is done. But many continue to worry, feel guilty and reproach themselves for something done in the past. In addition, there are those who cling to their past with a stranglehold and do not want to let it go - some hold on to the good, and others to the bad. The past certainly manifests itself in the present, but you just need to accept it and let it go in order to live now. Instead of painful experiences, it is better to evaluate the experience gained, perhaps even laugh at the past, learn lessons from it, take note of mistakes and boldly continue the path forward. This will be excellent soil for development.

Physical exercise

The connection between positive thinking and physical activity is not so obvious, but it is there. Another worldly wisdom works here: a healthy mind in a healthy body. Just remember that physical activity keeps the body and mind in good shape, relieves depression and bad mood, allows you to switch from bad to good, and makes a person more confident in himself and his abilities.

Fantasies

Look at the children: how they have fun, laugh, and enjoy what is happening around them. And the reason is not only that they are just starting life, but also that they know how and love to fantasize, dream, imagine something. Growing up, people become important and serious people, and gradually the habit of fantasizing leaves them. But limiting the creativity and creativity found in daydreaming and daydreaming is a serious barrier to success, personal growth, humor, and positive thinking. So at least sometimes allow yourself to be children - to indulge in dreams and fantasies.

Openness to new things

People with a predominant negative mindset are distrustful and wary of innovations, no matter what they concern; they are very afraid to take risks. And positively thinking people try not to make hasty conclusions, because they always remember that the darkest hour is before the dawn, and what seems terrible today, tomorrow can be the beginning of a new life. Of course, you shouldn’t blindly take risks, but you should try to look at change with enthusiasm and inspiration.

Throwing away negativity

In order for positive thinking to form quickly, and for it to begin to form at all, you need to try to throw out as much negativity as possible from your life. So, you can start by stopping watching mind-numbing and useless TV shows and series, giving up bad habits (or at least some of them). Next, it would be a good idea to do a home inspection to find anything old, worn out and unnecessary and get rid of it. Afterwards, it’s worth analyzing your relationships: if some relationships have outlived their usefulness, bring pain and negative emotions, it’s likely worth breaking them off. And finally, the most important thing is to get rid of the garbage in your own head - negative thoughts; learn to control the direction of your thinking. This can be done with the help of affirmations, meditation, visualization and some other practices.

Meaning of life

Life just seems long. In fact, it is short. And living it meaninglessly is simply stupid. It is worth appreciating every day you live, every moment; live with the understanding that nothing will happen again. Time is fleeting and you shouldn’t allow yourself to waste it. Think about what you want to devote your life to, what you want to achieve, what to create, what kind of memory you want to leave for your descendants. What do you believe? What do you like to do? What benefits you, the people around you and the world? The answers to these questions will help you find your path, and life will become much more pleasant and joyful.

Self love

Most people blame anyone for their losses, failures and problems, but not themselves. Meanwhile, there is actually no one to blame, because everything that a person has is the work of his own hands. It is very important to admit this, but at the same time there is no need to reproach yourself for anything and engage in self-flagellation. You are a person, like all of us, and everyone has the right to make mistakes and take the wrong steps. There are no ideal people, and therefore you need to accept yourself with all the pros and cons, advantages and disadvantages. Love yourself, remember that love is a great force that is subject to any changes, including changes in yourself and your thinking.

Joy in little things

Start every day with the joy of some little thing. You woke up and a ray of sunshine caught your eye - rejoice at it. You went to wash your face - you will enjoy the fact that you can feel the warmth of the water and the taste of toothpaste. Wish your family a good day or call someone with a similar wish. When you go outside, breathe in the aroma of fresh air and thank the world for being alive. Say kind words to the people you interact with throughout the day, smile, and show genuine concern for them. It seems like all these are little things, but they add up to one big whole - cheerfulness, positive thinking, a healthy attitude towards everything in life.

Constant development

There is one very deep and meaningful phrase: “a person stops living the moment he stops developing,” and this is the real truth. A person who does not develop lives his life, survives, exists - does anything, but does not live. Many people even think that life is boring and monotonous, that there is nothing really to do in this world, but all such thoughts are due to a stop in development. As soon as you begin to develop in a direction that interests you, you will immediately notice that everyday life has become richer and more interesting, that you can spend your time in hundreds of different ways, that life is fun, healthy and wonderful. Development is primarily about helping yourself. It allows you to form a new yourself, interesting and unusual qualities, get closer to your goals, learn a lot of interesting things, and reveal hidden potential and talents. Open up as you develop, and positive thinking will become your faithful assistant along this path.

And as an addition, we suggest that you create for yourself a few rules for being a positive person, which you will always follow from now on. We present our list, but if desired, it can be supplemented or changed.

Negative thinking

Psychologists divide the thinking process into positive and negative. The ability to think is a tool of every individual. Depending on the level at which a person owns it, her life is built.

Negative thinking is based on individual qualities, experiences, and the world around us. It is an indicator of a low level of brain capabilities.

People with this type of thinking tend to accumulate negative emotions with age. At the same time, the person often completely denies all the facts that are unpleasant for him.

When thinking about traumatic situations, a person tries to find all possible options that will help him avoid its repetition. Unfortunately, such thoughts only lead to the fact that the person completely switches to the negative, without seeing the positive sides.

Sooner or later, an individual stops seeing his life in bright colors. Only gray, difficult everyday life appears before him, which he is no longer able to cope with.

Rules of positive thinking for every day

Positive thinking is the conscious management of your thoughts, thanks to which happiness, harmony, success and, of course, humor and good mood are attracted to life. To achieve this result as quickly as possible, take full responsibility for your actions, and the following rules will help you stay on course.

For convenience, the rules can be written down so that you can re-read them every morning after waking up (like affirmations, they should be written in a positive way and exclude the particle not):

Today I will definitely be happy and glad that I am alive
Today I will be positive about everything I have and everything that life offers me.
Today I will improve my health: eat less harmful and more healthy, drink water, exercise, rest and sleep as much as I need.
Today I will definitely develop my intellect: read useful books, learn something new, communicate with positive people
From now on, I will become benevolent: I will stop criticizing others, correcting other people’s mistakes; I will take care of myself; I will wish people well and praise them
From today I begin to live in a specific moment - here and now, without clinging to thoughts of the past and dreams of the future
Today I will begin to follow a specific program and will know exactly what to do at every moment of time, thereby getting rid of haste and indecision
From today I will begin to spend at least half an hour alone with myself: analyze thoughts, relax, think about life, meditate
Today I will stop thinking about bad things, conflicts and troubles and “revel” in negative thoughts
From now on I will stop being afraid of anything, and especially of becoming a happy person.

Positive thinking, of course, does not mean that you do not need to pay attention to troubles and troubles, constantly repeating that everything is fine. But it presupposes a view of difficulties in a positive way, a search for the good in absolutely everything, a constructive attitude towards problems, and a humorous view of difficulties. Even if negative thoughts slip into your mind, you don’t need to focus on them - by becoming more optimistic, you will immediately notice how new opportunities open up before you.

We also recommend that you read literature about positive thinking in your spare time:

A. Sviyash “Smile before it’s too late! Positive psychology for everyday life"
D. Allen “The Thinking Man”
D. Von Aiken “Lucky”
M. Seligman “New positive psychology”
R. Sharma “101 Lessons for a Happy Life”
N. Vincent Peale "The Power of Positive Thinking"
K. Salmanson “Instantly happy. Change your mood in 10 seconds"
D. Murphy “Telepsyche”
B Tracy “Change your thinking and you will change your life”
D. Kehoe “The subconscious can do anything”
E. Matthews “Live easy!”
N. Vuychich “Life without borders. The path to an amazingly happy life"

In these books you will find many ways to develop positive thinking and achieve happiness. And you and I continue our course and move on to mastering material related to humor in the most direct way. In the third lesson, we will introduce you to the main types of comics and give examples of them, so that you know how to joke funny in different forms, can clearly distinguish one type of comic from another and use them in your personal practice.

Bottom line

Understand that absolutely all people have troubles and problems. There is no such person who is deprived of bad things in life. And here everyone makes a choice about how to react to the situation and how to get out of it. With positive thinking, a person corrects his mistakes and solves the situation, but with negative thinking, he usually only complains, gets offended, blames himself or others, and does not even make attempts to solve the problem, because he believes in advance that it is pointless (he hasn’t had time to do it yet, but has predicted the result - one of the traits of negative thinking).

Test your knowledge

If you want to test your knowledge on the topic of this lesson, you can take a short test consisting of several questions. For each question, only 1 option can be correct. After you select one of the options, the system automatically moves on to the next question. The points you receive are affected by the correctness of your answers and the time spent on completion. Please note that the questions are different each time and the options are mixed.

Statistics Full screen

← Theory of humor Types and techniques →

How is a positive person different from others?

Each person develops a certain model of behavior and attitude towards life, which he constantly adheres to. Often people easily take offense at others, harbor grievances, and hatch plans for revenge. A negatively-minded person does not share existing information with others and does not try to somehow change the world around him. Most people are afraid of change because they think that any change is associated with trouble.

The range of interests of shallow people, fixated on troubles, is narrow. They get information from the tabloid press or television, and have few hobbies. They do not strive for self-development and try with all their might to maintain their peace.

A person is often not ready to take responsibility for how his life turned out. He believes that if circumstances had been different, he would have been able to get more. And this is one of the main differences in the psychology of a positively-minded individual and that which is inherent in other people.

A cheerful person understands that happiness in his life depends on himself. He knows that on the way to it he will make many mistakes, and is ready to answer for them. Positive people respect the points of view of others and are careful about their feelings. They know how to sincerely rejoice at another person’s success and give compliments. Such people do not have the desire to lie or embellish something.

An energetic, cheerful person reads a lot and is interested in what is happening around him. He has many hobbies and a wide circle of friends. Cheerful people always learn because they like to develop and constantly learn something new. They are not afraid to take initiative, they are not afraid of criticism, because they are confident in themselves and are always ready to conduct a constructive dialogue.

Changes for optimists are an important aspect in life, since they see in them an opportunity to change their lives for the better, develop some new qualities or improve existing ones.