What is a positive attitude towards the world? What is a positive attitude towards life? Don't forget about social medicine

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Positive psychotherapy - one of the widely known methods modern psychotherapy, recognized in 1996 by the European Association of Psychotherapy and in 2008 by the World Council of Psychotherapy.
Positive therapy was originally called differential analysis, and then got its name from a word of Latin origin, which means given or actual.

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So what is positive psychotherapy?
Positive psychotherapy is a psychotherapeutic technique that teaches an individual to accept environment in all its diversity
and diversity, and not enter into confrontation with it.
From the perspective of a humanistic concept, positive psychotherapy should be classified as transcultural (psychiatry is a branch of social psychiatry that deals with the cultural aspects of the occurrence, frequency, forms and treatment of mental disorders in various cultures. The prefix “trans” (Latin: through, after, based on, since) means a culturally based point of view, although it is primarily important to understand the patient and his illness picture based on his own culture. The concepts used essentially describe the same thing: observation, recognition, awareness and application of the meaning and influence of cultural factors. in the broad sense of the word on the patient, the psychotherapist and the psychotherapeutic relationship. For example, how they treat illness in the West and in the East: if someone is sick, then few people visit him. : If someone is sick, his bed is immediately placed in the living room. The sick person becomes the central object of events and is visited by relatives and friends. Refusal to visit is considered an insult.), psychodynamic approach of psychotherapy.

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Positive psychotherapy as a special method in which the philosophy and wisdom of the East is combined with the rationality of the West, appeared in 1968, thanks to the work of the Iranian professor, doctor of medical sciences and specialist in the field of psychology, psychotherapy and neurology Nosrat Pezeshkian. His method is based on transcultural research that has been carried out in more than twenty different cultures. For his developments, Nosrat Pezeshkian was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology in 2009.

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Description of the method

This technique is aimed at making positive decisions in various life situations by mobilizing the internal reserves of the individual.

Key idea: working with the individual’s abilities developed during personal development.

The idea of ​​the method says that a positive image of a person stems from the fact that every person from birth has two basic abilities: the ability to know and the ability to love. Both of them are closely interrelated with each other: the development of one contributes to the development process of the other and facilitates it. This is the main statement on which the idea of ​​a person is built in positive psychotherapy. By nature, a person is kind and subconsciously strives for good.

Also, Pezeshkian positive psychotherapy is based on the belief that all people are endowed with everything necessary to live happy life. Everyone has access to an inexhaustible source of life, which can be used for their individual development and personal growth.

All the most valuable things are inside a person and, like seeds, ripen throughout life - this is the Creator’s plan. The scientist said that every person is a mine full of precious stones. And one of the tasks is to search for this valuable treasure and lift it out from the depths of the human soul. It is necessary to show this treasure to the world through the use of talents and natural inclinations, thanks to which complete self-realization of a person is possible. The main satisfaction in life is fulfilling your life purpose.

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Therefore, the main goal of positive psychotherapy is to change the patient’s point of view on his illness and, as a result, new opportunities in search of reserves in the fight against the disease. And since positive psychotherapy proceeds from the fact that many mental and psychosomatic illnesses are based on conflict, changing points of view on symptoms or syndromes allows the therapist (and the patient) to approach the conflict in a more differentiated way. In other words, the psychotherapist, having determined that depression is, first of all, “a person’s ability to react deeply, emotionally to a conflict,” will then deal not so much with depression as with the conflict that lies behind this syndrome.

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A positive attitude towards problems leads to an understanding of what any of them hides unique opportunities for development, which gives people hope. Good health involves a balance of four main areas of life:

o Body/health (through sensation)

o Work/success (through consciousness)

o Contacts/family (through tradition)

o Fantasies/future (through intuition)

Conflicts and diseases are mainly an imbalance of these four areas.

The first sphere is the sphere of the body, in which a person reacts to illness when the situation gets out of control. This is where psychosomatic diseases appear. People tend to treat symptoms rather than causes, which is completely wrong.

The second sphere is the sphere of activity in which a person either completely immerses himself in work, or, conversely, strives to do nothing at all.

The third sphere is the sphere of contacts, which deals with the ability to establish connections with people, plants and animals, as well as with oneself. Conflicts and illnesses can be eliminated by a person either through withdrawal “within oneself” or through excessive communication.

The fourth sphere is the sphere of fantasy, where problems are solved through visualization of a favorable future.

Positive psychotherapy says that a person who distributes his energy in all four directions can be considered healthy. If one of the areas does not develop properly, it will become a weak point for the impact of stressful situations and events that can traumatize a person.

Let's talk about “what is the content of the conflict, what is it connected with?” Since in positive therapy we are talking about psychotherapy aimed at conflicts, we do not try to dwell on the symptoms (fear or depression), but answer the question: “What is behind these symptoms, what is the content of the conflict?” To understand human conflicts, we ask the question of the content contained in them.

In the psychosocial field, this content of the conflict is not static, but develops according to its own dynamics. It is most clearly manifested in the attitude towards people who are especially significant to us (parents, relatives, friends and others). Emerging conflicts develop simultaneously on several levels: in personal experiences, interpersonal relationships, both family and large social groups. Since we want to describe the content of all conflicts, it will be necessary to dwell on all these levels. We want to dwell on the various possibilities for identifying the content of conflicts and show how they influence the dynamics of the conflict. These methods are initially independent of the therapeutic arrangement; their basis is found in family therapy.

We can observe that all people, in order to overcome their problems, turn to the same typical forms of reaction to conflict. If we have problems (we are angry, feel depressed and misunderstood, live in constant tension or do not see the meaning in life), then we cannot express all these difficulties in four areas. They provide insight into how a person perceives himself and the world around us and what path the recognition and control of reality takes.

Research by Nosrat Pezeshkian and his collaborators in more than 20 cultures led to the formulation of the following "four areas of conflict resolution" through:

1. Body (through sensation).

2. Activity (through consciousness).

3. Contacts (through tradition).

4. Fantasy (through intuition).

These forms of response to conflict are broad categories that everyone understands depending on their own ideas, desires and conflicts. Example: the father reacts to the conflict by immersing himself in work (success), the mother withdraws into herself and avoids social contacts (contacts), the child reacts with physical ailments (body). These different forms of reaction can, in turn, lead to communication difficulties.

Diamond of four spheres of distribution of psychic energy (4 spheres of conflict processing)

Each person develops his own, most preferable ways to resolve the conflict. With hypertrophy of one of the forms, the others fade into the background. Which forms are preferred depends to a large extent on experience, primarily on how a person acted in childhood.

Questions that provide general orientation on the four areas of conflict processing.

1. How do you react when you have problems? (You respond to problems with your body, success, seek help from friends or in your fantasies).

2. Which statement applies to you? (“I believe what I see”, “I believe what I understand”, “I believe what, for example, my parents say”, “I believe what spontaneously comes to mind”).

3. What was the motto in your parents' house? (For example: “Food and drink unite body and soul.” “If you can do something, then you mean something.” “What will people say?” “Everything is in the hands of God”).

The four spheres are like a horseman who moves purposefully (activity) towards a goal (fantasy). To do this, he needs a good, well-groomed horse (body), and in case he falls from it, assistants who will help him get up (contacts). This means that therapy should not be limited to one area, such as the rider, but should take into account all areas involved. Based on this, we can identify both individual and small group ways of reacting to conflicts. Ways of responding based on cultural differences can be viewed in the same way.

1. Body (sensations).

The body comes to the fore - I - the feeling, how does a person feel his body? How are sensations and information from the outside world perceived? Information received through sensations passes through the censorship of acquired value standards. Certain sensations combined with certain experiences can lead to conflict.

Physical reactions to conflicts can be the following: changes in physical activity (sports - “get hooked, don’t grow old”, sleep (“oversleep” conflicts, sleep disturbances), food (gluttony - “eat out of grief”, refusal to eat - “weight loss mania”) "), sexuality (Don Juanism, nymphomania - refusal of sex), functional disorders, psychosomatic reactions.

For example: “Every time I get upset because my husband is disorganized, I get a headache.”

Concepts:

"What's on the table must be eaten."

“The flesh must be forced so that it does not forget about death.”

"You look pale, which means you're sick."

"All men want only one thing."

"Eating and drinking unite body and soul."

Such concepts can influence attitudes towards the body and physical illness. They are the reason why people react so differently to physical ailments, live in hypochondriacal anticipation of pain and illness, or resist bodily ailments.

2. Activity (consciousness)

This includes the types and ways in which norms of activity are expressed, and thus they are included in their own concept. Thinking and consciousness allow you to systematically and purposefully solve problems and improve activities. There are two mutually opposite reactions to the conflict here:

a) going to work,

b) withdrawal from activity.

Typical symptoms are problems of self-esteem, overexertion, stress reactions, fear of not being able to cope with a task, impaired concentration and less common symptoms: retirement neurosis, apathy, impairment of activity, etc.

Concepts:

“If you can do something, then you are something,”

“There is time for business, an hour for fun,”

“Business is business, but rest is rest,”

“You can’t even pull a fish out of a pond without difficulty,”

"Time is money"

“It’s hard to learn, but it’s easy to fight,” etc.

3. Contacts (traditions)

This area involves the ability to establish and maintain contacts (not only with people, but also with objects and plants). Social behavior determined by individual experience and tradition. We have the opportunity to make contacts and regulate selection criteria derived from social experience. And we choose partners who to some extent meet these criteria.

We can react to conflicts by questioning our relationships with the outside world: one of the extremes is to flee into sociability, excessive activity, or a group where they should help relieve the severity of the problem. A person tries to achieve sympathy and solidarity in conversations with others: “When I get upset with my mother-in-law, I call my friend and talk to her about it for hours.” Here there is social superactivity, emotional dependence on the group, etc. In another case, one can observe, on the contrary, avoidance of society. A person moves away from people who bother him, feels constrained, avoids society and any possibility of contact with people. Symptoms are: inhibition, unconscious need for support, fear of contacts, prejudice, etc.

Concepts:

“Why do I need others?!”,

"Alone is weak, together we are strong"

"Guests are a gift from God"

“You can only rely on yourself, and not on others,”

"A man without friends is half a man."

4. Fantasy (intuition)

You can react to conflicts by activating your imagination: imagining a solution to the conflict, you can mentally imagine the desired success or mentally punish and even kill your enemy. Fantasy and intuition can, for example, in creative actions and sexual fantasies, evoke needs and even satisfy them. Intuition and fantasy go beyond immediate reality and can play the role of what we begin with the meaning of activity, the meaning of life, desire, plans for the future or utopia. From the abilities for intuition and fantasy, the needs for worldview and religion develop, which provide the opportunity to look into the distant future. To come into contact with the unknown is the essence of fantasy. The ability of fantasy “makes it possible to take risks, to decide to take a step into the unknown, a person takes on the burden of doubt and still hopes that somewhere a new border will be found (which, in turn, is part of his own reality).” If there were no curiosity and imagination, there would be no doubt and fear, there would be no development, no progress, no knowledge of oneself.

Concepts:

"Everything is only a game of imagination",

“What do I care about reality, since I’m happy!”

"Thank God that after death nothing ends"

"He who risks wins!"

"No desires, no happiness"

“When the time comes, the solution will come.”

Imaginary experimentation and fantasizing received their traditional appearance in fairy tales, stories and stories. In fairy tales, the fantasy of others and the personal fantasy of an individual collide. Similar combinations are found in artistic, creative and productive activities. Experience gained in other areas of crisis processing filters the possibilities of fantasy. An example of this is the limitations of gaming fantasy and representatives of the circles of modern industrial society.

So, there are four possibilities for the escape reaction:

1) going into illness,

2) going into activity,

3) withdrawal into communication (contacts),

4) withdrawal into fantasy (dreams).

Practical Application four spheres.

According to the concepts of positive psychotherapy, a healthy person is not the one who has no problems, but the one who knows how to get out of emerging conflicts.

Healthy, according to the model of the 4 spheres of conflict processing, is the one who tries to evenly distribute his energy across these four spheres. This means that the goal of treatment is for the person to commit to:

25% of your energy (but not necessarily your time) to your physical needs,

I would direct 25% of my energy to my activities if it were professional work or homework,

25% - for interpersonal contacts (family, friends, colleagues)

25% would be given to intuition, fantasy, questions about the future, the meaning of life and religious and spiritual issues.

Of course, this should be considered only as a goal to which we must constantly strive. In this sense, we can talk about integrative medicine, when therapy takes into account all 4 aspects of life. Later, when we take a closer look at the conflict model in positive psychotherapy, the importance of the 4 areas will be especially clear, especially in the prevention of disease. In the model of positive psychotherapy, disorders and diseases arise only in those areas that have not received enough attention and have not been developed.

Every person from birth possesses these four spheres, but thanks to culture, upbringing, and socialization in a broad sense, some spheres develop more, some less.

The goal of therapy is to help the patient recognize and develop his own abilities.

Example from practice.

If a woman comes to the doctor and complains that her husband does not have time for her, because he, as they say, is “married to a profession,” then this means that her husband devotes his energy mainly to his field of activity. And we will talk with spouses not only about activities, but also about the fact that the other 3 areas are not developing. We will try to activate previously undeveloped areas of the body, contacts and intuition. By developing these three areas, the husband will simultaneously be forced to devote less energy to work.

Sometimes misunderstandings arise here. Why are we talking about energy and not time? Energy in this case means "how important this area for me, what percentage of my vital energy (everyone has 100%) do I invest in each area?" There are, for example, people who are busy professionally 12 hours a day, and yet they still have enough energy for family and social activity, while others are so tired after 2 hours that they have no energy for anything else. This indicates that it is not a matter of time, but of energy expenditure. We all know that conflicts with partners drain a lot from us. energy, which we then lack in other areas. Our experience, especially with entrepreneurs and managers, has shown that if we learn to be comprehensively balanced, that is, distribute energy to all 4 areas, then performance results improve, because Our motivation increases, for example, for work.

It is from the example of managers that it is clearly seen that the best results are achieved by those who are healthy, who have a family and it supports him, who can identify themselves with the enterprise and know why they are working.

As already mentioned, 4 spheres are given to a person from birth and develop through life concepts and mottos that exist in every family and in every culture. During treatment, we try to make conflicts conscious and, together with the patient, activate previously undeveloped areas. The questions here can be worked through with the patient to see what each area means to them.

But the main thing in positive psychotherapy is not only the treatment of patients, but the fact that doctors and psychotherapists must learn to apply this method in relation to themselves and their families, since this method gives good results only if they are able to apply these 4 areas in your life.

Another significant advantage of the method is its focus on the future, because it allows you to shape the future by accepting situations in the present. Each person, having taken upon himself full responsibility during his life, he is able to change his reality. In other words, if a person wants to have something he has never had, he must do things he has never done.

An important principle of Pezeshkian psychotherapy is the principle of the uniqueness of the individual. It says that there can be no standards in life, and the variety of sources of human happiness lies in the fact that you can be happy in the moment “now”, having what you have, without dreaming about “what would happen if” and etc. A person’s ability to see in the present what will make him happy and give him strength on the path to new achievements gives him wisdom and makes him the creator of his own “I”. But changing the current state for the better can only be done gradually, and for this you need to have patience.

Positive psychotherapy helps a person mobilize his hidden reserves to make positive changes. It teaches a person not to resist the world around him, but to accept it as it is. The result will be a positive world- and self-perception, as well as a positive perception of life and the people around you.

Pezeshkian principles of positive psychotherapy

The work of Pezeshkian positive psychotherapy is based on three principles: the principle of hope, the principle of balance and the principle of self-help.

The principle of hope focuses on human resources. Thanks to him, you can realize the maximum of your abilities and become responsible for everything that happens in your life.

The principle of balance allows us to consider a person’s life and development in four main areas: body, relationships, achievements and future. The purpose of this principle is to restore the natural harmony of these four directions.

The principle of self-help can be applied as a strategy for harmonizing personality, as well as its adaptation and development. Initially, this principle is applied by a psychotherapist, but as work progresses, a person begins to apply it independently, projecting it onto himself and his environment, thereby providing self-help.

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Positive psychotherapy in its arsenal has specific techniques unique to it: standardized interviews, the use of parables, epics, myths, tales + what is on the slide.
Using stories wise sayings and proverbs plays a central role in positive psychotherapy. Just like the good medicine given in right time, can have a good effect, and a story told to the patient at the right time plays a great therapeutic role. Stories serve many functions, which can be explained as follows. Stories can be divided into 2 groups:

1. Stories that confirm existing norms.

2. Stories that view existing norms as relative.

Despite their opposition, both directions are not mutually exclusive. Firstly, because the content of stories largely depends on the reader's perception. Secondly, because the relativity of individual values, the “change of point of view,” is not carried out freely, but in relation to other preferred values. On the other hand, emphasizing existing norms leads to other points of view being questioned or rejected. In interpersonal relationships, as well as in experiences and spiritual processing, when encountering history, processes occur that we describe as their “functions.”

1. Function of a mirror: the imagery of a story makes it possible to perceive their content more personally, making it easier to identify with them. The listener can transfer his needs to the story and divide its statements in a way that corresponds to his own psychological reactions at the moment. These reactions, in turn, can become the subject of therapeutic work. While the patient talks about his associations, he talks about himself, his conflicts and desires. Understanding and perception of stories is facilitated by referring to the patient's fantasies and memories. Freeing from the directly perceived world, stories, when used purposefully, help the patient look at his problems from the outside. Thus, the patient becomes not only suffering from his illness, but can, for his part, determine his attitude towards his problems and his previously habitual possibilities for resolving conflicts. History becomes a mirror that reflects, and the reflection can be perceived.

2. Model function. Stories are the model. They convey a conflict situation and offer possible ways out of it or indicate the consequences of certain options for resolving conflicts. Thus, they involve learning from a model. This model is not frozen. It contains many possibilities for interpretation and connections to one's own situation. Stories offer a tentative action in which we can mentally and sensually try to approach familiar conflict situations with unusual solutions.

3. Mediator function. Patients are reluctant to reveal their underlying concepts, their individual myths. In the end, they help them (for better or worse) cope with conflicts that arise. Just as a non-swimmer is afraid to let go of the life preserver in order to allow himself to be lifted into the boat, so the patient is afraid to give up the self-help tools that he used before, despite the fact that they have drawn him into a vicious circle of conflicts. This occurs especially when the patient is not sure whether the therapist can really present him with something of equal or even better value. Mechanisms of rejection and resistance develop, which, on the one hand, interfere with therapeutic work, and on the other hand, make it possible to find an approach to the patient’s conflicts, if they are clearly defined. Resistance can be expressed in various forms: silence, tardiness, missing psychotherapeutic sessions. The patient questions psychotherapy because it is too expensive, it takes a lot of time, etc. Such resistance is studied in psychotherapy. In any case, this work is not always pleasant for the patient. A frontal attack on misunderstanding, resistance, and mechanisms of rejection most often provoke the same frontal defense.

In a psychotherapeutic situation, the confrontation between therapist and patient is mitigated by the fact that the medium of history appears between the two fronts. It is a worship of the patient and honors his personal desires (see R. Bettyday, 1977).

We are not talking about a patient whose behavior has certain symptoms, but about the hero of the story.

Thus, a triple process is activated: patient - history - therapist. History performs the task of a filter. It is a protection for the patient, which allows him, at least temporarily, to free himself from his complete conflicts and defense mechanisms. With his statements and comments about history, he provides information that would be much more difficult for him to express without the mediation of history. The function of an intermediary is suitable both for the hostel and for raising children. Through a situation modeled in history, a partner can be told in a gentle manner what he, we know from experience, would react aggressively; on the other hand, he himself is given the opportunity to change the form of communication.

4. Depot function (prolongation). Thanks to their imagery, stories are well remembered and can be used in other situations. They are present not only during the treatment process, but also in the patient’s everyday life; a similar life situation will force one to remember the story, or there will be a need to think about the questions posed in the story. In different settings, the patient may interpret the story differently. It expands the original understanding of history and updates new approaches that help to understand the (differentiation of) one's own myths. Thus, stories act as a depot, which means that they have a long-lasting effect and make the patient less dependent on the therapist.

5. Stories as carriers of traditions. Stories are bearers of traditions, whatever we understand by traditions: cultural tradition, family tradition, community tradition or individual tradition, as a result of life experience. In this sense, the story goes beyond the life of the individual and leads to new thoughts, conclusions and associations. Passed from generation to generation, stories do not seem to change. And yet they contain new, perhaps previously unknown, meanings that depend on the understanding of the one listening to them. If we look at the content of history and the thoughts they contain, we will find in them types of behavior and attitudes that establish their own tradition of neurotic behavior and predisposition to conflict.

Classical therapeutic concepts contain in some form historical myths that can be compared to our stories. An example of this is the Oedipus complex, although the story of Oedipus, in the traditional sense, is only a metaphor for behavior in relation to parental authority. This metaphor was subsequently transferred to the psychoanalytic theory and practice of the Oedipus complex.

6. Stories as intercultural mediators. Various cultures are represented as carriers of history tradition. They convey culture-specific rules, concepts, and norms of behavior. The content of these stories gives a person, as a representative of a certain cultural community, support and guarantee. They offer solutions to a problem that are acceptable in a particular cultural community. Stories from other cultures provide information about the rules of behavior in them, show other models of problem solving, and provide an opportunity to expand one's own repertoire of concepts, values, and solutions to conflicts. A further process is connected with this, namely, the removal of emotional boundaries and prejudices that arise against alien ways of thinking and perception, which force one to perceive the alien as something aggressive, threatening and provoke refusal where understanding would be primarily necessary. This painful factor for our time, prejudice, hostility, can be encountered when using intercultural stories. You need to get acquainted with other people's way of thinking and adopt it, maybe even for yourself. Stories do not necessarily represent current, typical forms of thinking in society. And yet they are themselves anachronisms, they provide an opportunity to stimulate thought, question existing ideas and present other concepts to achieve greater goals.

7. Stories as helpers of regression. The atmosphere in which stories are told should not be dry, abstract, without big differences between therapist and patient, but rather relaxed, friendly, partnership. Through stories, the therapist addresses the patient's intuition and fantasy. A return to fantasy in a society based on the achievement of real success has the meaning of regression, a step back to earlier stages of development. When I work on stories, I behave, rather, not like a typical Central European adult, but like a child or an artist, who still has the right to step away from generally accepted norms and enter the world of fantasy. Within a therapeutic framework, stories allow one to at least temporarily remove the acquired characteristic armor of an adult and again allow oneself to return to the same joyful behavior and attitudes. There is a feeling that the stories are simply understood, without any reflection on them. They open the gates to fantasy, imaginative thinking, to non-binding, unpunished action with fantastic elements, to surprise and admiration. They, to a certain extent, are carriers of creativity, and, thus, are an intermediary between desire, painted in joyful tones, on the one hand, and reality, on the other. In this way, stories model connections between personal desires and goals in the near and distant future. Stories give place to utopias, alternatives to reality. This return to the early stages of development is guided by the choice of the theme of the story, allowing partial regression at first, and allows for careful psychotherapeutic interventions with patients in whom the ego is weakened, without allowing them to immediately decompress.

8. Stories as counterconcepts. With the help of a story, the therapist offers the patient not a theory, but a counterconcept that he can accept or reject. Thus, information (in any case ambiguous) is deliberately given on individual, family or other social problem, which may initially lead to misunderstandings. Thus, stories are just a special case of human communication in which concepts are also exchanged.
For example, many successful psychotherapists use parables in their work. The collection of oriental parables “The Merchant and the Parrot” with healing recipes from the founder is repeatedly republished in different languages, including Russian. positive psychology Nosrat Przeshkian.

Or there is a useful and interesting book about how to tell healing stories to your children. Stories that would illustrate the problem your child is facing, help you look at it from the outside, accept and live difficult feelings and find your own solution in a difficult situation.

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Why is a positive attitude towards life so important?

positive thinking causes positive feelings and emotions: happiness, joy, self-satisfaction, peace, while negative thinking causes mainly, negative emotions: fear anger, jealousy, disappointment, despondency;

positive emotions not only affect psychological health, they strengthen the immune system, increasing resistance to disease; by practicing positive thinking exercises you can get rid of a number of diseases caused by negative attitudes and experiences;

optimism is contagious - you will be able to more easily attract the right and more positively minded people into your life, which will bring you closer to achieving your goals;

a positive attitude increases your energy and brings you closer to the fulfillment of your desires, while negative thinking triggers the opposite processes.

A positive attitude is probably a mindset in which you perceive life in warm colors, regardless of what events happen in it. Having a positive outlook on life does not mean putting on rose-colored glasses, no, you still objectively assess the world around you, but at the same time, you do not allow negative events to completely take over your attention. A positive attitude is a life without worry, having it, you cope with everyday activities with greater ease, look at life with optimism and enjoy every moment of it. By accepting it into your life, you automatically attract constructive changes, happiness and success. This state of your mind is definitely worth strengthening and developing.

A positive attitude is reflected in the following aspects:

Announcement:

• Positive thinking.
• Constructive thinking.
• Creative thinking.
• Expectation of success.
• Optimism.
• Motivation to achieve your goals.
• Inspiration.
• Choosing happiness.
• Acceptance.
• Look at failures and problems as life lessons that help you become stronger.
• Believe in yourself and your abilities.
• Self-respect.
• Determination to find a solution.
• A mindset to look for opportunities.

A positive attitude is the source of happiness and success, it can change your life beyond recognition in the most short terms, if only you manage to develop it and make it stronger. Looking on the bright side of your life brings light into your life. This light not only affects you, but also the environment and people around you. A positive attitude, like positive thinking, is highly contagious and with it you make the world a better, brighter and more beautiful place.

Benefits of a Positive Attitude:

• Helps in achieving goals and success.
• Accelerates and makes it easier to achieve success.
• Brings more happiness.
• Fills you with energy.
• Gives more inner strength and power.
• Capable of inspiring and motivating.
• Helps to cope with difficulties and overcome obstacles.
• Makes life brighter and friendlier.
• Develops self-esteem.

If before or now you have a negative attitude towards life, expecting failures and difficulties from it, the time has come to change your attitude. It's time to get rid of negative thoughts and behavior in favor of a happier and more successful life. Start today, fortunately you already have everything for this, you just need to make a little effort.

How to develop a positive attitude:

• Make sure that you truly want happiness and goodness for yourself.
• Start looking on the bright side of life.
• Become an optimist.
• Find more reasons to smile.
• Develop faith in yourself and in the power of the Universe.
• Convince yourself of the uselessness of negative thinking and unnecessary worries.
• Compare yourself with a happy person.
• Read inspiring stories and aphorisms.
• Repeat statements about what inspires and motivates you.
• Learn to control your thoughts.
• Train your attention and practice meditation.
• Eliminate negative beliefs about life.

The suggestions listed above are just a sampling of what you should do to develop a positive outlook on life. You have a lot of work to do to change your own personality and, in particular, to eliminate negative beliefs and introduce positive beliefs about the world around you and about yourself. Feel free to take this path, and then life will appear before you in a completely different light, and perhaps very soon you will be able to “ride the flow” and make your greatest journey to the heights of success!

People with high stress tolerance turn unpleasant situations into opportunities to learn something new. But not all of us are optimists. However, our brain is designed in such a way that it can be reprogrammed and experience life’s troubles much easier. Here are some tips from John Arden, an accomplished neuroscientist and author of Taming the Amygdala.

Optimism and stress resistance: where to look for them

Emotionally resilient people adapt to circumstances by focusing on hidden opportunities. For example, due to lack of finances, you take a job new job and you discover that it is much more difficult, it takes a lot of time and energy, you have to work overtime. It is difficult for you to leave your comfort zone, which is why discontent accumulates. But probably after a while you will find that new area activities are more interesting and better than before.

You may have been lucky and something happened very close to your expectations, but did it really bring you pleasure? It is likely that you find yourself too busy waiting for the next specific result.

If you are attached to expecting a specific result and something else happens, you will experience disappointment.

As a rule, everything does not turn out exactly the way you fervently desire, and you have two options: come to terms with what happened, or regret that the desired result was not achieved. In any case, you deprive yourself of the opportunity to live in the present and enjoy the here and now.

Mental toughness is about remaining hopeful in the face of adversity and doing what it takes to make a situation change for the better. This kind of optimism is part of .

Pessimism is harmful to health

A pessimistic attitude has a bad effect not only on mental health, but also on physical health. Martin Seligman of the University of Pennsylvania has suggested that pessimism negatively affects health for the following reasons:

• you do not believe that your actions can change the situation;
• More bad things happen in your life because you react negatively to neutral situations and because you make wasted or incorrect efforts;
• pessimism suppresses the immune system.

Pessimists drive themselves crazy. Their negative perception of the world does not leave them the opportunity to positively evaluate at least some event.

Neuroscience and the joy of life

Optimism is more than just believing that the glass is half full. Stress gives you the chance to try to do something differently, in a new way - in a way you've never done before. And if you focus, who knows where it will lead? It’s not for nothing that they say that every cloud has a silver lining. And what’s most interesting is that this saying is increasingly being confirmed by science.

The ability to recover from a negative emotional state is an important characteristic of stress resistance.

Interhemispheric asymmetry - it implies that the hemispheres are involved in different ways in different processes (creativity, perception, speech) - is also associated with human emotions. Scientists have found that people who are dominant in the left frontal lobe tend to be optimistic, proactive, and believe that their efforts will bring results. But those whose right frontal lobe is “more important” are prone to a negative emotional style in behavior. They are more susceptible to anxiety, sadness, worry, passivity and refusal to take action.

The good news is that there are ways to rewire your brain. People whose left frontal lobe is dominant (“positive”) are able to neutralize negativity. It turns out that a person’s resistance to stress depends on the ability to suppress negative emotions, including the emotion of fear, for the manifestation of which the amygdala is responsible.

Richard Davidson from the University of Wisconsin was one of the first to study the phenomenon of interhemispheric asymmetry and its impact on a person’s emotional state. He hypothesized that people who practice a positive emotional outlook and outlook on life, such as through mindfulness meditation, become more resilient to stress.

How to change your attitude towards life

Your approach to life and your attitude towards the events that happen to you greatly influence your stress level and your ability to change your emotional attitude. Here are some tips to help rewire your brain to be positive.

1. Don't wear a "victim shirt"

People who have a positive outlook on the world and cope more easily with problems have a realistic awareness that what they do is within their control. They consider themselves active participants in the process, and not helpless victims of current circumstances. They do not demonstrate learned helplessness and know how to shoot on time.

2. Set yourself ambitious goals

Based on the principle that moderate levels of stress help rewire the brain and provide an inoculation against more severe stress, set goals that require extra effort from you

3. See change as a chance for a better life.

Try to view changes, even bad ones (although it most likely seems so at first glance), as an opportunity to act in a new way, and not as a crisis from which you need to defend yourself.

4. Don't forget about social medicine

The support of friends and family is much more important than you think. People with a high level of stress resistance actively use social support, which mitigates the consequences of stressful situations for them. At the same time, it should be aimed at care and encouragement, and not cause self-pity and dependence in a person.

5. Do what you love

Scientists have found that stress-resistant people invest their time and effort into what they do. They are full of energy and interest in their work.

6. Don't let yourself get bored

A moderate level of stress will prevent you from getting bored with your daily routine. University of Chicago psychology professor Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi described how you can avoid anxiety from overstimulation and at the same time avoid succumbing to boredom. Finding a balance between these two states induces a state of “flow” in a person, which brings real pleasure.

7. Be curious

Curiosity plays an important role in how efficiently the brain works. If you develop an insatiable curiosity, any environment you enter will become a source of new experiences and knowledge for you. An emotionally and intellectually rich environment stimulates the property of neuroplasticity of the brain, while an environment devoid of these characteristics leads to degradation.

There are people who, after serious injuries, thanks to their resilience, began. They don't forget what they've been through, but they don't sit around waiting for something good to happen. Instead, they work hard. And you need to include yourself. They are worth admiring and remembering such examples when you find yourself in a series of failures. You can start rewiring your brain by creating a positive attitude in yourself, and everything will work out.

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In general, I had a joyless childhood: my parents argued, my alcoholic father often beat me, at school I was constantly teased for being short or for being overweight,” sadly says a young woman who turned to a psychologist about her husband’s infidelity.

“But there were people who loved you? Remember them and please try to see their faces.”

She closes her eyes for a moment, and her sad face lights up with a smile: “Yes, indeed, they were...”

As soon as the woman smiled, her face smoothed out, her facial expressions and movements became natural and relaxed. She, of course, did not see herself from the outside and did not know what a dramatic change had occurred in her appearance literally in an instant. And the whole point is that a person, who has been accustomed since childhood to focus his attention on everything negative, allowed himself to remember something pleasant. At such moments we are all miraculously transformed.

Traditional psychology believes that the origins of our adult problems begin in early childhood.

But practice shows that there are no completely problem-free families. To paraphrase the famous words of L. Tolstoy, we can say that “all happy families are unhappy in their own way.” That is, absolutely all people experience psychological trauma in childhood. But some forget them, others remember and accumulate them. What does this depend on? It depends on what type of thinking is inherent in us by nature - negative or positive, in other words, whether we are pessimists or optimists by nature.

Man is the whole world, which has its own concepts of good and evil, well-being and ill-being. What is considered a victory and what is considered a defeat is determined only by ourselves. People who do not want to experience the pain of mental wounds try to quickly forget them or learn at least some useful lesson for themselves. This is what optimists usually do. People who think negatively open up old wounds for a long time and are convinced that they are constantly unlucky in life. In fact, we create problems ourselves with our attitude to life and do not imagine that by restructuring our reaction to traumatic situations, we can live differently. A well-known proverb says that you need to be born happy. This is largely true because character and habits are often inherited. But you can learn to see the positive in any situation, even if you were not born “in the shirt.”

Psychologist Yuri Orlov has a special term - “sanogenic thinking”, which means a positive attitude towards life. Remember the parable: two different people showed a glass half filled with water? One expressed regret that the glass was half empty, the other was delighted: “It’s half full!” A person who masters the art of sanogenic thinking, under any circumstances, even the most deplorable ones, is able to see the positive side of the situation and ultimately ends up winning.

“I don’t believe that happiness is something that you need to constantly chase. Most likely, this is a state of inner freedom, freedom from anxiety, self-doubt, fears, blind submission to habits and society, from reverence for authorities and envy of other people. So, don't expect anyone to make you happy. You can achieve this yourself,” writes the famous American psychologist Jeannette Raywater. Try using her method to perform one exercise called “level of happiness.”

pen and, concentrating, answer the following questions:

Are you worried about the future?

Are you worried about problems from the distant past?

Do you compare yourself with someone else and feel that the comparison is clearly not in your favor? .

Do you have a hard time dealing with unfair insults?

If you answered yes to all the questions, J. Rainwater suggests continuing the exercise and making a list of all the things you can be grateful for at this particular moment. Make sure that the list includes such “little things” as good weather, the absence of serious illnesses both for you and your loved ones, the absence of large financial debts, good relationships with children or parents, with colleagues at work. The purpose of this exercise is to learn to enjoy the small, unnoticed joys of life. The basic principle of Eastern philosophy says: whoever knows how to enjoy little will ultimately receive a lot.

But how can we get rid of the habit of negative thinking if we absorbed it with our mother’s milk? This can be done quite quickly, in just three weeks, says another American psychologist, Elina St. James. This is enough time to lay the foundation for a new productive habit, but with one mandatory condition- your decision to fill your life with positive emotions must be firm! If your motivation level is not high enough, you will be wasting your time. The essence of working on yourself is this. As soon as you remember something bad, immediately stop the internal dialogue, preventing it from developing. Switch your attention to something pleasant and put a tick in your notebook. By the end of the day, count your “checkmarks” - this way you will find out how many times a day dark thoughts visited you, and you will be able to analyze what they were associated with: bad relationships in the family, condemnation of the behavior of colleagues, bad weather or with anything else. Note this in your notebook.

The better you know yourself, the more fruitful your self-improvement efforts will be. Usually negative thoughts arise at the same time and in the same place. Remember how it happens. You wake up in the morning, go to the kitchen to prepare breakfast, and here an internal monologue involuntarily begins: “It’s slushy outside, your boots are getting wet, the children will catch a cold again, the salary is not coming soon, you haven’t had time to pay the rent, the faucet is leaking in the bathroom, you need to do some repairs, There’s always not enough money..."

It is difficult to escape this endless internal monologue; over many years we have developed a certain thought pattern, and now it seems that negative thoughts arise in our heads by themselves, involuntarily. The term “imprinting” is used to describe this process. This is a certain existing stereotype of thinking that now you have to destroy. Negative imprinting can be corrected by distraction and transferring thoughts to another subject. The fact must be clearly fixed in your mind that you can take control of the entire thinking process, and therefore, it is in your power to replace negative imprinting with positive one.

Mark the day when you were able to successfully stop the flow of bad thoughts and replace them with positive ones with a bright star in your notebook. As a rule, this happens on the twelfth to fifteenth day from the start of systematic training. Next, bright stars of success will appear on every page. Research by psychologists shows that developing a new imprinting takes on average about three weeks and another month is required to fully consolidate it. If for any reason negative thinking prevails in you again, start all over again, just don’t put it off so as not to lose what you’ve already gained. It may take three months to get rid of old thinking patterns. As you achieve success, you will also develop habits of self-discipline that will come in handy. Using this technique, you can cope with any bad habits yourself.

http://www.fiz-ra.com/nauchi-sebya-pozitivno-myislit.html

An article on the topic “Positive attitude towards life” (from a series of psychological lessons).

Author: teacher of geography and biology, Gogoleva Lyudmila Vasilievna, MKOU Granskaya oosh, Voronezh region
Description of material: summary of the article “Positive attitude to life” from a series of psychological lessons is intended for teachers and educators working with children, it will help them take a different look at the problems that occur in our lives and overcome them with dignity, it can be used for conversations in high school secondary schools.
Goals and objectives: contribute to the development of psychological literacy, improvement of self-control skills in any situations

Abstract of an article on the topic “Positive attitude towards life” from a series of psychological lessons for teachers.

The dynamics of modern life dictate its conditions to us: frantic pace, difficulties at work, an abundance of negative information, financial difficulties. Every one who comes New Year brings us new hopes, worries, joys and worries. And when we all enter into it, we hope for the best, but we do not always realize that the fulfillment of our desires and hopes largely depends on ourselves: on how we evaluate ourselves, how we relate to the people around us and to our business. Unfortunately, sometimes the background mood of a teacher or any other person is dissatisfaction, disappointment and despondency. But it should be noted that the mood has enormous motivating power! Let's remember the nineties, when every teacher who did not change his profession was faced with the most difficult problem of how not only to survive, but to overcome - first himself, and then difficult life circumstances. Nowadays, in order to adapt to new conditions and demands that befall teachers, it is necessary to mobilize all their physical, moral and professional potential. And for this, it is important to feel in such a way that a modern teacher would be willing and able to overcome these difficulties. Be sure to remember that the pillars of our vital resilience to any difficulties and psychological readiness to survive in an unfavorable situation are:
1. positive attitude towards life;
2 correct image life;
3. the ability to safely survive failure or misfortune.
First you need to understand what a positive attitude towards life means? To do this, let's analyze our real attitude towards it.
In the life of every person there are unpleasant situations and everyday troubles. Many people, without thinking, have made painful experiences about these negative little things in life a permanent attribute of their existence and elevate all troubles to the rank of tragedies. Long time accumulate discontent and resentment, evaluate other people through their own “prism,” often focusing on negative aspects. All this has a bad effect on a person’s health and mood.
You can improve your life only by changing your attitude towards it, cultivating in yourself the perception of life as priceless gift on the ground. Learn the ability to enjoy every day, cherish every minute, every impression, and also perceive as a gift any day given to us from above. It is necessary to go through the realization that problems, failures or troubles are not one best side of our existence, which should not take up more space in consciousness than it is worth. We, as reasonable people, should be happy just because we live, are able to think, dream, improve our knowledge and skills, share them with our students, opening the world to them. Why were people given eyes, ears, and a heart? Probably, eyes are given in order to see the beauty around you: nature, beautiful faces, their man-made creations. Hearing is given to hear beautiful things: the laughter of children, the rustling of grass, the singing of birds, beautiful music, the blowing of the wind. The heart gives us the opportunity to love and be loved, and the will, thanks to which we can learn to live in peace and harmony with ourselves and the people around us.
In conclusion of my article, I want to give some advice.
1. Remember that our life obeys laws, where everything is rhythmic, for example, day follows night, sleep turns into wakefulness, recession turns into recovery. The main thing is to learn to accept all temporary difficulties as a normal norm of everyday life, to understand that all troubles will pass over time and the balance will be positive.
2. Start every morning with the “Smile” exercise, even if you feel very bad. Go to the mirror and smile.
3. If you cannot change anything in a particular situation, then change your attitude by looking at it from the outside.
Well, so that you can understand how positive you are about life and whether you are able to easily solve problems, I suggest you to answer the test questions.
1. Do you experience troubles a lot?
a) yes, always-4
b) it all depends on the circumstances-0
c) no, any troubles go away over time-2
2. Are you upset about something, what are you doing?
a) I’m going to visit-2
b) I feel sorry for myself-4
c) I allow myself the pleasure I dreamed of -0
3. Do you tell others about your problems?
a) No-3
b) I tell you if there is a good interlocutor-1
c) Sometimes, because everyone has problems-2
4) A loved one offended you. What are your actions?
a) I won’t say anything-3
b) I will demand an explanation from him -0
c) I will tell everyone-1
5) In your opinion, fate:
a) Not fair to you-2
b) supportive -1
c) tests you-5
6) How do you feel about psychiatrists?
a) I don’t want to be their patient-4
b) They help many people-2
c) Help myself-3
7) In a moment of happiness?
a) I try not to think about misfortune-1
b) The anxiety persists that happiness may disappear-3
c) I don’t forget about misfortune-5
8) After a quarrel with your loved one, what do you think about?
a) About the good-1
b) About the possibility of revenge -2
c) About what I had to endure -3
From 7 to 15 points: you easily put up with troubles and do not feel sorry for yourself. Your spiritual balance is admirable.
From 16 to 20: prefer to shift problems onto others. Learn to control yourself.
27-35: you cannot cope with your troubles, you feel sorry for yourself. Believe us, everyone has troubles, they are temporary.
At the end psychological lesson It remains to remind you that first of all you need to love yourself and then all the difficulties in life will seem unworthy of your attention.