The Power of Positive Thinking: 22 Thoughts to Change Your Life

In my lovely Iranian culture, where the power of positive thinking and inner peace hardly makes an appearance, I grew up seeing the terrible impact of this mindset around me all the time: Some people were apparently born lucky and others, well, not so lucky.

“We are each responsible for all of our experiences.”
Louise Hay

I would hear grown ups talk about how “lucky” this person is and how sadly this other person’s life turned out. How someone ended up with their own company or rich by marriage and oh how it was always about “luck”!

It was really scary to think of myself tossed into the well of life and swished around uncontrollably as I waited with baited breath to see if life spits me out as lucky or unlucky. “Oh God, please let me be the “lucky” kind.” I would beg in my childhood prayers, “I don’t like the stuff they say about the “unlucky” ones!”

Now, I understand the power of positive thinking to guide my life. I realize that everyone who believed those thoughts was – and is – terribly misguided. A nice word for ABSOLUTELY WRONG, if you will. Some people very close to me still think this way, that life is going to decide their destiny. Not them. Not their actions and least of all, not their thoughts.

Of course, I grew up being a disgusting victim of this mindset and as a bonus, carried it well into my 20s with me. I was determined and ambitious but those traits went toward studying and educating myself. They did not go toward understanding the simplest and MOST powerful concept of all: that we become our thoughts and that our thoughts in turn create our magnificent reality.

The Power of Positive Thoughts

The power of positive thoughts was proven to Louise Hay by her own life experience and made extremely popular over the years, thanks to her. Then years later, it was proven scientifically that by controlling and thinking positive thoughts, you actually create new neural pathways in your brain. I paraphrase a doctor, who was interviewed in the video below, saying: “We can rewire the patterns in our brain with the cognitive behavioral affirmations. It is not just the fluff, woo-woo stuff. Positive thoughts change the way our brain is wired. It really has biochemical, neuro-chemical affects on our brain.” And so, yes, with your thoughts, you can therefore change your life.

“You are not a helpless victim of your own thoughts, but rather a master of your own mind.”
Louise Hay

The root of unhappiness originates from your thoughts, and there is no shortage of bad thoughts so if you want to eradicate all traces of happiness from your daily life, you will have a large enough army to do that every single day, no matter how amazing your life may be. You have life experience, so you don’t need proof for this one. You have done it to yourself or seen others around you succumb to this and it is an ugly spiral, which leads to depression and often off to the doctor to get medicated.

As much as I thank the heavens for living in the age of modern medicine, I am appalled by the abusive over-medication of our generation, and the complete ignorance of the simple natural changes that can bring about real results without all the harm. But you see, changing our thoughts is not as easy as popping those pills and playing a victim of circumstance all day long.

The ego gets in the way and decides you can’t possibly think that changing your silly thoughts will actually turn around your miserable life, now, can you? That’s for those crazy people out there who believe in magic. No, you are “realistic” and “practical” and that means, your life is average, and generally very hard, and there is really nothing that special about it, and so no reason to be all that “happy” after all.

Rubbish thoughts that rob the very spirit of life and turn all your blessings into average nothings and always wish, dream, and envy the rest of the world because their life is so perfect and their luck so rare.

Yeah, that’s a recipe for unhappiness that works every single time, because human nature fights the positive thinking!

And yet, that state of unhappiness is precisely what my Iranian culture seemed to be in love with. What is this crazy love affair with unhappiness? What is this obsession to make a perfectly good day a miserable one with envy, jealously, wishful thinking, and countless signs and snarly remarks. What is this magnetic pull to stay unhappy and be so hesitant to admit that LIFE IS GOOD and that alone is a perfectly good reason to be ridiculously happy.

“Your mind is a tool you can choose to use any way you wish.”
Louise Hay

So… thanks to my backwards upbringing and cultural influence that blames anything and everything from luck, chance, genes, circumstances, what-have-you, for the success of others and the misery of the self, anything except our very own thoughts, I have now become madly vigilant about embracing the power of positive thinking and spreading it like a bloody gospel!

Change These 22 Negative Thoughts to Positive Thoughts

Alright, time for some action. This one is about changing the conversation with yourself, and about eliminating old harmful thoughts for new fresh and empowering ones. It won’t be a picnic at the start, because for some strange reason, we love wallowing in misery and desperation and jealousy. Well, those “pleasures” will take leave when you change over to positive thoughts.

A promise: You won’t miss them because you will greet a new feeling: happiness and empowerment.

So next time you hear yourself say the thoughts in the red, change it to the ones in the black. Easy enough? Let practice be the teacher. Your job is to push gently – without forcing the issue – but to keep pushing, and to not lose persistence, and to be willing to change your whole life by starting with your thoughts.

Treat the new phrases as a mantra, as a prayer, as a new baby you want to protect, as a curiosity so you allow it to do its work, and as a rule with loving kindness and firmness. Repeat them over and over, as long as it takes until they do replace the negative, disgusting, and black thoughts and start to shine their light on you.

1. I am not enough …. I have so much that it’s hard to believe I’ve been this fortunate. Don’t make me count them for you!

2. I don’t have enough … I don’t see why I need to “have” in order to be happy when happiness stems from deep within.

3.  I am not pretty enough. ….. Oh I am plenty pretty, and the more I take care of me, the more beautiful I become.

4. I am not smart enough… I am smart enough to know that maybe I need to apply my smarts better or in a different place.

5. I don’t know how that works [computer, technology, a system, a tool, etc]… I may not have the skills but I can learn, and learn anything I shall!

6. I am not tech savvy. … but so is no one else when they first start, don’t forget they didn’t become savvy overnight.

7. I doubt it will happen or come through…. I am counting on it happening and either way, I will be delighted with the outcome because something better will happen if this doesn’t come through.

8. I don’t think they will take me….. If they don’t feel I am right for them, then it’s best for both of us that they don’t take me. I trust they will make the right decision.

“Remember, you are the only person who thinks in your mind! You are the power and authority in your world.”
Louise Hay

9. I can’t survive without [a person, a pet, a friend that is lost]…. I am feeling lost and sad without [this person/pet] but I will heal and find inner peace again.

10. I am probably going to be rejected…. I have given it my all and I have a 100% chance of success, either by being accepted or by realizing that this is not the right thing at the right time for me.

11. I should’ve done it yesterday…. Today is a good time to do this.

12. I am broken…. I am healing every day and it’s an amazing process.

13. I am weak. …. I am stronger than I think.

14. I can’t possibly do that.…. How can I ever know the extent of my powers if I don’t first try. In fact, forget try. I am going to DO and find out next. Thank you, dear sweet Yoda.

15. I wish I wish I wish …. I can I will I shall.

16. I wish I could succeed like him/her …..I create my own success and I alone decide on the precise depth and length of that success.

17. I am too old for this stuff………What is getting in my way of learning this stuff and what does age have to do with learning?  [Just find some role models. There are 80-year-olds that are happier and more active than all of us. Why can’t we do it with all this youth and abundance?]

“Know that you are the perfect age. Each year is special and precious, for you shall only live it once. Be comfortable with growing older.”
Louise Hay

18. I am too set in my ways …… I am willing to change. I am not an animal. I am a human being with intelligence, and I can change if I desire it.

19. I am not gifted like them.….. I bet I could surprise myself if I set my mind to it.

20. I wish I were rich………I am betting on creating my own wealth.

21. I can always run out and get a job ….. I am going to make self-employment rock my world, it is my only choice and my only path so backup plans begone.

22. I am lucky if [followed generally by two dozen excuses]……… Oh I am so lucky to be and to exist and to have the blessing of life and the gift of freedom.

There are more thoughts. Thousands of more thoughts, but it’s impossible to list them all. It is better if you train yourself so that you can apply this change to every thought by using the examples above.

When you change your thoughts, you change your energy, your attitude, your outcomes and your life.

“You have the power to heal your life, and you need to know that. We think so often that we are helpless, but we’re not. We always have the power of our mind … Claim and consciously use your power.”
Louise Hay

Applying your affirmations: I have found that affirmations work best when I use them along with guided meditation tracks.

So go ahead. Change ONE single thought from negative to purely positive. How does it feel? And what countless doors does it open in your mind and subsequently, in your life? Believe in the the power of positive thinking. Believe in YOU!