Our mind is where our thoughts are contained, filled with memories, experiences, images, desires, and plans. The moment we wake up in the morning, our mind functions by prompting us on what to do and what will happen for the day. Are you the type who decides first thing in the morning how you want your day to be? Do you condition yourself and set the mood you want to have for the day? Do you make it a habit to decide how you want your day to end? Or do you just leave it all up to fate or the forces around you?

We always attune our body with awareness so that we will understand what is going on around us. In the same way, we also must develop a relationship with our cognitive aspect—our mind. We do this in order for us to understand why we are feeling the way we feel and why we manifested such actions. Understanding the nature of our thoughts will help us understand why we are happy or sad, calm or angry, and lucky or unfortunate.

Can you tell if you are a positive or a negative thinker? How do we know what type of thinker we are? How good are you in determining your own thoughts?

Types of Thinkers (Fear-Based)

Part of understanding our own thoughts is to identify the kind of thinker we are. There are three common thinker types based on fear or negativity. Find out if you belong to one of these:

Worrisome Thinker

These people worry over a distressing thought or situation for a prolonged period of time. They incessantly think of failures or misfortunes like a plague that is attacking their lives.

Catastrophic Thinker

People who are catastrophic thinkers do not foresee anything good or hopeful during moments of tension and challenging situations, whether big or small. Instead, they anticipate a very unpleasant consequence to happen.

Self-Critical Thinker

Self-critical thinkers rarely appreciate what they do and what they have achieved. The way they view an action or situation is always incomplete, always not good enough, and mediocre. They seem to feel inferior because of their imperfections, instead of turning the flaws into challenges.

Characteristics of a Positive Thinker

Positive thinkers have learned to train themselves in controlling the steady flow of thoughts that enter the mind. Find out if you are one of them from these traits that depict positive thinking:

a. You view mistakes and problems, both personally and professionally, as challenges instead of failures.

b. You enjoy living your life more and do not live in constant sorrow. You take every good and bad experience as part of life.

c. You are open to opinions and suggestions because you know that you might benefit from them.

d. You refrain from gossips and meaningless talks.

e. You take pride in your achievements, big or small.

f. You are always grateful for every blessing received and you do not complain about not receiving one.

g. You use positive self-talk, and applies affirmative statements in your conversation with others.

h. Your body language and gestures also speak of positivity.

i. You confidently carry yourself and care about keeping a positive image to others.

Positive Thinking Vs Wishful Thinking

Few people employ wishful thinking, which is not all the time positive thinking. Although wishful thinking is not at all bad, it is a lot better to act on our hopes and thoughts instead of simply hoping that it will happen when you can actually make it happen at the moment. This makes the distinction between the wishful thinking and positive thinking.

Wishful thinking is more of idealistic rather than realistic. Also, it is situation-based, meaning wishful thinkers have to make sure it happens at the right time and the right situation. On the other hand, positive thinkers aim for a complete transition regardless of the situation.

Wishful thinkers are not completely convinced of their ability to manifest what they hope to achieve. There is presence of doubt in the process. There is always an underlying and obvious difference between an “I am” than an “I can” or “I will”. Nevertheless, the fact that your thoughts are more of positive and wishful as opposed to negative is good enough to start the change in you.