Finding happiness is a funny thing.  We all want to be happy, but our ability to achieve happiness tends to vary from person-to-person.  Why is that?  Is it that some people have more positives in their lives to be happy about?  Are they just luckier than the rest?

Studies about happiness find that positive thinking is the key to everything.  Barbara Fredrickson, a researcher at the University of North Carolina published a research study in 2008 that continues to be one of the most definitive studies on happiness and positive emotions.  The study highlights the impact that positive thinking has on an individual’s skills and ability to manage various situations.  Fredrickson noted that negative thoughts narrow one’s thinking, leading the person to limit their options in a given situation.  Conversely, positive thinking opens them up to a sense of possibility and provides additional options that they had not previously considered.  Fredrickson also refers to her “broaden and build” theory, which are the ways by which positive emotions broaden one’s sense of possibilities and opens the mind, which in turn allows the person to build new skills and resources that can provide value in other areas of their life, thus improving their level of happiness.

While this information is useful, it does beg the question how someone who isn’t naturally a positive thinker might develop and adopt this type of mindset.  The answer is actually simplier than you might think – you just “refrain and reframe”.  What this means is, you first must attempt to stop yourself from making negative comments or having negative thoughts about yourself, situations, or others.  This may be difficult to do, as you must hold yourself accountable for minimizing negative thinking; not just for the things you say out-loud, but also for the negative thoughts you might think to yourself.  Refraining from allowing yourself to fall into negative thought patterns is an important first step to changing how you think and shift your mindset.

Once you have stopped a negative thought, you then need to examine the situation that is causing negative emotions and attempt to find the positive in it.  There will be times where this is an incredibly difficult task, but it is also a very important step towards positive thinking.  By shifting your mindset and preventing yourself from focusing on the negative, you are practicing positive thinking – which the research supports leads to finding greater happiness.

Just like with anything else that you might do, the more someone practices something – the more likely it is to become a habit.  And once positive thinking begins to become a natural thought-process, happiness will follow.  Ultimately, happiness is achieved through positive thinking, which is achieved through practice.  In other words, all you need to do to find happiness is to practice.  That isn’t so hard, now is it?