Changing Your Attitude May Lower Your Stress Level

Remember when you were a stressed-out teenager? The world seemed to be ending because of something insignificant, and your parents told you that you needed an attitude adjustment? If you didn’t take their advice seriously back then, it might be time to take a look at your overall attitude about life. Your parents might’ve been onto something!

Here’s how changing your attitude can lower your stress levels:

Optimism improves your overall well-being

Are you feeling absolutely drained and down lately? Well believe it or not, your bad attitude could be the culprit for why you’re feeling so icky. In fact, research shows that having a positive, optimistic outlook on life improves your health, relationships, and self-confidence, all of which lower your stress levels and increase happiness. And you guessed it: a negative attitude does the opposite.

Related: How to Feel Better When Stress or Anxiety Hits

A good attitude removes limits

When your brain is constantly filled with “cant’s” you immediately set limits on your limitless potential! That’s because when you tell yourself you can’t, your brain begins to believe that’s the truth, before you even try! It’s like setting yourself up for failure. But when you tell yourself you can, or that you’ll do your best to succeed, you give yourself a fair shot at accomplishing anything, which would reduce anybody’s stress.

Positive thinking changes your perception

When you’re stressed out and have a bad attitude on top of that stress, you can perceive even the simplest tasks as tedious and impossible to do, which can spike your stress level until it’s off the charts. But if you change your attitude and practice positive self-talk (how you talk to yourself inside your mind) and positive thinking, you can approach tedious and stressful situations in a more productive and healthy way.

Related: 5 Reasons Why Laughter Really Is the Best Medicine

A positive attitude can take you far When you have a good attitude about the future, you’re more willing to take risks, because you know that even if you do fail or make mistakes, you can always try again. This type of mindset can take you far in life. But if you’re a pessimist, you may not take risks out of fear of failure, and if you do try and fail, you might beat yourself up so much until you’re bitter, you expect the worst, and you’re reluctant to try anything ever again.  

All in all, having a positive outlook on life is a vital key to unlocking the secret to managing stress. Yes, life does get hard sometimes. And yes, it can be difficult to always look on the bright side. But why should you make it harder with a bad attitude? If you give it your best effort to be kind and patient with yourself and you strive to learn to be optimistic, your life will become more manageable, peaceful, and enjoyable. 

Note: The concepts here are not a substitute or treatment for clinical depression and the advice in this post may not address symptoms of diagnosed clinical depression.