Don't Be Such a Pollyanna!

Being a Pollyanna can be good for business, especially on social media. Let me explain:

When I was little my Mom would say to me: “You’re Such a Pollyanna!!!” I don’t know if you remember the Disney movie Pollyanna, but it was about an adorable little girl who always saw the bright side of every situation, regardless of how impossible it seemed. She had to go live with her very stern, wealthy aunt, who had her own ideas about how the town should be run, controlled and manipulated, basically what life should be like.

Little Pollyanna, brought a whole new side or view of how life could be joyful, sweet and innocent, which really threw the serious aunt off kilter and opened up her mind to new possibilities and ways of thinking and being. However, being so positive and open-minded did not happen easily for the aunt and the beginning of change was rough. But Pollyanna's sweetness persevered and eventually the aunt softened up and started experiencing more joy in her life!

This little girl was such a big hit in this 1960’s movie with her positive attitude that today, over 50 years later we have a term called the Pollyanna Principle, which you can find on Wikipedia. It states:

“The Pollyanna principle (also called Pollyannaism or positivity bias) is the tendency for people to remember pleasant items more accurately than unpleasant ones Research indicates that, at the subconscious level, the mind has a tendency to focus on the optimistic while, at the conscious level, it has a tendency to focus on the negative. This subconscious bias towards the positive is often described as the Pollyanna principle.”

The truth is, we would all be better off by taking some clues from little Miss Pollyanna and her never give-up attitude. She really epitomizes how important positive thinking and believing really is. We know today, that positive thoughts and emotions have an affect on our physical bodies and our bio-electrical field.

Through the book, Hidden Messages in Water, Dr. Masaru Emoto described how exposing water to different words, positive and negative, music and emotions, caused the water to form beautiful crystals or disgustingly random looking patterns. We conclude then, that our thoughts and emotions literally affect our environment and our bodies.

Furthermore, today with social media the Pollyanna Principle continues to apply in an even larger way than ever before.

More from Wikipedia: “The Pollyanna principle was described by Matlin and Stang in 1978 using the archetype of Pollyanna more specifically as a psychological principle which portrays the positive bias people have when thinking of the past. According to the Pollyanna Principle, the brain processes information that is pleasing and agreeable in a more precise and exact manner as compared to unpleasant information. We actually tend to remember past experiences as more rosy than they actually occurred."

Furthermore, today with social media the Pollyanna Principle continues to apply in an even larger way than ever before. Read here what these researchers had to say about it:

Researchers Margaret Matlin and David Stang provided substantial evidence of the Pollyanna Principle.

"They found that people expose themselves to positive stimuli and avoid negative stimuli, they take longer to recognize what is unpleasant or threatening than what is pleasant and safe, and they report that they encounter positive stimuli more frequently than they actually do. Matlin and Stang also determined that selective recall was a more likely occurrence when recall was delayed: the longer the delay, the more selective recall that occurred.

The Pollyanna principle has been observed on online social networks as well. For example, Twitter users preferentially share more, and are emotionally affected more frequently by, positive information.However, the Pollyanna principle does not apply to individuals suffering from depression or anxiety, who tend to either have more depressive realism or a negative bias.”

The important thing to remember is that we create our reality based on our thoughts, which invoke our emotions. The subconscious mind, which is in charge of everything, (95% of our consciousness anyway,) responds to positive or negative thoughts accordingly. Even if you’re not feeling as good as you would like, having a Pollyanna attitude may cause you to feel happier more of the time.

Consider adopting a Pollyanna attitude today! You might just find that life is more joyful, sweet and innocent, in spite of outer appearances or situations that in the past would throw you off balance.

It has been my belief and experience that: In the end, everything works out.

Sometimes things don’t work out the way we originally planned or expected, which can cause us stress and unhappiness. According to Eckart Tolle, The Power of Now, the only reason we feel unhappy is because we resist what is. With a Pollyanna attitude, we realize that although things may not be the way we wanted, things are working out and may be better than we originally planned. Guess what happens then? You can choose to be happy regardless and when you’re happy, your energy is up and you attract good and even better things, situations and people than you even imagined!

Here’s to Pollyanna!!!

#hypnosis #hypnotherapy #happiness #success