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Perhaps you normally consider yourself to be generally a positive person. Even so there are frequent times in our lives when our feelings well up and we get that familiar sense that our situation could be better; indeed sometimes it even reaches the point where feelings of hopelessness overtake us. It's quite natural for these feelings to arise after being laid off from your job.

You've all heard the mantra that says you can overcome these feelings just by changing your thinking, but how do you do that? How can a positive attitude turn your life around after a layoff?

For most people it simply isn't that easy. The fact of the matter is that we all have times when we don't feel overflowing with positive energy or for that matter, energy of any kind. When we feel less than positive, even simple tasks can seem too much. Being told that a positive attitude will solve everything is not helpful.

What you need is a technique to help you develop a positive attitude and start thinking positively.

What we have to do then, is to get to grips with whatever is causing us to feel like this. This is the hardest part, especially when the energy levels are low anyway. If you haven't tried this approach before you must take the time to think about and meditate upon the things that are bothering you.

Go somewhere quiet and peaceful. Listen to your inner voice, is there something that keeps surfacing? It will probably be a negative feeling of failure, being less than adequate, not being good enough or maybe being trapped in a situation. In doing this you start to identify the true foundation of your feelings.

Quite likely after a layoff, the feelings will focus on self-pity and being hyper-conscious of letting down our loved ones. We believe that it is our failure that led to us being laid off.

When you get to the point of what you perceive to be the crux of the problem you can start to ask yourself questions that might lead beyond what you believe to be the cause to the true problems. Start with "what is the basis for feeling this way?" "What evidence do I have that proves I am ...?" If you don't have any evidence or if the evidence is weak you can start to rebuild these assumptions from an evidential perspective.

Recording your thoughts and feeling on paper is a great help in developing more clarity. By writing down what you think, you can examine it more objectively and see the misconceptions for what they really are. A little practice with this technique will help you to discover you how thinking positively will turn your life around.

Learn more about this author, Peter Fisher.
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