URI MENA Cultural Café – Session 49
On 3 April 2021, URI MENA cultural café session was on “Improving thinking skills” by Ms. Dua’a Alawneh, a professional human development trainer. The trainer tackled types of thinking, ways to improve thinking and positive thinking.
Major takeaways:
• Knowledge of theory improves our thinking ability. Applying theoretical knowledge through constant practice can boost our thinking abilities.
• Benefits of thinking positively include better quality of life, higher energy levels, better psychological and physical health, lower depression, better stress management and coping skills.
• Positive thinking start with talking with yourself. Self-talk is the act of talking to yourself either aloud or mentally. The positive messages you tell yourself will encourage and motivate you. Negative messages will discourage you and limit your power. To practice positive Self-talk you may:
– Remind yourself of what is good in your life
– Avoid people with negative attitudes and surround yourself with positive people
– Do not compare yourself to others
– Use positive words with others
– Do not fear failure
– Replace negative thoughts with positive ones
– Release yourself from failures, mistakes, or negative things that have happened in your life.
• There are four types of “thinking skills”: convergent or analytical thinking, divergent thinking, critical thinking and creative thinking. We use these skills to help us understand the world around us, think critically, solve problems, make logical choices and develop our own values and beliefs.
• Recommendations to achieve positive change:
– Be patient and persistent
– Positive Self-talk.
– Change begins with everyone and everything around you. Spend less time with negative and discouraging people. Also, change physical environment around you.
– We should not overwhelm ourselves with too many changes to accomplish at the same time.
– Free yourself from the past, bad memories and emotions from the past may haunt you and limit you
– Watch and limit your intake of the news and media
– Help others. You can experience feelings of being more positive, empowered, and optimistic by helping others. These feelings will help you have better self-talk during your day and improve your mental health.
– Practicing gratitude, it reduces stress, improves self-esteem, and foster resilience, particularly in very difficult times.
