The Role of Positive Thinking in Overcoming Stress by a Person: The Neuroscientific Paradigm

Abstract

The article provides a theoretical analysis of the problem of the impact of positive thinking on overcoming stress in the context of neuroscience. It is noted that coping-counteraction with stress is ruled by conscious and meaningful at the level of mental activity intellectual strategies of anti-stress actions related to individual characteristics of thinking style and personal characteristics. The style of thinking and its influence on the self-regulation of an individual in stress can largely determine the interhemispheric asymmetry of a brain and the localization of its dynamic functions. The content and functional features of positive thinking are determined. Methods of development of positive thinking are considered. It is emphasized that realistic (positively and health-improving) thinking with reasonable optimism should be developed comprehensively – in a combination of neuropsychological and socio-psychological technologies at the systemic, integration level. Effective technologies of anti-stress thinking training are offered: self-help, debriefing, development of reflection, use of cognitive-behavioral, positive and rational psychotherapy techniques, psychological training, neuropsychological methods and techniques, ecological methods of optimizing health thinking. Practical recommendations for „reprogrammingˮ a brain for positive thinking have been developed.