This sometimes jovial question is actually about your positive thinking and may reflect your outlook on life and your attitude toward yourself. The answer may even have implications on your health as studies exist showing that personality traits such as optimism and pessimism can affect many areas of your health and well-being. 

This is because positive thinking is usually associated with optimism; and, therefore, a key component of effective stress management; and, good stress management has many health benefits. 

Day-to-day, someone who embraces positive thinking approaches unpleasantness in a more positive and productive way. They think the best is going to happen, not the worst. They see opportunity, not adversity.

Positive thinking often manifests with self-talk – an endless stream of unspoken thoughts that run through your head that culminates in a sense of general optimism. Researchers continue to explore the effects of this behaviour on health as it may contribute to:

• Increased life span
• Lower rates of depression
• Lower levels of distress and pain
• Greater resistance to illnesses
• Better psychological and physical well-being
• Better cardiovascular health and reduced risk of death from cardiovascular disease and stroke
• Reduced risk of death from cancer
• Reduced risk of death from respiratory conditions
• Reduced risk of death from infections
• Better coping skills during hardships and times of stress

Whilst it is unclear why people who engage in positive thinking experience these health benefits, one theory is that having a positive outlook enables you to cope better with stressful situations, which reduces the harmful health effects of stress on your body.

It's also believed that positive and optimistic people tend to live healthier lifestyles – they get more physical activity, follow a healthier diet, and don't smoke or drink alcohol in excess.

How to adopt a positive outlook

If you identify with pessimism, you can learn positive thinking skills. Some common forms of negative self-talk include:

• Filtering – magnifying the negative aspects of a situation and filtering out all the positive ones
• Personalising – automatically blaming yourself
• Catastrophising – anticipating the worst without facts that the worse will happen
• Blaming – identifying someone else is responsible for what happened to you
• Magnifying – making mountains out of molehills
• Perfectionism – keeping impossible standards and setting yourself up for failure
• Polarising – you see things only as either good or bad and have no middle ground

How to focus on positive thinking

While the process is simple, it will take a little time to create this new habit. The following may help you to think and behave in a more positive and optimistic way:

• Identify areas to change – start small and focus on one area to approach in a more positive way
• Self-check – periodically during the day, stop and evaluate what you're thinking 
• Be open to humour – seek humour in everyday happenings
• Follow a healthy lifestyle – aim to exercise for about thirty minutes on most days of the week. Maybe break it up into five or ten minute chunks.
• Follow a healthy diet
• Get enough sleep
• Surround yourself with positive people – supportive people you can depend on to give helpful advice and feedback
• Practise positive self-talk – don't say anything to yourself that you wouldn't say to anyone else

Here are some examples of turning negative self-talk into positive thinking:

“I’ve never done it before” becomes “This is an opportunity to learn something new”

“This is too complicated” becomes “I’ll try this from a different perspective”

“I don't have the tools/resources” becomes “I’ll find a new way of doing this”

“I can’t be bothered with this” becomes “I’ll fit it into my schedule”

“There's no way it will work” becomes “I can try and make this work”

“This is too much change” becomes “I can change this”

“No one communicates with me” becomes “Let’s open some channels of communication”

“I’m not going to get any better at this” becomes “I’m going to give this another try”

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Practise positive thinking every day! When your state of mind is generally optimistic, you're better able to handle everyday stress in a more constructive way. That ability may contribute to the widely observed health benefits of positive thinking.