POSITIVE

“Look for something positive in each day, even if some days you have to look a little harder.”

With the last post being about how to distance yourself from the negativity in your life I wanted to do a follow-up post about embracing positivity. It’s not something that is often easy to do. Do you remember the saying, every cloud has a silver lining? Basically meaning that every difficult or sad situation has a comforting or hopeful outlook, even if it may not be immediately apparent. That’s the thing about being positive when all hell seems to be breaking loose. It’s hard to find that hope or comforting outlook when something terrible, devastating or just straight up irritating happens but what helps me is to think about what I want for myself as the end result. I want to live a peaceful and happy life so I think about the steps I need to take in order for me to get there.

Try this* I know that whatever I’m experiencing at that moment isn’t going to be forever the mind can play tricks on you and it may be easy to think well this is how it’s always going to be but that type of attitude will get you nowhere. Bad times don’t last forever and unfortunately, neither does the good, so it’s important to find balance. Be grateful have an attitude of gratitude for the good things in your life and be mindful about the bad. This will help you to fight off negativity next time you’re facing something undesirable.

Make an action plan. If you know that you’re the type of person that gets angry, already have your action plan in place. Have a process that you go through to help you calm down whether it be listening to music, walking, working out or scrolling through Instagram. Make sure that you are able to keep self-destructive habits at bay with a little mindful practice. Same goes if you’re the type of person that gets down. Find something that makes you happy, don’t dwell too long on what made you feel down. Allow yourself an hour (or two) of guilt free Netflix watching, find some peace in nature, call a friend for a little pick me up. With an action plan in place, you can’t fail. Just knowing you alone are responsible for your feelings and how you view the world should be motivation enough to get you going. It’s there you just have to look a little harder on the days you’re not feeling up to it.

A good tip that worked for me is to find something good in each day. This helps a lot for moments where I feel low and need a little positive pick me up. It could be anything as small as a bird landing outside my window or finding five dollars on the ground. It could be that my family members are all in good health, or my cat did something insanely adorable. Get yourself out of the negative thinking traps and learn to embrace and welcome the good. Soon you will notice that there are a lot of great things in this life to be thankful for and more good will start flowing into your life every day.

xx