Once you find yourself in a negative state of mind, it can be hard to get out of that funk. It’s very easy to see the negative in life, and making yourself see things in a more positive light is challenging for some people. But there are ways you can attain a more positive state of mind, and all it takes is practice. You may not be able to do it right away, but by following these 7 different tips, you’ll find yourself being more and more positive.
1. Learn to Manage your Stress
Being stressed out can make your outlook on life incredibly negative, especially if you’re stressed every day. But we all face stress—it’s how you handle it that will determine if it makes your life negative or not. Learning how to manage your stress can be done in a number of different ways. For some, it means doing yoga or meditating. For others, it’s a hobby such as painting or exercising. Others find relaxation in music or in simply taking a nap. Some actually go to therapy to manage their stress.
But there are destructive ways of managing stress, too, such as turning to alcohol. While these techniques may make your stress disappear for some time, they’re not a permanent or a good solution. Often, they will only add to your stress in the long run. If you’re using a harmful method of managing your stress, it’s important to talk to someone about it.
2. Seek Inner Happiness
You can’t have a positive outlook on life if you’re not happy, but finding your happiness isn’t always easy. This is especially true if you’re going through a rough time at work or in your personal life. But when exterior forces are mostly negative, it’s important that you look within yourself to find something that makes you happy. Maybe it’s reading a good book or watching your favorite TV show. Perhaps it’s spending time with your pets or going for a walk. Whatever it is, find some things that you really love and that make you really happy and make sure you set aside time to engage in these activities on a regular basis. The more you take these happiness breaks, even if you feel like you don’t have the time, the less stressed and the less negative you’ll be.
3. Realize you’re not Alone
Everyone has stress and negative factors in their lives. By realizing that you’re not alone, you can take a step back and see just how small the issues affecting your life really are. If you can put them in context, you’ll start to see that there’s nothing really that bad about them. Of course, that’s not to trivialize your issues. Everything that makes you feel negative is certainly a valid issue, but it helps to realize that everyone has problems. Talking to others about what’s affecting your life and how you can both change for the positive can be a great help, too.
4. Listen to a Motivational Speaker
Sometimes, you need a little professional boost to help you learn how to view life in a positive way. Motivational speakers can do just that. They can discuss different methods for relaxing and channeling positive energy through your body and into your life experiences. While they may not teach them as such, many of the different ways of becoming more positive that these speakers offer are similar to what therapists teach their patients. But they also offer different tools, too, and sometimes listening to a motivational speaker is actually more helpful than going therapy. Each motivational speaker comes at being positive in a different way. This means that even if listening to one motivational speaker doesn’t help you, you shouldn’t give up. Another may have a different approach that fits you better.
5. Journal
Journaling can be a great tool for becoming more positive. The idea of writing down all of your feelings or even just the events that occurred during the day can help you process them. By going through the day’s events and working through how you reacted to them can help you see what triggers your negative frame of mind and other emotions. By identifying these triggers, you’ll be able to learn new ways of reacting to them. While it will be hard to do this at first, you’ll eventually make these new reactions into new habits. Once you’ve done that, you’ll find that something that would once send you spiraling down into negativity will no longer affect you as strongly. Here are some things you might write down in your journal:
- Lists – what made you upset, what made you happy, etc.
- 3 things that made you think negative thoughts.
- 3 things that made you think positive thoughts.
- 5 ways you wish you had reacted.
6. Keep Motivated
No matter how down you’re feeling, if you keep motivated and doing things, you’ll eventually start to feel more positive. That’s because doing activities, especially if it’s something you like, will help you move away from the negative emotions and start to feel much more positive. Even though it can be hard to be motivated to do anything, even get out of bed, when you’re wallowing in negativity, do your best to make yourself do something. Even if all you do is turn on some music or watch your favorite TV show. They can help you move past your negative frame of mind.
7. Listen to your own thoughts
While you can get help from therapy and listening to others, the bottom line is that only you know how you’re truly feeling and what will truly make you happy. If you can’t be honest with yourself about your emotions and thoughts, getting help won’t really help you at all. You’ve got to listen to yourself and be ready to accept your feelings, your reactions, and your actions before you can start to move from a negative frame of mind to a positive one.
Have you used any of these techniques to help become more positive? If so, which ones worked, and do you have any additional ones to add to this list?