21 Practical Ways for Staying Positive in Life (Part II)

21 Practical Ways for 
Staying Positive in Life (Part II)

When we make a decision to become positive and follow that decision up with action, we will begin to encounter situations and people that are also positive.

Let’s look at some other ways of building a habit of being positive.

1. Laugh More, Especially at Yourself:

A 2016 study pointed out that, “Decreasing stress-making hormones found in the blood, laughter can mitigate the effects of stress”. By decreasing levels of certain hormones in the body, laughter can help to reverse the stress response, mitigating short-term or long-term depression. If we can learn to laugh at ourselves and our mistakes, life will become more of an experiment in finding out what makes us happy, and finding happiness makes finding positivity a lot easier.

2. Help Others:
Negativity goes hand in hand with selfishness. People that live only for themselves have no higher purpose in their lives. If the whole point of this world is only to take care of yourself and no one else, the road to long-term fulfillment and purpose is going to be a long one. To learn how to get rid of negative energy, look outside yourself and begin to help others. 

3. Surround Yourself with Positive People:
We become most like the people that we surround ourselves with. If our friend group is full of negative energy-suckers and drama queens, we will emulate that behavior and become like them. It is very difficult to become more positive when the people around us don’t support or demonstrate positive behavior. 

4. Turn Negative Energy Into Positive Action:

The next time you’re in one of these situations and feel bad, walk away and take a break. With your eyes closed, take a few deep breaths. Once you’re calm, approach the situation or problem with a pen and piece of paper. Write out four or five actions or solutions to begin solving the problem. 

5. Read Positive and Inspirational Materials:

Spend time each day reading something that encourages positive thinking. Read the inspirational, spiritual material, or motivational quotes to help you focus on what’s important to you in life. It can be a great way to start and end your day.

6. Establish and Work Toward Goals:

It’s easier to be positive about problems and setbacks when you have goals that you’re working toward. Goals will give you motivation to overcome those obstacles when you encounter problems along the way. Without clear goals, it’s harder to make decisions and gauge your progress. Learn to set SMART goals to help you achieve more. 

7. Consider the Consequences of Negativity:

For example, a person who thinks, “I probably won’t get this job interview,” may put less effort into the interview. As a result, he may decrease his chances of getting the job. Create a list of all the ways negative thinking impacts your life. It likely influences your behavior, your relationships, and your feelings. Then, create a list of the ways in which positive thinking could be beneficial. 

8. Create a Daily Gratitude List:

If you start keeping a daily gratitude list, you’ll start noticing exactly how much you have to be thankful for. This can help you focus on the positive in your life instead of thinking about all the bad things that have happened in the day. Getting in the habit of showing an attitude of gratitude makes positive thinking more of a habit. 

9. Practice Self-Care:

Take good care of yourself and you’ll be more equipped to think positively. Get plenty of rest and exercise and practice managing your stress well. Taking care of your physical and mental health will provide you with more energy to focus on positive thinking. 

10. Start the Day with a Positive Affirmation:

How you start the morning sets the tone for the rest of the day. Have you ever woken up late, panicked, and then felt like nothing good happened the rest of the day? This is likely because you started out the day with a negative emotion and a pessimistic view that carried into every other event you experienced. Instead of letting this dominate you, start your day with positive affirmations. Talk to yourself in the mirror, even if you feel silly, with statements like, “Today will be a good day” or “I’m going to be awesome today.” You’ll be amazed how much your day improves. 

11. Focus on the Good Things, however Small:

Almost invariably, you’re going to encounter obstacles throughout the day—there’s no such thing as a perfect day. When you encounter such a challenge, focus on the benefits, no matter how slight or unimportant they seem. For example, if you get stuck in traffic, think about how you now have time to listen to the rest of your favorite podcast. If the store is out of the food you want to prepare, think about the thrill of trying something new. 

12. Find Humor in Bad Situations:

Allow yourself to experience humor in even the darkest or most trying situations. Remind yourself that this situation will probably make for a good story later and try to crack a joke about it. Say you’re laid off; imagine the most absurd way you could spend your last day, or the most ridiculous job you could pursue next. 

13. Turn Failures into Lessons:

You aren’t perfect. You’re going to make mistakes and experience failure in multiple contexts, at multiple jobs and with multiple people. Instead of focusing on how you failed, think about what you’re going to do next time—turn your failure into a lesson. Conceptualize this in concrete rules. For example, you could come up with three new rules for managing projects as a result. 

14. Focus on the Present:

I’m talking about the present—not today, not this hour, only this exact moment. You might be getting chewed out by your boss, but what in this exact moment is happening that’s so bad? Forget the comment he made five minutes ago. Forget what he might say five minutes from now. Focus on this one, individual moment. In most situations, you’ll find it’s not as bad as you imagine it to be. Most sources of negativity stem from a memory of a recent event or the exaggerated imagination of a potential future event. Stay in the present moment. 

15. Find Positive Friends, Mentors and Co-workers:

When you surround yourself with positive people, you’ll hear positive outlooks, positive stories and positive affirmations. Their positive words will sink in and affect your own line of thinking, which then affects your words and similarly contributes to the group. Finding positive people to fill up your life can be difficult, but you need to eliminate the negativity in your life before it consumes you. Do what you can to improve the positivity of others, and let their positivity affect you the same way. 

16. Practice:

Confidence is the result of not just doing something well, but knowing you can do something well.  When you practice often, you get good.  When you get good, you feel confident about your abilities.  When you feel confident about your abilities, you take more risks, practice even more, and ultimately become a master of your craft. Similarly, if you do not practice, you won't feel good about your skills.  If you don't feel good about your skills, you won't take as many risks, you'll get down on yourself, you won't practice as often, and you'll make very few strides on your path to greatness.  

17. Believe You Will Succeed:

In order to feel more positive, you will need to start believing in yourself. When you believe in yourself, you are showing great self-worth and care. Try not to get scared by the fear of failing or not reaching your goals and know that even if you do make a mistake, you can try again. Believe that you will achieve your goals and you are one step closer to doing so. Remember that any mistake made is just a lesson to learn from. 

18. Practice Positive Affirmations:

Positive daily affirmations are great for keeping you optimistic and reminding you of the good things in your life. Positive affirmations are statements you repeat to yourself every day that make you feel good. For example, if you are struggling with low self-esteem, you would repeat ‘I am beautiful’ to yourself in the mirror, this could be in the morning or whenever you would prefer. When you keep repeating these affirmations you are reminding yourself of these positive statements and can start to believe in them more and more. 

19. Use The Mirror Technique:

You may have never heard of the secret mirror technique, but if you have, you will probably understand how easy and helpful this technique can be. In the morning and in the evening, stand in front of a mirror, look at yourself and start saying what you like about yourself. Give yourself confidence, praise yourself and tell yourself how great you are. Doing this can really start to change your mindset and help you with your confidence. You can start to feel much more positive and optimistic about yourself and your life. 

20. Breathe:

Breathing may seem like a very simple and little thing to do, but you may be surprised at how it can help you to stay positive. When we are worried and stressed we often make decisions quite quickly without thinking. If you can stop and take some long deep breaths, you can then focus on your breathing for a little while, whilst clearing your head. This can help you to think rationally and become more positive even if you are in a stressful situation. This can also bring you back to stay in the present moment, which is great for helping you to switch your mindset.

21. Use Self-Hypnosis:

Self-hypnosis can really help you achieve a new positive mindset. When we take part in self-hypnosis we are opening our highly conscious state of mind to follow instructions. This means that we can be much more open to positive words and self-suggestions, which can start to train our mind to be more optimistic and happy. Be sure to research and find out more about how self-hypnosis could help you.

So, here is another example of one of my former students who understood the value of positivity in life and changed his entire outlook to achieve his goals. 
Coincidentally, I received this message on my birthday :) 

Stay Positive!

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