Developing positive and energising thoughts can have a significant impact on your overall well-being and outlook on life. Often actively developing the habit of generating your own positive thoughts can shift us into much more positive mindset and change our whole outlook for a better, happier life, rather than accepting all those negative thoughts that often plague us and make us feel ‘less than’ … or just generally unhappy in our life.
I’ve outlined five ways to generate and cultivate ‘Positive thoughts.’
Once we learn to recognise negative thoughts as they arise, we can challenge them. Often, our negative thoughts are distorted or unfounded. They are part of the way our mind processes information through the various ‘filters’ in our mind. When we can replace negative thoughts with positive and more rational alternatives, we can offer our mind a positive mental pathway and strategy to perceive ourselves and the world around us more resourcefully.
For example, if you catch yourself thinking, “I always screw things up,” you can catch it and replace it instead with “I am capable of learning from any mistakes I make and am improving all the time.”
Setting goals is useful as a strategy for direction and focus, and they are also part of the process of aligning yourself with your values and aspirations. They can provide a sense of purpose and motivation. By focusing on positive goals and breaking them into smaller, achievable steps and allowing yourself the opportunity to celebrate success at each step along the way, you progress becomes a motivator and will spur you on to greater success as you move towards the bigger goals. Focusing on your accomplishments, no matter how small, can generate positive thoughts and energise you to keep moving forward.
The people around you and the environment you place yourself in can greatly influences your thoughts and energy. Consider entering a room full of sad, exhausted or demotivated people and notice how does that feel? You don’t even need to speak, you can feel the room and the atmosphere, the drain on your own energy, compared to entering a room full of high energy, upbeat, motivated, happy people. You feel energised, engaged, up for anything. So, seek out positive and uplifting individuals, engage in activities that bring you joy, and create an environment that promotes positivity. Whatever energises you, fills you with positive feelings or just makes you happy.
Engaging in mindfulness practices, such as meditation or managed breathing exercises, can help you stay present and cultivate a positive mindset. You can prioritise yourself more just by focusing on your needs. Prioritise self-care activities that nourish your mind, body, and soul. Whether that is about getting rest, eating in a more balanced way, exercising regularly even if it’s only gentle walking. Find those activities that bring you enjoyment in a way that you can feel Anticipation in advance, happy in the moment whilst you are doing them and able to reflect back on how good it was to do that activity.
Take time each day to reflect on the things you are grateful for. This is a simple act of noticing what in your life brings you positivity, supports and sustains you, feeds your mind, body and soul. These are the things you can be grateful you have experienced. These simple acts can shift your focus towards the positive aspects of your life and help you develop a more optimistic mindset. There are so many things we have to be grateful for every day and yet we aren’t tuned in to them very often and dismiss them as just living ‘life’ but they are wonderous!
As an example I am grateful to be looking out of the window whilst writing this and feeling gratitude at just how beautiful life on a summer day can be.
Or just noticing that we wake up every day to a new day full of possibilities and opportunities. Or that we get to experience the world through our senses. And we all sense differently with different senses, yet still notice nature, experience relationships, giving and receive small acts of kindness. Whether big or small noticing and being grateful is a powerful positive force.
Write down three things you are grateful for each day or make it a habit to mentally acknowledge them.
Remember that developing positive thoughts takes time and consistent effort. Be patient with yourself and practice self-compassion and self-love throughout this process.
If you would like to hear more about changing your negative thoughts to positive ones and creating a better, happier life for yourself contact me for a chat on how I can help you.
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