We sometimes wake up in the morning and rue the day ahead of us. We dread how fast time is moving. We feel like the world is out to get us and that everything that could go wrong, is. Even if you have considered yourself a positive person, we can all be guilty of letting the small things get to us.
We may not even realize when we have adopted a mindset that sways more negative than positive. It can be anything from the way you speak to yourself, the words and phrases you use around friends, to the outlook you have on the future. Positive thinking simply means approaching life’s curveballs with an attitude that says “I won’t let this moment affect my overall happiness.”
The difference between optimism and pessimism can actually impact your physical and mental health. Taking small steps to alter your mindset can be hard to consciously implement, but it can alter your well-being tremendously.
The difficult part about changing our mindsets from primarily negative to positive comes when we do not even realize we are thinking negatively to begin with. Oftentimes negativity hides in the most concealed forms. We likely don’t even realize the impact our practices have on our mind and even the mental health of those around us. A lot of this comes from self-talk, our inner thoughts and words, or from projecting those thoughts into real-life conversations.
Self-talk is typically where negative thoughts and words stem from. If we are talking down to ourselves, we will likely use the same rhetoric when talking to or about others. These inner thoughts sometimes come from logical reasoning, but other times come from misconceptions that we carry about ourselves or about various situations.
We can actively make simple changes each day in the way we speak, act, and live to improve our optimism. We can work a little bit each day to recognize the negativity that can be improved and begin to make small alterations. This way, we will unconsciously adopt more positive habits and it will change our outlook on life. Changing our own mindset will naturally change the attitudes of the people around us, hopefully making our entire network a more positive community.
Here are 5 tricks to build your optimism and live a happier and healthier life:
Consider what areas of your life you notice yourself lacking in positivity
Negative self-talk and pessimism can come in a variety of forms but sometimes looks like this: blaming yourself when something bad happens; assuming the worst outcome will happen rather than the best; making a big deal about trivial issues; things can only be really good, or really bad, never in the middle. If these seem familiar, don’t fret. Simply recognizing that there is room to become more positive is the first step! Once you analyze where you experience the most negativity, you can easily flip the narrative and decide that this mindset is not serving you in a beneficial way.
Recognize the situations that make you feel the most pessimistic
If you feel most negative around certain people, in certain places, or doing certain tasks, try distancing yourself. You don’t need to alter your life entirely, but noticing that you feel worse in particular situations can remind you to try extra hard to have a positive attitude in those circumstances or to not put yourself in those situations in the first place.
Listen to positive affirmations each day
Changing your attitude can be as simple as conditioning your mind into being naturally more forgiving and kind. Listening to positive affirmations on Spotify, writing down your own manifestations, or speaking to yourself with a smile on your face in the mirror are small but mighty life changes you can implement today.
Journal your thoughts
Try picking up a pen and paper and jotting down your thoughts about the day you had or the day ahead of you. Reread what you expressed and underline each time you used a word of negation or expressed dread for something. Doing this each day will open your eyes to how pessimism lives in your thoughts and words. You can slowly but surely rewire your mind to only write thoughts of positivity and excitement.
Use words with positive connotations rather than negative
One of the biggest changes to be made is using words or expressions that insinuate something bad. Most of the time, we hardly realize that the terms we use are skewing negatively and that we can say them in a more uplifting way. There’s no need to self-deprecate in our language, especially when we might not even notice we’re doing it. Consider changing some of the phrases and words you use to improve your self-talk and how you communicate with others.
- I’m down to do that → I’m up for that
- I can’t wait → Im looking forward to it
- I’m dying laughing → That really made me laugh
- I’m sick of that → I’m no longer doing that
- I have to go → I get to go
- I’m being lazy today → I’m prioritizing rest
Simply recognizing the roots of pessimism in your life, working to switch your mindset from negative to positive, and making those around you open to altering their life in the same way can be extremely life changing.
There are so many things to be happy about each day and sometimes we just need to remind ourselves of how much the great things in our every day should be noticed and appreciated!
