Being positive more often is literally a state of mind.
Some people seem to walk round with their own permanent thunderstorm.
Others have an almost permanent smile.
But chances are you’re somewhere between those two extremes (it’s normal, most people are).
And you can use these simple ideas to tip the balance in favour of being positive more often.
1. Positive idea #1
The first idea is a bit weird but surprisingly effective:
Stand up unless it would be odd for you to do so
Turn your head upwards (this is a standard NLP “trick” as it’s almost impossible to be gloomy if you’re looking up and it’s one of the reasons why the menus in fast food restaurants are above head height)
Optionally, raise your forearms into the air
Shout (out loud or in your head) the words “Yes! Yes! Yes”
Try it now – you’ll be pleasantly surprised how much it lifts your mood.
2. Stop following the news
Bad news (real or fake) sells.
Whether that’s physical newspapers in days gone by or clickbait nowadays/
We have a tendency to crowd round and rubber neck when there’s bad news to be checked.
News outlets know that and pander to our collective taste.
Go cold turkey on news – resist the temptation to check Twitter or your Facebook feed or whichever news site you instinctively turn to.
If (when?) you find yourself moving towards news, catch yourself, have a quick smile and click elsewhere instead.
Aim to purge news from your life for at least the next 7 days, ideally a lot longer. Forever if at all possible.
You’ll doubtless be thinking that you’ll miss something important but that’s highly unlikely.
Think about all those news stories you’ve followed – how many have actually directly affected you? How many could you have affected the outcome?
Was the answer zero? Because for most people it’s either that or a really low number (the last news story that actually affected me was a couple of months ago when a friend’s mother died.)
If it’s really important, one of your friends will tell you – but ideally, ask them not to forward you news links unless they really do directly affect you.
3. Keep a gratitude journal
At the end of each day, write down at least three things you’re grateful for.
Preferably do this in a written journal – partly because computer screens late at night mess with our sleep, partly because we have a greater connection to things if we physically write them rather than just tap away and let those little electrons take care of everything else.
At first, you may find it difficult to think of three things that you’re grateful for.
That’s normal – society pushes us towards not being grateful for things and we have a tendency to take things that would have been truly extraordinary to our grandparents as being normal.
So it could be being grateful for the variety of food you’ve eaten today (it’s not that long ago that people rented pineapples for the day!)
It could be being grateful for still being alive. Or the various people you’ve spoken to today. Or the roof over your head. Or anything else.
It doesn’t matter if you repeat some or even all of yesterday’s list but it’s good practice to add some variety as well.
Writing a gratitude journal does several things:
It reinforces the idea that we should be grateful
It puts positive things in your mind before you go to sleep – setting more “nice” things happening in our brain as we sleep
It helps you to be more grateful more often – it’s likely to spill over to your regular life and that’s a good thing
Just those seemingly small things will help you to be more positive more often.
And if you’d like to help your mind help you, listen to a hypnosis positivity track to help fast track the whole process.
The first idea is a bit weird but surprisingly effective:
