There are many good reasons to be more positive in life. Being positive is good for your mental health, and it’s even good for your physical health (it lowers your blood pressure and means you’re less likely to overeat and neglect to exercise).
But sometimes it can feel as though being positive is a far away thing that you just can’t reach. You wonder how other people seem to do it when all you can see is negativity all around you, and perhaps especially on social media and the news.
If you feel like this, whether it’s all the time or just every now and then, it’s worth looking into different ideas and methods to help make your life more positive. When you know how to turn things around and help yourself feel better, you’ll be able to protect your health (in all its forms) much more easily. Plus, you’ll be happier, and that’s always a good thing. With that in mind, here are some of the best ways to make your life more positive.
Image by Gino Crescoli from Pixabay
Go To Therapy
Therapy is a good way to deal with pain, guilt, trauma, or any other problem in your life so that you can become a healthier, happier, and more peaceful person. You can finally start living the full life you’ve always dreamed of when you learn how to cope, let go of negativity, set boundaries, and deal with certain situations in a positive way.
Among the many benefits of therapy is the fact that it can help you be a much more positive person. This is a great place to start if you’re having issues with understanding how to be more positive or if you have specific problems that a therapist will be able to guide you through.
Accept That Bad Things Happen
There’s no way around it: bad things happen to all of us, and it’s hard to know when life will throw us a surprise challenge.
Some people will have to deal with these problems earlier in life or more often because of their own situations. But it’s very unlikely that you won’t have some bad luck or bad things happen to you in your life.
That’s not an easy fact to accept since our brains naturally try to make sense of sad and hard things. Most of the time, this will make you feel shame, blame, or resentment, which are all emotions that are great at making you think bad thoughts.
If, on the other hand, you can accept that bad things happen, often for no reason at all, it will be much easier for you to deal with these hard times. A big part of being a positive person is finding healthy ways to deal with hard times.
Do Things That Make You Happy
One of the most common misconceptions about happiness and positivity is that they just happen. When you’re sad or mad, you can usually name a specific event that made you feel that way; it could be a difficult journey to work, you might have had some bad news, perhaps you had a falling out with a friend, and so on. However, when you’re feeling happy, it’s not always so easy to pinpoint exactly what it was that caused you to feel that way. Yet there will be something, and it’s important that you find it if you can.
How do you figure out what will make you happy? A good way to work this out is to think of all the things you do during the day. What brings a smile to your face? It might be a certain song, for example, and if so, listen to it. It could be playing with your pet, and if that’s the case, go and play. It might be smelling a certain scent, eating your favorite food, or going somewhere and doing something specific. Whatever it is, make time for it, and your positivity will increase.
Keep A Gratitude Journal
Writing in a gratitude journal is as straightforward as spending a few moments every evening to write down three good things that happened that day. This practice will not only help you appreciate the good things in your life, but it will also make you more aware of all the things you have to be thankful for.
One bit of advice is to be as specific as you can when being grateful for the day. Don’t just say that you’re glad it wasn’t raining. Say that you’re glad you were able to take a break from work and walk around the block in the sun because it made you feel better. You’re really trying to make yourself feel something, and details will help you do that.
Meditate
Meditation is the most powerful mental practice that can reset your happiness set point, making you a happier person and rewiring large parts of your brain.
Studies have shown that regular meditation makes a few major parts of the brain thicker. This makes it easier to deal with uncomfortable, hard, and stressful things that life throws at you. If you tend to worry or stress out too much, meditating can calm down the parts of your brain that are overactive and make the parts responsible for joy and pleasure bigger.
Studies have also shown that meditating makes the amygdala, which is a part of the brain that deals with fear, smaller. This part of your mind is in charge of fear and anxiety, so the smaller it is, the happier you will be overall.
Let Go Of Resentment
If you want to be a happier person, you have to work at forgiving, letting go, and moving on from anything that has caused you pain in the past.
This is hard, especially when we feel like someone or something has hurt us, and we can’t stop thinking about the situation. Even worse is when we feel like things weren’t finished, that justice wasn’t done, and wounds weren’t healed. Keeping these things in your mind after they are over, though, will stop positivity from growing.
Make Habit of Reading Good Content
One effective way to make your life more positive is by cultivating the habit of reading good content regularly. Whether it’s inspirational books, motivational articles, or a reliable websites like bible verse can be a valuable resource. This will help you shift your perspective, find encouragement, and embrace a more optimistic outlook on life.
Consistently immersing yourself in such material can inspire personal growth, resilience, and a brighter mindset, contributing to a more positive and fulfilling life journey.
