10 tips on positive thinking
The spiral of negative thinking is triggered all too easily for many of us. It can well up inside you or the world around you and become toxic and hold you back from leading the life you truly want to lead.
However, we can prevent and overcome this self-sabotage with 10 steps that I have found massively helpful over the years.
1. Ask yourself ‘what is the good?’
Our brains are brilliant as spiralling out of control when we experience a setback in life.
The important thing to do here is to catch yourself before you enter the negative state and counteract yourself with better questions in order for you to grow.
Questions like:
What is something good I can get out of this situation?
What is something I could do differently next time so that I am likely to have a better outcome?
What can I learn from this?
2. REMINDER: people do not care!!
Humans are brilliant at worrying about what others think of them, sometimes before we have even done anything.
The truth is people are all too busy and wrapped up in their own lives to think or talk about what you do.
They have their own hands full with jobs, kids, pets, hobbies etc the list goes on.
Once you realise this you feel incredibly liberated and free from the constraints you create in your own mind.
3. Question your thought.
One thing I like to do when I think a negative thought is to simply question it.
I ask myself:
Is this thought useful to me?
The answer often being NO.
Negative thoughts are often a result of us being tired, hungry or overworked. If I come to the conclusion that the thought is not useful and realise why I am thinking that way I make a conscious effort to take time out and have some self-care.
This question really helps to ground me and give me a level-headed perspective of the situation.
4. Replace the negativity around you.
Whatever you let into your mind has a massive effect on your mind. Start questioning and noticing what you allow in.
What are your top 3 sources of negativity in your life?
Is it people, the news, websites, music, work and so on.
Make a conscious effort to spend less time on or with these three things each week.
With the time you have freed up in the week focus on more positive sources.
5. Stop making a mountain out of a molehill.
Is it actually worth getting that worked up over?
I guarantee that 99% of the time it is not.
When you are confronted by a ‘molehill’ think about what state of mind will help you solve the challenge most effectively.
What can you do to get into that mindset?
Meditate, ask for help, create a list of steps to achieve your goal?
Or you can zoom out on the situation. Ask yourself will this matter in a year? Or even a week?
6. Let it out!!
It is often healthy to talk about what emotions or thoughts you are experiencing to someone close to you. Bottling emotions up often cloud your whole mind and end up exploding even bigger down the line.
A conversation with someone where you can get a more useful perspective and draw up an action plan can be incredibly useful. If not, then sometimes venting just to get it off your chest and into the open can ease the situation in your mind.
Whichever works for you to leave you feeling relieved and recharged!
7. Move your body!
This has got to be one of my absolute favourites. There is something about working up a sweat and releasing endorphins that just leaves you feeling FANTASTIC!
All it needs to be is 20-30 mins.
This helps to release the tension in my body and refocus my mind in a more constructive way.
You might not want to move but trust me on this!!
Move that booty!
Even if you just blast some tunes and dance around your bedroom!
8. Be grateful for some of the things that you might be taking for granted.
When we get stuck in a negative state it is easy to forget about all of the incredible positive things in our life.
To list a few:
Your lungs to breath
Your eyes to see all the fantastic colours in the world
A roof over your head
Friends and family around you
Clean water
9. Start your day in a positive way.
However, we start our day sets the tone for the rest of it.
When you wake up what is the first thing you see?
Your favourite inspirational quote? A picture of a happy memory? Your phone?
Try to make sure that the first bit of light that you see is natural sunlight.
Why not have your morning tea or coffee sat in the garden for 10 mins.
Over lockdown I got into the routine of having my morning tea in the garden and then having a shower while listening to my favourite upbeat playlist.
10. Turning negative self-talk around.
The words we use out loud or in our head are crucial to the way we think and view life.
Your inner critic may be the biggest obstacle in the way of you leading the life you want.
Being able to tell the inner critic to shut up is such a useful skill.
How?
In your head or our loud if you can say or shout stop! You’ve got to mean it as well!!
Remind yourself of how the inner critic has shaped your life previously. See the cost of letting your inner critic dictate your life.
You are in total control of your mind and can change it whenever you want to!
The power is all yours!
