It really is true to say a little positivity goes a long way. It can have a tremendous impact on your mental health. However, it can be difficult to keep that positive mental attitude going, particularly in times of stress. Having a little positivity corner can make a difference, and help keep a brighter outlook.
Why does Positivity Help Mental Health?
Aside from you just thinking in a better manner, positive thoughts can have a drastic affect on how you feel.
Positivity makes managing to day to day stresses of life a lot easier. People who think positive tend to suffer with less stress as they do not focus on the negative. Instead, they are focused on solutions and being proactive.
A positive attitude can also help when combatting mental health conditions and indeed physical ones. Half the battle with any illness is seeing a light at the end of the proverbial tunnel. Knowing that regardless of what is thrown at you, you are able to see a way forward.
If thoughts are dark and negative, then this can drag you down and compound issues, lead to or impact depression and anxiety. So, positive people are less at risk when it comes to mental health conditions such as depression. That is not to say they won’t suffer with them, of course, they just cope better.
Being positive can also improve how your brain works. Allowing you to absorb information better, be more creative and engaged, as well as focus on issues and handle them more effectively. It creates a resilience in the face of darker days.
How Can I be More Positive?
There are as many ways to be more positive, as there are people in the world. It’s all about finding what works for you, but some ideas to try are:
Use positive affirmations
Repeating a phrase or mantra, can help the brain to absorb that information. Think about studying, creating notecards and revising them over and over. It is the same process, but with positive information about yourself, or the world around you.
Some examples are “I am loved”, “I am worthy” or “Today will be a good day”.
Whilst they wont change the world around you, situations or experiences, what they can do is change how you view them.
Keep a Gratitude Journal
Being thankful is a great way to approach gaining a positive mindset. Sitting down at the end of the day and looking at what made you happy and why you’re grateful for that is fantastic for fostering positivity.
So often we don’t review our days and are consumed by the negative thoughts and experiences. A great example is bad news travels fast. Why? We have a Negativity Bias as people, a natural tendency to hone in on those negative areas and hold onto them. It is hard wired into our brains.
Turn Negative Thoughts Around
It’s only natural therefore to have negative thoughts, to find them more compelling than the positive ones. How can we combat just that? When you notice you are thinking in a negative fashion stop yourself.
This is difficult, stop and look for the positive aspects. Don’t let it drag you down, ruin your day or week, make you feel bad or lower your mood.
Find the good. If someone is rude to you, don’t focus on their words. Instead find something in the rest of your day that was incredible. A beautiful flower, the sun shining, a hug from a loved one, a good book, anything at all.
Do this with everything you can and you’ll have a better outlook on life and the world around you.
Create an Uplifting Corner, room or wall.
This is a fantastic way to help combat the negative. Once it is done, you don’t have to do anything, because your subconscious does the work for you.
It doesn’t matter where you do this, in a large picture frame, a whole wall, around a mirror, or on a noticeboard. Dedicate and area and then fill it with fantastically positive things.
We created one in the office and not only does it look beautiful, it is extremely uplifting. The area was filled with affirmation cards, positive quotes, lots of botanical images and plants. We colour coordinated everything too, added some pretty fairy lights and we were done.
Now every time we are in the office we see this information. Whilst it may not be looked at consciously, our brains take in everything that they see, absorbs it and then stores it. It’s much like studying, again. Popping up flash cards with words, or information on so that you see it every day and retain it.
If you are looking for other simple and effective ways to improve your mental health and indeed outlook on things using your environment, check out the Lifestyle section.
Positivity can lead to a happier you! These are just a few ideas to help get your positive juices flowing. Are you super positive? What do you do to keep that outlook on life? Please do share with us and our readers on TikTok, Instagram, Threads, Facebook and Twitter. We’d love to try out some other ways to be more positive.
