Positive thinking is one of the most commonly discussed topics when it comes to living a good life. Everyone wants to be positive, happy, and successful. Nobody wants to feel down, negative, and always have lousy mood to affect them.
When you are positive, you feel lighter and less burdensome. Studies have discovered that when people are positive, they tend to open their minds to better opportunities around them. Therefore, it is good to make positive thinking your habit and experience it every day. Positive mind works!
So how can you be positive and experience the uplifting energy each day? Here are 12 good suggestions you may want to adopt.
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Start your day strong
Positive thinking is about maintaining your emotions. So start your day strong by reviewing your goals each morning. When you have a great start, the entire day will be great and you will be able to accomplish more.
Just like the motivational guru Zig Ziglar once said, “You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.” Every time when you imagine the exciting future that you want to live, it makes you feel good. The same can be achieved by reviewing your goals. Hence, do it every morning and start your day strong.
Put your mind in the right perspective and build up the momentum to get ready for what’s coming during the day. When you start with the right mindset, your day can seem lighter, you will be happier, and looking forward to kick-start your day.
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Smile more and enjoy the moment
Every morning when you walk into your bathroom, look in the mirror and smile. Make a big grin if needed to. Your motions create your emotions. And when you smile, you create an uplifting feeling in yourself.
This is why people often say, “Fake it until you make it”. The more you smile, the better you will feel. Forcing yourself to smile not only changes your mood, but it also relieves your stress. It is easy to do and anyone can do it.
More importantly, enjoy the present moment. People are feeling negative because they are too obsessed with either the future or they think too much about their past. Instead of worrying if you can make enough money to pay the bill by the end of the month, choose to live in the moment and enjoy the present.
There is no point to wander in the past or worry about your future. What truly matters is what you do right now. So smile more and enjoy this moment.
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Surround yourself with positive people
Another great strategy to stay positive throughout the day is to surround yourself with positive people. The people you mix around with most of the time will influence you. If you surround yourself with negative people who talk bad about other people, you will become one of them too.
Jim Rohn has a famous quote, “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” And he was right. The people you talk to most of the time can influence your thinking. This is why highly successful people network with other successful people.
When you mix with negative people who always blame, complain and make excuses, you will join the conversation and this will put a negative impact on your thinking, hence, your life.
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Focus on the good things
Choose to only focus on the good things. This may be easier said than done, but the moment you aware and realize that you are thinking negatively, choose to switch your thoughts and focus on the good.
Even when things are not going your way, you can still choose to look at the bright side of things. When Thomas Edison’s lab was on fire, the first thing he told his son was to get her mother to see such an incredible scene. Edison knew that there was nothing he could do, and instead of feeling down, he chose to look at the positive.
This is what you must do as well. When things are not going your way, choose to focus on the positive side. When it rains, choose to dance in the rain.
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Turn failures and mistakes into stepping stones
In life, mistakes and failures are inevitable. There is no way you can live your life without making any mistake or failure. If you are not making any mistake, it simply means that you are not taking enough action.
What is more important to learn is that whenever you make a mistake, do not fret, and choose to treat the mistake or failure as feedback. Successful people understand that the more they fail, the more they can improve. They treat failures as stepping stones and catapult themselves to a higher ground.
If your boss scolds you or if you argue with your wife, you don’t have to let the negative thinking influence your mood, rather, treat it as a feedback. Your boss sounds you because he wants you to do better. Your wife argues with you because she wants you to understand her needs more.
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Contribute, volunteer, and help out
When you volunteer and help someone who is in need, you take your focus away and put your thoughts on helping. And when you give and contribute, it makes you feel good.
Not only that you have helped someone, but you have also created a feel-good feeling that you have done a good deed. Helping others give you a new perspective on the world and boost your positive thoughts.
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Read positive and inspirational materials
One of the easiest ways to stay positive and motivated is to read inspirational materials. Whenever you are feeling down, read a story about how someone has gone through a similar situation like yours and bounced back will give you the energy and make you feel better.
Extraordinary people like Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, Mark Cuban, Nelson Mandela, Oprah Winfrey, etc, are avid readers. They read a lot to keep their perspective and mindset focused on the right direction.
Hence, commit to reading to keep your thinking positive.
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Maintain positive energy with affirmations
Affirmation is another great method to boost your positive thoughts. If you look at the sports industry, athletes use pep-talk to boost their mood and get driven. Pep-talk is similar to affirmation.
When you repeat your affirmations and make them as real as possible, your mind will buy into the thinking. For example, if you keep telling yourself, “I’m destined for big success and everything that I do turns into gold,” eventually, your mind will believe it and this gives you a boost in your mood with positive energy.
Start your day with affirmations. And whenever you are feeling down, remember your affirmations, repeat them, and make them as real as possible. You will find that the positive energy starts surging up within you.
For those who are more visual in nature, positive thinking pictures can take the place of positive affirmations for similar effects
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Practice meditation and be in solitude
Many studies have discovered that meditation is an effective way to stay positive. It gives the individual who practices it a state of mindfulness. And when you are being mindfulness, you are more aware of your thoughts. Thus, less negative thoughts can invade you, making you feel calm and positive.
Besides meditation, you can be in solitude to achieve the same state. Just take a walk in the park or the garden quietly. Learn to quiet your mind and be aware of your thoughts. This way, you can control and get rid of negative thoughts when they try to invade you.
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Make a daily gratitude list
The more you are grateful for the things that you have in life, the more positive and appreciative you will become. This practice helps you focus on the positive side of life rather than thinking about the bad things.
Making gratefulness your habit makes positive thinking easier. Think about it, when you are grateful for something, you will never look at the negative side. You will feel grateful and be thankful for it.
What you can do is to make it a habit to write down 10 things that you are grateful for each day. The more you are aware of the good things you have around you, the more positive you will become.
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Find ways to compliment others
If you want to make the atmosphere positive, just praise someone and compliment others. When you make someone feels good, you will feel good yourself too. However, just remember that your compliment must be genuine and honest.
Trying to make up a compliment or praise others without being genuine can make the situation worse. Say something good each day to increase your positive energy and thoughts.
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Exercise and work out regularly
Finally, exercise and work out regularly. Science has discovered that when you exercise, your brain will release a hormone called endorphins and this hormone will make you happy.
Many studies have also found that exercise not only makes you healthier, it also helps in relieving your stress and make you think more positive in life.