“It’s not the hand you’re dealt, but how you play your cards.”
You may not have much control over the circumstances life throws at you, but you—and only you—have control over how you handle those circumstances, and positivity is key.
Maintaining a positive outlook on life and starting each new day with a positive mindset is linked to happiness and life satisfaction. But sometimes being positive doesn’t come easily. Here are some tips to help you improve your positivity.
1. Seek optimism in negative situations. When faced with a negative situation, ask yourself, “What is one good thing about this situation? What is one opportunity that may arise from this situation?”
2. Eliminate negativity from your life. From the people you spend time with to the books you read and the TV shows you watch, spend some time evaluating how each of these influences your outlook. If an influence is more negative than positive, it’s time to do some housecleaning and spend less time with those negative influences.
3. Don’t lose perspective. Before you allow something small to have a major negative impact on your life, stop the snowball effect in its tracks. Take time to breathe and put things in perspective. Most stressful or otherwise negative situations we experience on a day-to-day basis will matter very little (if at all) in five years.
4. Do something good for another person. One of the best things you can do to help maintain your own positive outlook is to add value to another person’s life. Find a way to help someone in need. Lend a helping hand, listen or just give someone a smile. These small acts of kindness go a long way in boosting our own mood.
5. Exercise, eat a healthy diet and get plenty of sleep. Exercise boosts production of “feel good” endorphins that can help to reduce stress and give you a more positive outlook on your day. Make daily exercise a habit. Proper nutrition and adequate sleep go hand in hand with exercise. Each of these will affect not only your health but also your mood. Make taking care of your body a priority.
6. Learn how to take criticism. What others have to say about you can be devastating to your self-esteem and outlook, but it doesn’t have to be. When you receive criticism from another person, listen to what they are saying. If it makes you upset or angry, don’t respond right away. Take at least a few moments to process and breathe before responding. If you choose not to respond to the criticism, then let it go and move on. Sometimes criticism is born out of negativity in the other person’s own life. Keep your perspective and remember it may not be about you.
Just because life’s circumstances appear to be negative doesn’t mean you must go through life with a negative outlook. Make these changes in your life, and you will notice that you will become less stressed, more positive and genuinely happy.
