Are you a worrier?
When your mind is constantly preoccupied with apprehension, you feel uneasy and anxious most of the time. You might even sometimes feel like you’re losing control over your own life.
This is a feeling that I’m well too familiar with.
A while ago, I was going through a difficult time and felt stressed and overwhelmed. I’m talking about one of those days when you’re emotionally drained and you feel like you got run over by a train. I felt my anxiety levels go up, and then I realized something.
I realized that it’s been a while since I’ve felt this way. I’ve realized that only a few years ago, this was how I felt almost all the time, every hour of every day.
Always worried.
Always anxious, always grumpy. It was then that I became aware that despite there being no drastic changes in my life during the past couple of years, I am not the same person anymore.
My life is completely different, yet the only thing that has really changed was my attitude and the way I look and react to things that happen to me.
5 SIMPLE SHIFTS TO BRING MORE POSITIVITY TO YOUR LIFE
REALIZE THAT YOU HAVE A CHOICE
This might be difficult to realize at first; the thought that happiness can sometimes be a “choice.” I get it. BUT, there’s actually a scientific proof to that and your thinking patterns play a huge role in this. A lot of the circumstances surrounding your life might be beyond your control but you can control how you respond to them. You can either spend your life complaining and constantly nagging and bitching, or you can choose to feel grateful, inspired and passionate about your life. Keep in mind that having a positive outlook on life does not mean having a perfect life.
It doesn’t mean that you won’t struggle, it doesn’t mean that you won’t feel like giving up, it doesn’t mean that you won’t experience setbacks or that you won’t feel disappointed at times. I still experience all of those things; but those things used to crush me and kill my encouragement, I now treat them as lessons- and those are necessary for any kind of growth.
Here’s the thing.
You are just as deserving of a happy, amazing life as anyone else is.
Your life wasn’t meant to be a struggle, an uphill battle. If you don’t like something, change it. Don’t waste your energy on negative people. Eat a little healthier. Go for a long run. Try meditating. Do things that scare you a little. Do something for the first time. Learn a new skill.
Take a little responsibility instead of just letting things “happen” to you.
Change is good. Declutter your life, just as you would declutter your desk. Get rid of toxic people from your life. Whenever you’re around someone who only talks about negative things, gossips a lot, throws judgment around like it’s confetti, you can almost feel your energy levels drop. If you can’t help it and you have to be around negative people, try to either steer the conversation in a positive direction or remove yourself from that situation. I’ll be honest and say that just a few years ago, this was something that never really bothered me. Now, I can’t stand being around people who only focus on the negative things in life.
FIND PASSION
Find something that brings you joy. I just talked about how finding passion and starting a blog helped me deal with depression in this post. Think of something that makes you feel happy, something that will keep you busy and will set your soul on fire. Follow your bliss, every single day. No matter how small those things are that make you happy, do them.
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If you haven’t found it, keep searching. Keep looking, keep trying new and different things until you find that one thing you love to do.
SPREAD YOUR SPARKLE
I think that we all have that one person in our lives that makes us happy when we’re around them. The person that never nags, never gossips, the person that always makes you laugh, always makes you feel good about yourself and lifts you higher and raises your energy. If you don’t have a person like that in your life- be that person for others– for your friends, family. Making the people you love happy is one of the best feelings there are. Smile, compliment your friends, don’t judge their decisions and when needed, give a constructive, but loving feedback.
Resisting something negative will not make the “bad” feelings go away. To make a shift and live a more positive life, you have to bring more of that positivity into your life. Just like you can’t make a half-empty glass of water suddenly full unless you add more water to it, you can’t expect to live a happier life if all you do is resist negativity. Negative thoughts have their purpose, too, but instead of resisting them, you have to add more positivity and kindness to your daily life.
One of the best ways of doing that is by showing some love and kindness to someone else. Write a kind note to a friend, take out someone close to lunch or dinner in the middle of the week, send someone a letter or give them a small gift. Find a way to pay it forward, every single day.
LEARN TO LET GO
Let go of things you cannot control, of things (or anything else) that do not serve you. Forgive others, forgive yourself. Sometimes, bad and ugly things happen to us. Sometimes we get our hearts broken time and time again. Those things always teach us a lesson- take that lesson with you, but let go of the past. Worrying about things that have happened in the past, or things that might happen in the future is a waste of your energy. This isn’t easy to do, take it one day at a time.
SEE GOOD IN EVERYTHING AND EVERYONE
I think this one is especially important in relationships and during stressful times in your life. Don’t make assumptions about people, don’t judge and compare. Let go of the negativity, the drama. When you think about the people in your life, concentrate on their best qualities- especially when they happen to hurt your feelings, or make you feel upset. When you choose to see the good in everything and everyone, you will see just how much there is to be thankful for.
Of course, it’s impossible to monitor every single one of your thoughts; of course, it’s impossible to not let things “get to you” or annoy you, make you angry, once in a while. To bring more positivity to your life, you have to learn to be a little more mindful. Once you do begin to practice being mindful you will begin to notice your positive energy dip, whenever something negative- like judgment, gossip, or complaining happen around you.