Cultivating positivity or a positive mindset is an active process. Remember that simply eliminating stress or negative things and situations will not necessarily mean you will feel better; rather, being intentionally active in building a foundation of positivity and resilience would stand you in good stead to weather current and future challenges.
Here are some practical ways to cultivate positivity:
- Positive self-talk. Your thoughts can directly affect your emotions. If you’re repeatedly giving yourself positive feedback, you will likely feel more confident about your abilities. On the other hand, negative thought patterns are related to anxiety and depression.
- Enjoy the journey. Be wary of words like ‘should’, ‘ought’, ‘must’, and ‘have to’. Learn to be flexible and compassionate with yourself during your journey instead of focusing solely on the destination. This will allow you to appreciate the process and your own path of development.
- Be grateful. Gratitude is a powerful positive emotion. When we think about things in our life for which we can be thankful, we are actively shifting our attention to the positive. Try starting a gratitude journal, writing down three things you are grateful for each day. People who actively did this saw a significant increase in their levels of well-being and life satisfaction.
- Identify what brings you joy or ignites your passion and do it more often. Flow is defined as an optimal experience in which you are fully immersed in something you enjoy doing. Michael Jordan termed it ‘being in the zone’. To psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, being in flow is an optimal experience of human life. Spend time to consider what activities bring you into a state of flow, or bring you joy, and put these activities on your schedule, or plan to do them more often.
