7 Easy Steps To Becoming Positive & How It Will Change Your Life
What if the biggest stumbling block to realising your life’s goals was your attitude?
After thirty years of readings for people of all walks of life, you start to notice common patterns.
For those who have worked with me before, they realise the process by which I provide readings is to tell clients about their backgrounds, childhoods, leading to present situations. This helps them build up a degree of trust and confidence in the process, after which point, I look towards their future.
I often see the potential in people, their situations, their projects, ideas and goals. I can see what will fly and what will struggle to manifest.
When seeing all the potential in my clients I find there is a recurring stumbling block to what hampers their progress. It’s largely down to attitude. Those who come for readings can sometimes be in a low place, hence seeking guidance, but they often stay stuck in a rut of negativity.
While I often predict incredible outcomes for clients, the first step I have to advise them on is to be positive. It’s hard to do this, especially when you’ve had a rough ride in life, which, more often than not, has been their experience to date. This makes it hard to see the silver lining.
When you decide to be positive, and it’s a choice, opportunity has the potential to flow. You open up your creative potential, you spot things you didn’t see before, you’re open to new conversations, connections, relationships, you become proactive, you make better choices about your health and wellbeing – all of these are connected and can happen when you make the decision to remain positive and optimistic.
Don’t just take my word for it. Research is beginning to reveal that positive thinking is about much more than just being happy or displaying an upbeat attitude. Positive thoughts can actually create real value in your life and help you build skills that last much longer than a smile.
Publisher of landmark research on the matter, Barbara Fredrickson is a positive psychology researcher at the University of North Carolina, she tested the impact of positive emotions on the brain by setting up a little experiment. During this experiment, she divided her research subjects into five groups and showed each group different film clips.
The first two groups were shown clips that created positive emotions. Group 1 saw images that created feelings of joy. Group 2 saw images that created feelings of contentment.
Group 3 was the control group. They saw images that were neutral and produced no significant emotion.
The last two groups were shown clips that created negative emotions. Group 4 saw images that created feelings of fear. Group 5 saw images that created feelings of anger.
Afterwards, each participant was asked to imagine themselves in a situation where similar feelings would arise and to write down what they would do. Each participant was handed a piece of paper with 20 blank lines that started with the phrase, “I would like to…”
Participants who saw images of fear and anger wrote down the fewest responses. Meanwhile, the participants who saw images of joy and contentment, wrote down a significantly higher number of actions that they would take, even when compared to the neutral group.
In other words, when you are experiencing positive emotions like joy, contentment, and love, you will see more possibilities in your life. These findings were among the first that suggested positive emotions broaden your sense of possibility and open your mind up to more options.
It might sound like a bit of pop psychology, or a glass half full cliché, but give it a try and it just might bring you closer to living in flow.
My tips for remaining positive:
- Decide to stop negative thoughts swimming aimlessly around your mind.
- Practice being present. You only have this moment, choose how you want to spend it wisely.
- Connect with people who energise and inspire you, whether in person on the phone, Whatsapp, Twitter or Facebook.
- Pay compliments to people in your life who deserve them.
- Walk in nature or put yourself in an environment that feeds your spirit: This could including listening to or playing music, dancing, running or anything physical.
- Count your blessings. Look at everything you have. Start with your health if you have that, and name 5 things in your life, for which you are grateful. There are definitely many others out there who lack those gifts.
- Remember, it’s a choice!
Seems simplistic, but give it a try, it can only help.