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Are you a person who sees the world through rose colored glasses? Are you someone who finds the good in things and you are often referred to as having a “glass half full” mentality. If you are a positive person then you are most likely happier, less stressed, more successful and healthier than your less optimistic counterparts. For those of us who need a little help being cheerful and hopeful, Positive Thinking Day is a perfect reason to stop what your’re doing and make a step in the right direction.

As human beings we naturally deal with feelings of uncertainty, jealousy, anger, sadness and other emotions that bring us down. How we deal with these feeling is up to us. There are times when I am depressed about something and it seems unrealistic to believe that I can think happy thoughts and shake it off. But the truth is, if we give ourselves the understanding that life just sucks sometimes and that’s the way it is, it makes it easier to see beyond the momentary pain and reassure ourselves that things will get better. We should allow ourselves to feel “negative” emotions about things but to find ways to get over ourselves and find something positive to focus on.

Life sucks on a regular basis and that’s the way it is. Get over yourself & find something positive to focus on. 

Positive thinking is not about repeating affirmations through gritted teeth or always having something nice to say. There are days that positive sayings make me roll my eyes and other days that they inspire me. There are days when I gush optimism and other days when can’t find something nice to say so I keep my mouth shut. But what I don’t do is get wrapped up in the sadness or anger. Some days I just don’t feel like “counting my blessings”. Other days I remind myself that even in my worst moments, there are countless numbers of people with bigger problems and much worse situations than mine.

There are a lot of times when Positive Thinking means picking myself up by the bootstraps and working really hard at finding the good in things regardless of how bad I feel.

Positive Thinking has to come from the heart to feel real. Until then, practice. Practice finding the good in things. Practice ways to feel happy (or at least happier) until you get out of your funky mood. Life is a series of ups and downs.

When you’re up just enjoy it and don’t focus on what might bring you down. When you are down, just accept it and focus on getting back up.

There is a really cool study that was published in January of 2017 about positive thinking. It says that Positive Thinking can be learned! (source sited) It also proves that positive thinking is linked to better health and longer life so let’s give it a shot.

Here are some ways to inspire positive thinking:

  • Make a list of things you like (foods, places, books, things in nature).
  • Read or watch inspirational stories about people who overcame obstacles in sports, business and everyday life.
  • Find an inspirational quote or two to print out and hang up.
  • Write a letter, email or text to 3 people to brighten their day.
  • Laugh out loud. Find a movie or comedy sketch that makes you laugh and literally let yourself “LOL”. This one always does it for me.
  • Close your eyes and slowly count backwards from 10 to 1, then think of a moment when you were proud of yourself.
  • Start an instagram account and post a pic a day of things that make you feel more positive.
  • Recall memories of times that you were happiest and let yourself feel the positivity.
  • Take 5 minutes to do all those cliche things that we know we should do (relax, unplug, meditate, clear our head, live in the moment) but think we are too busy for.
  • Think of your favorite color. Google your color and make a virtual inspiration board by dragging and dropping pics to a word doc. Make it your computer background.
  • Really work to find some good in the things that are in your path to happiness.
  • Pick a day to literally find something positive in every situation and let people know what you see.
  • Google “funny t shirts” and let yourself laugh! Order one to wear on days that you need cheering up.
  • Every time you have a negative though about yourself, replace it with thinking of 3 things that you like about yourself or that others like about you.
  • Make it a research project or a game to smile at as many people as you can and see how many smiles you get back.
  • Do something that you used to love but put on the back burner (drawing, baking, singing, exercise).
  • When you recognize yourself thinking something negative, stop and instead think of how this problem could make you learn something or become stronger.
  • Watch videos on how to have Positive Thinking
  • Take some time to think about the expectations that you have for yourself and other. Think of ways that you could compromise on these issues to make yourself and others happier.
  • Take a walk on a different route and look for things that you find beautiful and interesting.
  • Think of something you can do for a neighbor to brighten their day and do it.
  • Treat yourself! Think of something nice that you would like and that would brighten your day and do it. (pick a bouquet, bake a treat, finish a project.)
  • Search “google images” of things that make you inspired and positive.
  • Search “google video” of things that will lift your spirits and make you smile (like baby animals).
  • Inspire someone. Think of some ways that you could encourage other people to think more positively and share them in the comments below!

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