How to Be More Positive in Life – Best Tips, Benefits, and More
Positivity means keeping hope alive through tough times. It’s about being optimistic, cheerful, and looking for the silver lining. Unfortunately, it doesn’t come naturally to everyone. Is it worth trying to cultivate positivity in your thoughts? Learning how to be more positive in life is easier than you think though!
Find out how to be more positive in life with this guide for the best tips and techniques. Learn why positivity is even beneficial to physical and mental health.
Why Be More Positive
So, why should we be more positive in life in the first place? Some may think that if we expect the worst, then we’ll be pleasantly surprised by anything that happens. While this may be true, this isn’t a healthy or practical way to go about life. More positive people tend to be better at finding solutions to problems since they do not dwell on the negative.
Being more positive and life does not mean that there are no struggles, nor does it mean you don’t feel negative emotions or discouraging thoughts. The important distinction, and what this guide aims to teach you, is that there is no need to dwell on the negative. There is no helpful way to solve a problem if you are looking at what’s wrong. People who act and think positively tend to have many physical and mental health benefits as well.
Benefits
As stated, there are many benefits to seeing the glass half full. Many studies have demonstrated that these benefits are both physical and mental. One study found that people who were more optimistic had a lower risk of heart disease, infection, and even respiratory diseases. Reasons for this may be due to the fact that being more positive is a way to reduce stress. Chronic stress leads to chronic illness due to the effects of stress on the body.
More positive people also have higher energy levels, report a higher quality of life, can recover faster from injury or illness, experience lower rates of depression, and tend to have a longer life span. Thinking positively doesn’t make your problems disappear, but it does teach you how to overcome challenges and hardships.
How to Be More Positive in Life
Without further ado, here is how to be more positive in life. They include different techniques, tips, and habits you can start to form in your daily life. Being positive is a mentality that requires a bit of effort at the beginning. However, the benefits of developing this habit far outweigh the effort it takes to create them.
1. Practice Gratitude
I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it a hundred times over, gratitude can change your life. This is because gratitude actually raises your baseline happiness, the positive emotion you feel regularly in your day-to-day life. Gratitude forces you to focus on the positive, making you direct your attention towards the good instead of the bad. It allows you to appreciate the little things and enjoy everything you take for granted a lot more.
Even if it’s something as simple as having access to clean water, a bed to sleep in, or a plant to nourish, we all have something we are thankful for. Gratitude lets you feel actual joy and positive emotion from those simple things. This leads to being more positive and optimistic in general by default!
2. Include Positive Self Talk
Self-talk refers to the way you address yourself in your head. It can be something like wow I look tired when you see yourself in the morning after a long night or something more detrimental like I can’t do this.
Self-talk is a reflection of how you see and interact with the world around you. It is our inner voice and we can choose for it to be more positive. We tend to be harsh on ourselves most of the time too, so practicing positive self-talk is a good place to start. A small shift in the way you talk to yourself can help influence your thoughts, emotions, and actions. Check out a full guide here on how to change self-talk easily!
3. Start on The Right Foot
How you get up and out of bed in the morning can be the difference between a good day and a bad one. A good habit to develop if you are trying to be more positive in changing how you wake up. Start the day off right with some positive behaviors and thoughts.
When you first wake up, hype yourself up. Tell yourself it’s going to be a good day. That way, you are ready to look for the good in the day, no matter what obstacles or challenges come your way. You can also listen to happy, upbeat songs, practice daily affirmations in the morning, or start the day by doing something nice for yourself or others.
4. Journal Positive Pages
Positive page journaling is a way to work through your thoughts helpfully. In this journaling style, you can have a section in which you list out everything you are grateful for. This allows you to have a page you can go back to and reread when you are feeling down. You can also add to the pages as you find more and more things to be grateful for.
Positive page journaling can be a way for you to work through challenges. Have a section where you detail a problem and write down potential solutions you find! Getting thoughts out of your head and onto paper will also help your mind feel less overwhelmed and busy.
5. Practice Self-care
Self-care is a great way to be more positive. It is defined as any activity you do to take care of yourself. This includes small things like treating yourself to a cup of coffee, buying yourself something, giving yourself time to meditate, and more. Self-care is all about giving yourself the kindness you deserve.
Self-care is a good way to develop a positive mindset because it makes us believe we are worth taking care of. It’s about allowing yourself to feel good, take breaks, and change the way you feel about yourself and others. This habit starts to help us think more positively by giving us more positive experiences in life.
6. Spend Time with Positivity
One of the best things you can do to develop optimism is to surround yourself with optimism. This generally refers to hanging out with people who are positive. You surround yourself with a certain type of person and energy, and you’ll be surprised to notice how you start to change yourself.
Spend your time with positive people. Negativity and positivity are contagious. Someone in a bad mood can cause you to feel down while hanging out with someone who is positive can lift you up. Being around positive people can even help increase your chances of overcoming difficulty, reaching goals, and improving your self-esteem.
7. Focus on the Good
At the end of the day, energy goes where attention flows. It’ll take an active effort to focus on the good in life, but this is a habit you can cultivate. It helps to identify negativity, work through those emotions, and focus on solutions. Break things down into obstacles that you can tackle, believe in yourself, and give yourself the kindness you deserve.
Positive thinking isn’t about ignoring negative emotions or thoughts. It is about finding ways to relieve the pressure, looking for the bright side, and turning that energy into something productive that can help you overcome.
The Takeaway
Learning how to be more positive in life is all about developing habits. Once you do so, being more optimistic becomes second nature. This makes you into someone who focuses on the bright side of things instead of the negative. Doing so can help you become more solution-oriented, overcoming difficulties, learning, growing, and thriving.
Remember that health comes from within, so eat healthy foods, exercise when you can, and take care of your mental health. Daily habits become the building blocks for emotional, mental, and physical health. Take care of your gut health too! Learn everything you need to know about gut microbiota today for free here.
