When it comes to keeping a positive mindset, there are a number of things that you must make a part of your day. It’s an active practice, one you have to dive into every day in order to stay on track. It becomes easier over time, but only if you listen to and fine-tune your internal compass. So how do you do that, exactly? What do you need to have in your daily life to unlock your Personal Positivity superpower and charge forward with a positive mindset day in and day out? Here are a few internal practices that we recommend incorporating into your daily life to get you started.
Taking as little as five minutes a day to take stock of what you’re thankful for can have a major impact on your attitude. Make a list of at least three things that made you feel good today, and do this for at least two weeks. Make a note at the beginning of the two weeks about how you feel first thing in the morning, and compare that to a note at the end of the two weeks. Don’t be surprised when finding the good in every day becomes easier and easier after you’ve been intentional about it for a little while.
It’s hard to figure out what needs to change in your world if you don’t pay attention to how you feel on a regular basis. So often when we realize there is a need for change at all, it comes at the end of a long period of burying feelings, refusing to admit that things aren’t going well, or disconnecting from our emotions all together. In order to unlock your Personal Positivity Superpower, you have to get in touch with your emotions again. It’s the key to calibrating your internal compass. Spend a month tracking your daily moods at three points in the day – in the morning, in the afternoon, and at the end of the day. A simple smiley face, neutral face, sad face, and mad face scale can suffice, or you can get into greater detail if that feels better. The important thing is to create a system that makes it easy to check in with yourself multiple times a day quickly so you get in the habit of doing so time and time again.
Keeping all those negative thoughts inside your head gives them the environment they need to spread and germinate, creating a revolving door of negativity that keeps you chained down and feeling stuck. Getting all those thoughts out of your head and onto paper makes it much easier to sort through and determine what needs to be addressed and what needs to be let go. A daily or every other day journaling practice can be extremely beneficial to maintaining a positive mindset. Just make sure you challenge yourself not to dwell on the negative during your journaling session. End every session with a positive thought about the day, the situation, or yourself.
This is an internal step that will become external eventually, but it’s the internal part that calibrates your compass and helps you create a plan to take the positivity from your mind and heart and spread it into the world around you. In order to do this, you have to pay attention to your influences. Examine your social circle. Who makes you feel good, light, and happy when you’re around them? Those are great people to keep in your life. Who is always complaining or asking you to do emotional labor for them without offering any support in return? Who makes the room gloomier the minute they walk in? These people might be standing in your way of leading a positive life, and you may need to set some stronger boundaries with them or cut ties altogether.
Calibrating your internal compass is the key to getting and staying on your positive path, but it isn’t a one and done kind of thing. These exercises will need to be repeated on a regular basis in order to keep your internal compass pointing true north, but if you’re willing to put in the work, the rewards will be great.
