Life can be unpredictable, and often times things can happen in your life from external factors that you cannot control! These events can make it difficult for you to remain positive and stay level-headed or “afloat”. The lockdown we are now experiencing is a “good” example of an event as such.
Staying positive however is good for you, it provides many benefits that often go unrecognised. A few of the benefits include:
- Better Relationships with people.
- More Focus and Concentration.
- More Confidence.
- Ability to manage Stress.
- Stronger Immune System.
- Increase in Health and Lifestyle Choices.
Below I have come up with 6 Tips for Staying Positive:
1. Learn more about yourself.
Having an understanding of your emotions and how you react to certain stressors is very important when trying to remain positive. The ability to predict when you are becoming overwhelmed or anxious allows you to become aware of your emotions, you will be better able to prevent certain emotions from impacting your life.
For example, you can incorporate coping mechanisms or self-care activities that specifically work for you. For example, listening to music or going on a walk could help calm you down and help you think rationally and optimistically.
2. Keep a Strengths Perspective.
Being able to identify strengths in your life is very important for your mental health and overall outlook on yourself. No matter how big or small the strength is, it’s important to acknowledge what you are good at when your feeling down.
For example, having a supportive family or a healthy relationship is a strength. Other strengths can range from time management skills, social aspects of life, academics, and much more. Having gratitude is good for your health.
3. Get Enough Sleep!
Getting the right amount of sleep comes with many benefits. Sleep is a time to process emotions and recharge physically and mentally for the next day. Without doing so, you will not have the emotional resilience to bounce back from the troubles they face.
Sleep comes with many other benefits that can indirectly impact your happiness and positivity such as: improvement in relationships, better work performance, increased ability to control pain, and much more.
4. Add positivity to someone else’s life.
The amount of happiness you give out to people tends to be returned back to you. You know how people say, “treat others how you want to be treated?” Well, how you treat and think about others also has an influence on how you treat and think about yourself.
For example, doing an act of kindness will not only make another person feel better but you as well. Some ways that you can help spread positivity include helping others, listening to others, and be uplifting and encouraging, you can also invite another person to exercise outdoors with you too.
5. Take a breather.
During difficult situations, it is sometimes difficult to remain calm. Giving yourself a minute to regroup and look at the bigger picture, whether your strategy is deep breathing or going on a walk, can be beneficial. Once you are in a calm state, ask yourself, “what could I do to be more positive about this?” Challenge yourself. Try to think of different options or optimistic outcomes, rather than only the negatives.
6. Determine what is out of your control.
Worrying about things that are out of your control can be very damaging to your mental health. You may get overwhelmed or anxious spending too much time on something that you can not change, for example, “Lock down”.
It is important to come to terms with what you can and can not control, then stop putting so much effort into what is out of your control. This will only exhaust you and make you feel hopeless. Instead, try to make positive changes in the aspects of your life that are within your reach and go from there.
To conclude my post, Support is available to anyone who needs it, if you are struggling in this time, please reach out there are many members in our community that would love to have a chat and talk you through anything at all, including myself! Always remember we have strength in our community, and I am very proud of what we have built in it.