How to stay positive is something I have spent some time thinking about this spring. It’s not always easy, and I will admit I struggle quite a bit.
But our brains are powerful, and the way we think about the world affects our mood, our relationships, and our health.
So, learning how to stay positive is a pretty important on a lot of levels.
It is true there are many bad things happening everywhere, and I find myself very quickly becoming overwhelmed with how terrible the world is and how many people have to suffer everyday.
However, there are many good things happening all over the world everyday as well and we really do have a choice as to what we focus on.
What we focus on is a big part of how to stay positive.
I want to share with you 5 ways I have learned to stay positive.
How To Stay Positive:
1. News Filtering
I have never been much for watching the news. Global news is full of countries fighting, local news is full of local crimes and fires, health news is full of new ways to get cancer… . I am not wanting to be ignorant about what is happening in the world, but for a VAST majority of the things on the news, knowing them won’t help me or the people being hurt.
A few years ago we got rid of our TV and I have never been behind on major world news. If it is huge enough, word gets around, but most of the everyday negativity gets missed.
But even better, replace it with some good news.
A few months ago I stumbled upon a website that intentionally reports positive stories in the world. I have gone back several times since then when I feel I need to balance out some of the negative news I am hearing.
Want to learn how to stay positive? Avoiding negative news or focusing on positive news is a great way. This is not running from the truth or avoiding the truth… avoiding the truth would be if you were to stick your nose in a fantasy novel and hide in a corner for the day. To know what is going on and be an active member in society doesn’t mean you have to know all about the negative stuff, it is just as possible to be ‘in the know’ with the positive stuff.
2. Social Media Filtering
Here is a big one with how to stay positive. Find yourself getting on Facebook and getting bombarded with negative political messages, people ranting about being put on hold, people talking about being tired and busy everyday, and just being negative about life in general?
… mix this in with all the ads and games people post about and it is easy to get drained within minutes.
But this doesn’t mean social media is bad or you have to get off it forever. You can just take these wonderful friends out of your view and they will never know. Simply unsubscribe to their feed. You are still friends with them, they can still send you notes and see your posts, but you don’t have to see what they post in your feed.
Now they can complain about the world and you don’t have to see it.
3. TV, Books,and Music
Have trouble figuring out how to say positive? Most TV is not positive. Either it is the negative news, or it is created to make you want more money, things, or beauty. It is hard to sit down at the TV and get up again feeling any better…. it’s the sad truth.
However, there are ways to filter our reading and our listening to help us stay positive. I love reading non-fiction books by positive people that help me think and give me new ideas. This is probably the best way I have learned how to stay positive.
4. Friend filtering
There are people who can help or hurt my desire to learn how to stay positive. I have heard a person will become the average of their five closest friends and I can definitely believe it. If you are spending a bunch of time with negative people, you will become negative too… it is just the way life goes.
Over the last few years I have tried to be more intentional about this. Finding a way to spend more time with the positive people in your life will make a big difference in how positive you feel. Need more positive friends? Go out and find some. It is worth the effort.
5. Thought filtering
Maybe this is the key to putting it all together and learning how to stay positive. This is a new one to me that I am still trying to figure out. I don’t always have control of my circumstances … and as a woman, I don’t always have control over my hormones, but there is still a lot I can do to direct my thoughts.
I try to catch myself when I am starting to feel negative and try to add some of the things in the above list to my life. I may not have complete control over what I am thinking, and I many not feel like doing anything positive, but I can still choose to put myself in a more positive position.
Because negativity is so draining and contagious it is important to identify and try to remedy it as soon as possible.
What are some ways you have learned about how to stay positive?
Lorilee is a child of God, wife, mom, homeschool teacher, writer, minimalist, travel lover and wanderer. Currently, she is managing web marketing for Starfish-Project.com on site in Asia. Her books include The Simple Living Handbook and Simple Living: 30 Days to Less Stuff and More Life. This fall she will be releasing The Homeschooling Handbook. You can read more from her on her blog, Loving Simple Living.