How to stay Positive?

By Devanshi Thakkar

Emotions are an integral part of you and your daily interactions, and so you need to stay aware of what you are feeling and how that is affecting you. Your goals, be they professional, personal, interpersonal, etc. Emotions have a lot of pull on how attentive you will be and to what. They can determine what you think, remember, and whether you will respond to certain people, situations, ideas, places and so on responsibly or irresponsibly.

Being prepared to acknowledge and deal with them is a good plan. Here are a few tips to help you get back into the positive mindset whenever you’re slipping into the proverbial doldrums.

1. Ask yourself: What am I feeling? What’s going on that makes me feel this way? And why – what shifted? How has this specific feeling affected my behaviour in the past? Is there anything about that behaviour I would want to change? Action: Visualize solutions. Consider a few ways you can bring that “change” into your current life situation.
2. Exercise: But don’t overdo it or this can have an opposite effect as you can deplete your energy. Combine training with music.
3. Socialize with close friends who are part of your support system: If you know that a situation is coming up that can negatively leave you, this can provide you with some necessary feedback to help reverse it. Plus socializing can have its own rewards.
4. Try something new: Break out of your routine and mix things up! It can be as simple as walking down a different street — anything to just get off of autopilot and be present where you are.
5. Help someone: Feeling down? One of the quickest ways to pick yourself back up is to do something kind for someone else. Bonus feel-good points when it’s random and not expected of you.
6. Stop comparing yourself: Chances are you always pick those at the very top to compare yourself to. No wonder you feel like you’ve come up short! Focusing on the things you’ve accomplished is a lot more productive.
7. Read something: Be it your favourite guilty-pleasure celeb gossip mag or nerding out on your favourite blog, taking a few moments to indulge in something you genuinely enjoy will give you a burst of positive energy. Plus you might learn something.
8. Cultivate and live in a positive environment: Who you choose to spend your time with and the input you get from further away like the TV, the internet and magazines will significantly affect your outlook. To stay positive, it is essential to have influences in your life that support you and lift you up instead of dragging you down. So carefully consider what you let into your mind. You can, for example, ask yourself:

• Who are the three most negative people I spend time with?
• What are the 3 of the most harmful sources of information I spend time on?

Don’t make a mountain out of a molehill.

It’s effortless to lose perspective, especially if you are stressed, and you are going too fast.

And so a molehill can become a significant and terrifying mountain in your mind.

A simple three-step way to handle these situations, so they don’t get out of hand is to:

Say stop.

In your mind, shout “STOP!” or “NOPE, we are not going down that path again!” as soon as thoughts of this kind starts to spin in your head.

Breathe.

After you have disrupted the thoughts by shouting stop sit down and just be still.

Breathe with your belly and focus on just your in-breaths and out-breaths for a minute or two to calm your mind and body down.

Refocus.

Question your mountain building thoughts by talking to someone close to you and getting a more grounded perspective on the situation by just venting or by getting his or her input.

Or simply ask yourself this to widen your perspective and to chill out:

Will this matter in 5 years? Or even for five weeks?