It’s easy to fall into a trap of beating yourself up or using doom-and-gloom language. But the simple action of rethinking your words can bring a brighter perspective.
The problem comes when negative words constantly circulate our brain. We become stuck in negativity and ultimately fall down a dark deep hole.
Negativity is heavy. It sucks the life out of you without even knowing it’s happening. Before you know it, you’re beating yourself up for not meeting expectations in your work, relationships, your health, fitness….
When our minds are racing with negative thoughts, we feel like we don’t have control over things. Ever feel like you give your friends great advice but you can’t follow your own advice?
Avoid Negativity And Stay Upbeat
This happens to a lot of people. Fortunately, there are some simple ways to break away from the rut.
- Self Talk:
Talk to yourself in the third person. It can be easier to use your name and give yourself a mental boost by becoming your own coach and being your own cheerleader!
Say things like, “You’ve got this What you are going through is temporary. The storm will pass and there will be sunny days!”
- Take Action:
When we are stuck in our negative loop, it’s hard to see there is another way of looking at things—a positive way of thinking.
Break the cycle! The way to break the cycle is by simply changing your physiology or your focus. Go outside, get some fresh air, do some gardening, or cook something delicious! Your mind will shift from negative to a positive state of mind.
- Let Go of the Past:
Unfortunately, we seem to remember more of our bad experiences than we do the good ones. When we’re experiencing negativity, we often refer to the past, and the first thing our mind does is go to that painful memory, we say things like: “Here we go again, Why does this always happen to me? Nothing I do is right! I can’t win!”
Understand that you can’t change the past; it happened, it’s gone. Living in the present is today! Let go of the bad things. If something in your past keeps popping back up, ask yourself why?
Do some journaling about it. By writing things down we can get clarity about that event and decide for ourselves not to repeat the painful experience. We can always learn from them.
We have bad memories but also good, joyful experiences. Whenever you feel painful memories creeping up, take a moment to breathe and remember the good times and how you will create more of them in the future.
- What is your purpose:
Have you lost track of what is really important to you? Get organized. Sometimes it’s easy to get overwhelmed when we have clutter on our desk, piles of mail, our bedroom is a mess! There are too many distractions all around and there’s no time to focus on your purpose..
First things first, make your bed! You’ll be amazed how that one thing makes you feel, it’s a good thing. Next, work on your purpose that brings joy to your life. Do it every day. Schedule a specific time and place where you can get more done with it, It doesn’t have to be hours dedicated to it. What matters is you make sure to show up and do what makes you happy.
- Believe in yourself:
Set goals that matter to you, and be realistic. Having goals and working to achieve them is an awesome thing to do, but all goals are not created equal.
Short term goals, for example, can be something like, “I will not eat sugar for a week!” You have control over the sugar and you will probably make sure you don’t buy any cookies for the next week.
Long term goals are different. It takes commitment, patience, resilience…. Maybe you started your own business and are so excited about it. You want it to be a success. That’s a long-term goal!
Remember that it takes time to improve ourselves and become even greater than we already are. Keep working and improving, and don’t stop. Keep going till you get there, and then reassess and keep going!
When you find your purpose in the things you love, you’ll never want to stop.
—Blanca
