If you are positive you will see opportunities, instead of obstacles.
Confucius
Do you sometimes find yourself falling into recurring negative thought patterns? Do you often find you judge yourself or others too harshly?
The Positivity Challenge is all about changing your mindset to always look for the positive in every relationship, event and situation. Happiness is a choice, positivity is a mindset.
So for the next week, we at Simple Soul, challenge you to think positively, do positive things and feel positive. Its about slowly altering your mindset to be more positive and optimistic, rather than ignoring negative thoughts or emotions. Be aware of your thoughts and emotions. They happen for a reason. If you find yourself thinking or feeling negatively, think about what triggered you and how you can overcome it positively. By practicing backing up negative thoughts or emotions with positivity, you will learn to recognise your triggers and behaviours.
Day 1
- Smile at people, just for the pleasure of doing it. Even when we don’t feel like smiling, we automatically boost our mindset because our body sends signals to our brain to release serotonin and dopamine, increasing our feelings of happiness.
Always remember too, that sometimes, smiling at someone will also perk up their day, especially someone who is lonely and may not have had any interaction with anyone throughout the day.
Day 2
- When you have a negative thought about yourself, someone else or a situation, for example, “ugh I look awful today…”, replace it and back it up with a positive thought, “hmm…but my hair is lovely and shiny today.”
We naturally make internal judgements about other people, places and situations as we go about our day. Practice backing up any judgemental thinking by replacing it and backing it up with a positive thought or judgement.
Day 3
- Do something kind for someone else. Research has proven that it impacts our brains positivity longer term when we are kind to others:
Our empathy and understanding increases, when we put ourselves in other people’s shoes and see things from their perspective. Being generous helps to radically increase your empathy by exercising your mental processes that are programmed to naturally help others.
Helping others releases oxytocin, which increases your happiness levels, boosts your mood and decreases cortisol, your stress hormone. Helping or being generous to others also increases the serotonin and dopamine levels in our brain, promoting greater contentment and happiness.
Day 4
- Practice gratitude. Being grateful or showing gratitude for everything in your life, sounds so easy but it will miraculously increases your well-being, positivity and happiness levels.
Research illustrates that gratitude and being thankful to others positively reinforces your current relationships and encourages new friendships or relationships to last. Gratitude also corresponds with greater mental, emotional, spiritual and physical health because it encourages you to positively evaluate all situations and to build positive mental resilience. It also boosts your self esteem, helps you overcome traumatic situations, build stronger empathy skills and enables you to sleep better and live a much more peaceful and tranquil life day-to-day.
Day 5
- Think of five positive things you have done today. Taking a few minutes each day to think about what you have done well will do wonders for your mental health and well-being.
Psychologically, recognising and celebrating things you have done well, your achievements (no matter how small) and all the positivity in your life will increase your self-confidence, cultivate healthier feelings of love, respect and feelings of self-worth, which will be positively reinforced in all your interactions with others, encourage longer-lasting relationships and encourage you to enjoy life and to go for all your dreams.
So here goes nothing! Lets all bring a little more positivity into the world!
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