Sustaining a positive mindset is key to living a life of well-being, happiness, and joy no matter what’s happening in our lives. Looking on the bright side of life governs how we perceive and respond to life’s challenges. It helps us “go with the flow” and handle any challenging situation with ease and responsiveness. Keeping a positive outlook also encourages compassion, forgiveness, and an acceptance of our own and others’ spiritual paths.
The significant long-term benefits of a positive mindset are undeniable. It supports us in living longer and sustaining a healthy immune system which can prevent certain diseases. Over the past decade, research shows that it offers more than temporary relief from anxiety, stress, and depression. Moreover, it brings us into emotional balance so we remain calm in the midst of the storms of life.
Take a moment and reflect on a situation where you were faced with a challenge, obstacle, or difficulty. What was your predominant mindset? Did you react from your head space, “Why did this happen to me?” or did you respond from your heart space, “What is this situation revealing to me about myself?” If you reacted by blaming, judging, or berating yourself, you reinforced a negative mindset. This actually feeds your anxiety and creates more worries. Yet, if you responded with trust, confidence, and a resiliency that everything will be ok, you strengthened a positive mindset. Whether you react or respond to the events that happen to you determine a life of anxiety or peace.
If your predominant mindset is negative, it’s essential that you begin to think positively even if you do not necessarily feel this way at the time. To undo the devastating effect of negative thinking, you need three times as many positive thoughts to create the shift. This tipping point is not easy to achieve, but once you start developing the positive thoughts and perspectives needed to nudge you forward, you broaden and build on them.
The moment you react negatively to anything, pause, take a few deep intentional breaths, and shift your attention from your head to your heart. This brings you into coherence with your head and heart so you can access your inner spiritual guidance system and develop a deep trust of yourself. Learning to drop into your heart space in the midst of anxiety helps you sustain a positive mindset. Moreover, it will immediately reduce your anxious symptoms and bring you into physical and emotional balance.
When you focus on the flow of energy emanating from your heart, you can feel a distinct coherence as your brain and nervous system vibrationally align with your heart rhythms. You may sense a tingling or warming sensation, a buzzing, goose bumps, or a subtle vibration in parts of your body. The resulting emotional balance not only frees you from being affected by your negative thoughts, but also empowers you to feel positive in the present moment.
It’s important that you lead with your heart and then use your head. When you bypass your brain, you become open to receive spiritual information through your heart to guide you whether it’s a gut feeling, an “a-ha” moment, inkling, or an inner knowing. This “heart-centered” positive mindset takes conscious awareness and with awareness comes the ability to shift your perspective.
Become aware of, appreciate, and enhance the positive experiences in your life by bringing your full attention into the present moment. Being able to dwell on the positive aspects in your life is the essence of moving toward the tipping point of positivity. Real experiences of awe, wonder, joy, warmth, inspiration, happiness, gratefulness, contentment, and connectedness–anything good in your life needs to be given focused attention. Doing so shifts your mindset toward the good things in your life, which, in turn, allows for a genuine resilience in your mind, body, and spirit.
You can become more resilient to stress, anxiety, and upset by developing a positive mindset. Here are four energy-shifting strategies to help you do this:
1.Distinguishing Your Head (Ego) from Your Heart (Soul)
Observe how you speak to yourself and whether it’s in a positive or negative manner. When you pay attention to your inner self-talk, you begin to notice any negative thoughts and how they trigger anxiety. A negative mindset sees the worst-case scenario and is reactive to others or situations whereas a positive mindset is responsive and proactive.
The voice of your heart is loving, kind and guides you without judgment. It gives you an expanded view on your life, is present-oriented, and experiential. It whispers, “I know” instead of “I think,” “I trust” instead of “I believe,” and “I create” instead of “I wait.” The voice of your head, on the other hand, can be harsh, critical, and judgmental. It shows you a limited perspective on your life from the past or future. You are in your head when you say: “I should, I have to, I’m afraid to, or I can’t.” You are in your heart when you say: “I trust, I feel, I know, and I sense.”
2.Re-scripting Your Fear-Based Thoughts with Anxiety Soothing Affirmations
Anxiety-soothing affirmations bring your energy down from the chatter of the ego/brain into the inner peace of your heart/soul. Notice what thoughts move across your mind like clouds across the sky with no judgment and with self-compassion. Remember you cannot choose what comes through your mind and how you feel in that moment. You can only choose what you pay attention to, how you pay attention, and what you do with that information. Spend 5-10 minutes here or as much time as you can. Then build up to 10-15 minutes every day.
After you have spent time in either mindfulness meditation, write down the predominant anxiety-inducing scripts in your journal. Next to each script write an empowering affirmation. For example: “I never have enough money.” You can rewrite this script into an empowering affirmation such as: “I am connected to the unlimited abundance of the universe.”
3.Practicing Daily Gratitude:
Wake up every morning with gratitude, a sense of appreciation, and a healthy anticipation for what the universe has in store for you. The energy of gratitude will immediately take you into your heart space, expand your present awareness, and set the tone for your day. Close your eyes, place a hand on the center of your chest, and focus your attention on your heart. Acknowledge the blessings of who you are and what you already have. Give thanks for the day in front of you. Trust that no matter what happens that day, it will be a good day. Throughout the day, speak gratefully about even the simplest things.
As your day comes to a close, allow yourself to think about three positive things that happened during the day and why you believe they happened. Appreciating what shows up in your life, even anxiety or fear, raises your personal vibration which generates more positive energy to come back to you.
4.Savoring the Present Moment.
Focus your attention in the moment. It’s essential with our endless to-do lists that you carve out a few minutes each day to allow consciously focus on, mindfully attend, and identify a positive experience you had that day or at some other time.
Take a moment and allow yourself to think of a recent experience, large or small, that made you happy. Something may have made you laugh or smile, or a nice surprise may have come your way. Whatever it is, give yourself a moment to think about it. Experience the feeling you had when it happened. Feel it in your body. Notice the change in you as you allow yourself to think about it, then savor it. Let yourself deeply appreciate all the components of this feeling. The chances are you will feel better than you did just minutes ago.
With a positive mindset your overall quality of life improves because you wake up each day with energy, inspiration, and a sense of gratitude for the many blessings in your life. Whether it’s a sunny day or a cloudy day, you can sustain positive thoughts which lead to a positive energy flow. Just imagine if one moment of positive energy can change your entire day, then how such moments, repeated over and over, could change your life and the lives of others.
