Need to shift your mindset during these intense times? I have revealed 15 of the most effective ways to shift to a positive mindset.
Do you need to shift your mindset into a more positive one right now? It is an extremely difficult time for people right now, a pandemic, isolation, downturn of the economy, lost jobs, and the list goes on.
Sometimes when so many things are going wrong it is so hard not to spiral down a path of negativity. I have been pretty quiet on social media lately because I try to spread light and keep things pretty positive, but I’ve been struggling. To be honest, like many of you, the past few months have been a complete rollercoaster. As always, I’ve been working on my personal development and I wanted to share what has been working for me. So here are 15 ways to shift your mindset that you can start implementing today.
1. Give Yourself Grace to feel Different Emotions
Allow yourself to feel feelings other than happiness. It’s okay to feel sad, angry, or any emotion really. We are taught to try and avoid those feelings, but what we resist, persists. If we try to numb those feeling they will just keep knocking at our door. If you feel sad, it’s okay to lean into it. It is okay to cry. When the shooting happened a few weeks ago in my province, I did not try to stop my sadness. I allowed myself to feel sad, I allowed myself to grieve, in fact, I cried all day long. It allowed me to go to bed knowing that tomorrow was a new day and it was okay for me to wake up the next day with a fresh new perspective. It is natural in life to feel all emotions.
2. Choose Again Method
I learned about this method from author Gabby Bernstein. It is such a simple method. If you notice yourself thinking a negative thought, simply choose another thought. Gabby says to do this you should follow these three steps. Notice the thought. Forgive the thought. Choose again. Ask yourself “what is the best feeling thought I can find right now?” Then think that thought.
3. Take Care of your Health
If you are going through a difficult time in your life right now, it is so important to take care of your health. Make sure you are getting the proper amount of sleep, getting the proper nutrients, and staying active. Getting some exercise will increase your endorphins, which will help your mood. Try to avoid alcohol, it is a depressant!
4. Try a Guided Meditation
If you just sit there and tell yourself you are going to try and meditate, it probably won’t go well if you are new to it. I highly recommend trying out a guided meditation. They can be quite short and helps you focus on what you need to in order to shift your mindset. There are different apps you can try out like Mindspace or Calm.
5. Gratitude
Shift your focus to what you are grateful for. Start your day off by listing all the things you are grateful for in your life right now. You can write them down in a journal, you can tell your spouse, or just think about it when you are in the shower. When you practise gratitude, you shift your thinking from all the things going wrong, to the abundance of things going right.
6. Listen to Happy Music
I went through an Emo phase, where all I listened to was depressing “woe is me” type of music. I can tell you, it wasn’t a super positive time in my life to sing along to all the sad and depressing things. Put on some happy, upbeat, positive tunes. Something that makes you want to dance. Music with positive lyrics. I guarantee you will feel instantly better.
7. Surround yourself with Positive People
It is said that you are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with. So if the people you are friends with are not motivated, positive thinkers, maybe you should go out and find your tribe! Make friends with high vibe people, because it will rub off on you and you will feel the difference! Be sure to check out my post How to Make Friends as an Adult.
8. Stay Away from Negative Social Media / News
We cancelled our cable as soon as Trump became President, and I swear it lowered my blood pressure. If you are finding yourself feeling overwhelmed and anxious because of things going on in the world today, then stop feeding that type of content into your brain. I’m not saying don’t be informed, but rather find out what you need to know, and let the rest go. Recently, I deleted the facebook app off my phone because I felt like my feed was nothing but re-posted negative news articles and it was having an effect on me. Instead, I could check in once a day from my computer if I wanted to, and not only did it help my mentality, but I also wasted so much less time scrolling.
9. Affirmations
Start incorporating affirmations into your daily life. You can get a deck of affirmation cards like these HERE. Or you can write something down on your mirror or put it on a vision board or just turn it into a mantra that you repeat to yourself throughout the day. Affirmations help you focus on what you want the day or your life to look like, so that your not focusing on the negative things going on.
10. Have Faith in a Higher Power Guiding You
I don’t care what you call that higher power, but if you have faith in God, the Universe, etc then you can have faith that everything is unfolding just as it should and guiding you in the right direction. Tap into your intuition, follow your gut, they are nudges from that higher power to push you in the right direction.
11. Find Lessons from the Bad Things that Happen
Ask yourself what have your learned from your situation. Bad things happen all the time, but you have to ask yourself what did it teach you? How can what you have learned help you in the future. By looking at a situation this way it helps you see it as a blessing and will help you shift your mindset to know you are more prepared for the future.
12. Focus on the Present. All is Well.
If you are feeling anxious, overwhelmed, etc, choose to focus on the present moment. Check in with your senses to bring you back to the present. What can you see, hear, smell and touch in this moment. It will help ground you. Then repeat this mantra. “All is well. I am safe.”
13. Choose to Focus on the Positive Parts of the Situation
Even through the worst situations, you can always choose to focus on the positive. Due to this pandemic, I recently lost my job. I could pour all my attention into that, but instead, I set an intention to focus on the time I get to spend with my kids. I believe there are other opportunities that will soon reveal themselves to me which would have not been available had I continued working at the same job. There is a Mr. Rodgers quote I always see floating around after something tragic happens. “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.”
14. Do Something to Brighten Up Someone Else’s Day
Like attracts like. So the energy you give out, you get back. If you need to shift your mindset, doing something for someone else is a great way to make yourself feel better. It doesn’t have to be something really big or time consuming, just something that can brighten someone’s day. Not only will it make you feel good to lift someone else’s spirits, but now you can be sure the Universe will send something good back around to you.
15. Set Your Intention
It’s as easy as that. Make the decision you want to shift your mindset. Do it right now. The first thing you should do when you wake up is to set your intention for how you want to feel that day. Give yourself a minute to think about how you want to feel, and while you’re still laying in bed feel that feeling in your body. Feel how it feels to be happy, calm, motivated and this will just set a good tone for the rest of your day.
I hope these 15 steps will help you shift your mindset into a more positive one. If you feel like other people in your life could benefit from this right now, please share this post! You never know who might need help.
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This is so helpful! Thank-you for sharing!