How to Cultivate a Positive Mindset

The process of thinking positively is a skill that we can all cultivate, even if it doesn’t come to us naturally. Like other good habits, the more we practice them, the better we can become. By maintaining a positive attitude we can help our odds to be more likely to achieve success. Positive thinking also triggers both constructive and creative thinking. Positive thinking allows you to recognize opportunities to deal with current problems and to thrive in less-than-ideal circumstances.

As you develop a more positive outlook on life, one result you will notice is that a positive mindset can attract more positivity to your life. It also attracts happiness and other rewards that can enhance your day and fuel further positive thinking.

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Positive Thoughts, Negative Thoughts: What Exactly Are Thoughts?

Thoughts include our perceptions — positive, negative or even neutral — that we bring to our experiences or develop as a result of our experiences. These perceptions shape our point of view as well as our attitudes about countless topics.

Unfortunately, many of our experiences and perceptions have been affected by negative emotions like fear, anger, and guilt. For instance, you may have had a bad high school experience with a math class, and therefore developed a negative attitude about it. We’ve all heard someone say “I’m bad at math.” But, these thoughts can become limiting beliefs. They may stop us from progressing or viewing topics with a more positive outlook. Someone with a positive mindset who is practicing empowering thoughts may instead say “I’m working to improve my math skills.”

Our Thoughts and Self-Esteem

There are countless types of limiting beliefs. If we tend to adopt limiting beliefs, they will begin to sabotage our progress, self-esteem, and happiness. Self-esteem relates to how we think about ourselves—our qualities, our lives progress, and our position. Negative thoughts about ourselves and our lives can fester and prevent us from growing and attracting the opportunities that often accompany positive mindsets. If we begin to see ourselves through the lens of greater self-esteem, we can foster a sense of happiness as positivity grows to abundance. Empowering thoughts about ourselves will help us improve the concept of ourselves.

What Is the Law of Attraction and How Does It Relate to Positivity?

We’ve mentioned that positivity attracts more positivity. But, how does this work? Take a moment and think about when you passed someone, and they smiled at you; did you smile back? Their positivity was contagious. Negativity can be that way too, but we don’t want to reap more negativity; we want to attract more positivity into our lives.

Simply stated, the law of attraction acts like a gravity or a magnetic pull. Whatever you focus on, you will attract. If you focus on the negative, you will attract the negative. If you focus on the positive, you will attract the positive.

Positive Attitude and Positive Concepts

A positive attitude is a way of maintaining your positivity even in challenging situations. A positive mindset allows you to think optimistically about conditions or circumstances. When you confront problems with a positive attitude, you’re already poised to see the best in the situation and find opportunities to improve them. There are many reasons to cultivate a positive attitude, such as:

Empowering Thoughts

Empowering thoughts are the process of using positive thoughts and concepts to motivate yourself or someone else to think and behave with positive outlooks. Being empowered means having control over your life and knowing that you can make decisions about your life with confidence.

Happiness

Happiness is a state of mind. A positive attitude allows you to focus on happier thoughts rather than negative ones. In a sense, it helps you persuade yourself into happiness with its positive outlook.

Meaningful Relationships

Just as a positive attitude can help you feel happy about yourself, it can also help you feel more optimistic about your relationships. Rather than focusing on the negative attributes of friends, family, or a partner, focus more closely on the positive. It leads to more harmony between each of you. Feeling good about your relationships will help you deepen and strengthen them. In contrast, negativity can cause relationships to deteriorate in both small and large ways.

Self-Confidence

People with positive attitudes feel more self-confident. They view their positive attributes rather than focus on their negative traits or qualities. This helps them to feel better about themselves.

What Others Think about You

You can’t control what others think about you. When we assume or become aware that someone thinks negatively about us, we may automatically feel bad or ashamed. Feeling bad can undermine our happiness and positive outlook. Do not allow other people’s thoughts to have power over you. Minimize the effect of their opinions by only adding the appropriate intention of self-evaluation. Instead, focus on your positive outlook and goals.

Practice Self Love

It is vital to love yourself! You are a work in progress. Rather than dwelling on your flaws and mistakes, focus on your opportunities to reach your goals. Love the fact that you contribute positivity to the universe! No matter how small you may think it is, it can begin to transform your entire life.

Inspiration

As you strive to practice and maintain a positive mindset, try to draw inspiration from others who embody the success you wish to achieve. This does not have to mean monetary success. It can simply translate to a life you want to lead; living that life equates to success. Think about someone like Gandhi or Martin Luther King Jr. Their positive outlooks helped them transform a country and inspire the world.

Stronger Immune System

Medical researchers have long-established the links between mental and physical health. Chronic stress can undermine your immune system by overstimulating the body’s fight or flight response. Positive thinking induces calm and quiets the anxiety, leaving your immune system to function normally, or even stronger.

Develop Activities at Home that Nurture a Positive Attitude

There are many ways you can boost your positive mindset at home. You can use these tips to practice positive thinking and attract the abundance you desire:

Be in contact with nature: nature helps soothe our stress and harmonize our internal and external environments. Try going on a hike, taking a walk through a park or even just sit outside and feel the warmth of the sun.
Exercise: exercising dispels stress, which can make thinking positively much easier.
Sleep: it’s tough to feel positive when you’re mentally tired and physically exhausted. Be sure to get an adequate amount of sleep each day to support your positive outlook.
Eat healthy: avoid sugar and processed carbohydrates that can zap your energy—preventing you from feeling good. Eat foods that support your fitness goals and health.
Meditate: meditation helps you to focus on the present. Use meditation to declutter your mind from stress or negative emotion. Try to combine meditation with yoga to gain spiritual, mental, and physical benefits.
Do things you love: it’s easier to feel positive when you are doing something you enjoy. You’ll feel more fulfilled and grateful when you spend time doing what you love to do.
Surround yourself with positive people: remember that negativity is contagious. Negative people could detract you from your positive attitude and happy state of being. By surrounding yourself with positive thinkers, you will be inspired to think more positively about yourself and life.

When you make positivity a way of life, you will often position yourself to attract more positivity. These simple tips will help you nurture and practice positivity so that they become healthy habits in your day-to-day life.

This article was originally published on Porch.com by Julio Cardona and has been modified for Sass.

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

Kim Dow

Kim is the owner and publisher of Sass Magazine, as well as the owner of Sass Studios, a boutique graphic design studio in Frederick, MD. When not in the office, Kim can be found doing some of her favorite hobbies—reading a book, dancing, traveling, or playing with her rescued pitbull.