“When you are joyful, when you say yes to life and have fun and project positivity all around you, you become a sun in the center of every constellation, and people want to be near you.”
Shannon L. Alder
To stay positive in life is as easy to do as is to say it, even though, you don’t live in a perfect or ideal world. Yes, unfortunate things are happening all around you and to you. However, what adds you in the list of positive people is the way you respond to the external world and what impact you allow those things to have on your internal one.
Positive thinking is a state of mind that you can achieve by improving your responses and reactions to good and bad things that are happening. Plus, adopt the habits (that you might not have, yet) of other positive people:
1. Throw into the world only things you can take back
Gossiping, lying, saying negative things about others (even truthful ones) are things you can’t take back. It is like a fisherman using a rod without a wire; throwing the bait with no means to pull the fish out of the water.
Know that whatever you say about others is talking about you as well. Improve your self-esteem and discover your real value and worth without comparing yourself to others. Why? Making that comparison is one step closer to slip into gossip and embellishing the reality about others or to reveal their ugly truths.
2. Like yourself as you are
You are a unique individual among seven billion people. Be less self-conscious and celebrate more your positive traits and achievements. Give them the power to grow, expand, and multiply.
3. Be kind to others
When you, genuinely, care for others your mind learns how to see, notice, and acknowledge the good in people; and that, in return makes people put forward the best in them. Plus, because they see themselves beautiful in your eyes, they like and appreciate who you are.
Life is all about connection. Being a positive person and being able to stay that way requires gathering around yourself other positive individuals. Does it not? As misery loves company, happiness and well-being love company too.
4. Avoid arguing
Learn how to be assertive and know that being assertive in not only a need but your duty to yourself and others as well.
How can you end up arguing? Most times it happens when you are unable to express what you want and how you feel in an assertive way. Is it not?
When you don’t express your feelings, desires, and needs is not only you that suffers but those around you as well. Just think of a parent that, instead of being firm and decisive, goes into a dispute, arguing, getting angry, yelling and screaming. Who is losing? Both, the parent and the child! There is no much difference when we talk about the interaction between two adults.
Avoid arguing and encourage an environment of peace and harmony. Keep your eye on the price: you win, and the other party wins as well.
Put your vanity aside and understand that satisfying it doesn’t bring you anything positive, but leaves you alone and deserted.
5. Positive People Smile a lot
Did you notice that laughing makes you feel somewhat tired? But, has it happened to you to get tired of smiling?
Smiling is connecting your brain to happy thoughts.
A study conducted by Tara Kraft and Sarah Pressman at the University of Kansas showed that even forcing a smile keeping a pencil in your mouth for short periods of time makes you feel more positive, less stressed, and more optimistic.
There is a simple explanation for that: when you contract your facial muscles in a smile, your brain, automatically, produces happy hormones. And happy hormones result in happy, positive thoughts.
6. Be active, and play daily
When your feet are moving, your mind runs faster and better.
Get back to the innocence of a child and rediscover the wonders of playing. Do some things for nothing else other than the fun of it. Life is more than work, achievement, and career advancement. Life is about passions, hobbies, friends, family, and FUN as well.
Remind yourself that, ultimately, being a positive person stands for searching, acknowledging, noticing, and celebrating the positive part of people and things (people – including yourself).