Do you ever have those days when you woke up late, didn’t have time to take a shower and you’re out of your favorite dry shampoo? As you’re riding your scooter to class, the Florida weather does it again, and next thing you know, you get that shower you didn’t have time for. Of course you have those days — everyone does! Days like these can make or break our entire attitude for the day. When you’re faced with this kind of morning, how you handle it is what’s important.
What is positive thinking?
An actual definition for positive thinking might be along the lines of “thinking happy thoughts that transform into a positive reality.” To me, it means that every day I have a choice: good thoughts or bad thoughts. In a day and age where everyone has a sticker on their laptop reading “good vibes only,” it’s surprising how negative our generation can be. It really isn’t too hard to set up your life for happy thoughts, once you get the hang of it. I’ve seen the difference positive thinking has made in my life, and I want to show how a few easy changes can impact your life, too.
Start your day with a positive outlook.
This is going to look different for everyone. For me, waking up early enough to have time to brew my coffee, eat breakfast and take as long as I need to get ready makes me feel excited to take on the day. For someone else, it might be making time in the morning to catch up on the daily news, take a sunrise jog or even just call your mom to tell her you love her. How you start the day sets the tone for the rest of your day.
Find an optimistic viewpoint in a negative situation.
When something goes wrong, our first instinct is to let it ruin the rest of our day. To get rid of those negative thoughts before they can ruin everything, make sure to tell yourself “it can only go up from here.” Things will get better. You can turn your day around by maintaining perspective. Whoever said “hindsight is 20/20” was right. It may seem like you’re facing a mountain in the moment, but chances are it will seem like a speed bump down the line.
Surround yourself with positive people.
Living in a positive environment with positive people is a sure way to keep those negative vibes away. Not only does this mean surrounding yourself with happy, optimistic friends, but it also means looking at your life even further. Sure, we all love to binge-watch those dark, soul-crushing shows on Netflix. But how much Making a Murderer is too much? Put away the gritty TV shows, and instead, read a book on self-improvement or take the time to reunite with an old friend. Make sure you have influences in your life that lift you up instead of drag you down.
Exercise regularly, and eat and sleep well.
This last piece of advice is something we have all heard before, but for some reason we always ignore it. Let’s be real — have you ever noticed how much better it feels to wake up after eight hours of sleep versus seven hours? Nothing feels better than getting out of bed with positive energy after a full night’s sleep! Also, making sure to eat regularly will help you avoid those “hangry” thoughts. Meanwhile, exercising is one of the best ways to get rid of built-up tension and stress.
Now, this isn’t to say that if you follow these steps exactly you won’t experience sadness or negativity ever again. Feeling down every once in a while is part of being a healthy, normal human. Bad days, unfortunately, will still occur. This is all to say, when you wake up, you can either decide you’re going to be positive, or let the negativity win. Now that you know the power of positive thinking, it’s up to you to decide how to apply it to your life. Keep thinking good thoughts, collegiettes, and I promise you will see the difference.
Photo credits: stay-positive-spirit.blogspot.com